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The ground prosecutor finishes her closing arguments, telling the jury the accused killer engaged in multiple calculated deceptions, alleging she persisted with telling lies even when the lunch guests were gravely ill, and accusing her of trying to play the jury.
Victoria's mushroom mystery, the mushroom lunch that claimed three lives an Australian family's meal is now the center of a homicide investigation.
The bizarre tragedy now grabbing global headlines.
Aaron Patterson's alleged victims died after eating a family lunch she'd serve them at her home.
I cannot think of another investigation that has generated this level of media and public interest.
Four of the guests of that lunch were much loved members of this church.
Only one will ever return.
People are feeling very heavy with having lost such wonderful people.
Today, Aaron Pattison remained here inside her home.
She's continued to plead her innocence in a court room in Country Victoria.
Aaron Patterson is on trial accused of using death cat mushrooms to kill She's pleaded not guilty to murdering three of her former in laws and attempting to kill a fourth the town's church pastor. It's up to the jurors to decide what happened when Patterson's loved ones sat down to eat. The prosecution has now finished the closing arguments to the jury in this case, and initially Nnette Rogers told the jurors there were four calculated deceptions that she'd
take them through. There was then a little surprise, an extra bit that came, which you'll hear a little bit later in this episode. But let's start off with what happened when Nannette Rogers got to her feet to make these final submissions.
Yeah, she got to court pretty early, rearing and ready to go. As she took to her feet, she moved the lef turn in front of her to face directly to the jury, So she therefore had her back to Aaron Patterson, who is now in the dock and was facing directly to the jury. Penny, And at this point I noticed that she opened a red bind of folder and in it were pages and pages of printed notes in paragraphs, which is how we've seen her bring her
notes to court throughout the whole trial. And she really started off with a bang straight away telling the jury, these are the four things that I'm going to take you through in particular. But it was in that fifth surprise element, Petty, that really had I guess everybody in the court room, the jurors, members of the public, and the media thinking, well, what's this. We thought that we're only going to have four, but essentially there was a fifth.
Now, this closing has gone over multiple days, and we're going to take you through in chronological order and the topics that Nanette.
Rodgers took the jury through.
So to start off with, let's hear what she said about these initial four calculated deceptions.
These are her words. It's voiced by an actor.
Members of the jury. The twenty ninth of July twenty twenty three lunch was arranged by the accused. Each of the guests were thereby her invitation. She alone chose what to cook, obtained the ingredients, and prepared the meal. Despite the recipe being for a single dish intended to be cut into smaller serves, the accused made individual portions. That choice to make individual portions allowed her complete control over the ingredients in each individual parcel. It is a control
the prosecution says that she exercised with devastating effect. It allowed her to give the appearance of sharing in the same meal whilst ensuring that she did not consume a beef Wellington parcel that she had laced with death cap mushrooms. Each of the deliberately poisoned parcels was served and consumed by only Header and Ian Wilkinson and Don and Gail Patterson. What are the reasonable possibility he can explain why all of the lunch guests became so gravely ill with death
cat mushroom poisoning, but that the accused did not. At the heart of this case r four calculated deceptions made by the accused.
Now, the first of these alleged four deceptions that make up this case that Nanette Rogers sc took the jury to is what the prosecution alleged is this cancer lie. And they say the reason why Aaron Patterson held this lunch in the first place and why she invited her loved ones over to her home.
Yes, she said that the that Pattison's fake cancer diagnosis really gave her lunch guests a reason to attend what Annette Rogers says was otherwise a really unusual lunch and she started explaining in her words that the accused painted a picture of a gathering that wasn't just social. This wasn't just a social catch up. It was a catch
up where the kids would be absent. And the prosecutor said that that alone emphasized the serious nature of the matter that the accused allegedly wanted to discuss.
And we'll hear.
Throughout the evidence as well as what we're talking about a lot of references to different witnesses and their evidence.
That's how the prosecution is laying out their arguments. So as part of this element and this sort of subtopic that she was talking about with the jury, and Neette Rodgers noted that the daughter of Aaron Patterson, who's given evidence via the recorded video interview with police, had mentioned that her mum wanted to discuss adult things, yes, just with the adults at this lunch, and.
She said that the jury should really consider.
That and take on board that and some evidence from other witnesses, including Simon Patterson and Ian Wilkinson, that this was the purpose of the lunch, was to discuss something just for adults and something quite serious, and in her leaning towards this being something of a serious medical nature, and she touched on Ian Wilkinson's evidence of this being a life threatening diagnosis and a life threatening situation that she'd found herself in.
Yeah. Rogers also reminded the jury that when Simon Patterson declined to attend Penny, the accused expressed irritation at this and telling him quote, I may not be able to host a lunch like this again for some time. The prosecution alleged that was sent in an attempt to change Simon Patterson's mind and get him to attend.
Nannette Rodgers also spoke about in this part of her closing address that it was the planting of a seed, that there was a research that Aaron Patterson had conducted. She said this was pre planned, but that in the texts, particularly that the jury have been shown between Gail Patterson and Aaron Patterson, that there was evidence, she says, of this seed being planted of I'm getting a biopsy, yes, algo biopsy, and then I'm going to get an MRI,
and that Gail had then written in her diary. As the jury has been taken through on this particular date, around a month before Aaron Saint Vincent's and the evidence that they've been shown through medical appointments and things that were conveyed to family to plant this seed that something was really seriously wrong with her health.
Yeah, and then another part to that as well was this making sure that the children weren't their penny. The way that Ninette Rogers explained it to the jury today was their case is that this was done to ensure that they wouldn't be harmed, to ensure that there was
no way that they could eat this poisoned lunch. And we heard a little bit more about the kids and they what they said in their statements throughout the prosecution closings, but essentially it was wrapped up and summarized this particular chapter almost of the closings as being an elaborate lie.
You heard the evidence of Professor Andrew Burston, the intensive care specialist who examined her medical records and found no evidence that she had received a cancer diagnosis. And of course here in court the accused agreed she had never been diagnosed with cancer. You might be wondering why on earth would she tell such a lie. Well, the prosecution says that the accused never thought she would have to account for this lie. She did not think her lunch
guests would live to reveal it. Her lie would die with them.
Now, the next topic that the Crown prosecutor took the jury to was the fact that the prosecution alleged Aaron Patterson deliberately sawce deathcap mushrooms and that she then placed them into this pre planned, organized special meal that she wanted to have her family members come and eat with her.
Yeah, it's been referred to throughout the trial as the lunch, but this was one of the ways that Nannette Rogers described this particular alleged deception as well as being the lunch and being the second deception. She was explaining to the jury that it's the lethal doses of poison that the prosecution say Patterson sought out and then disguise in this beef Wellington that really made up this particular category.
And she started off by explaining to the jury that it was Aaron Patterson who chose the meal, who chose to serve this particular style of the meal that deviated from the recipe book, and that she was solely in charge of sourcing the ingredients as well. We have heard earlier from the parts of the trial that Aaron Patterson had said that she wanted to cook something special, something fancy.
But Rogers maintains that despite this, and despite getting on the standard and saying this to the jury, that at no point did Aaron Patterson tell her guest that wild mushrooms would be in the meal, and that she really didn't follow that recipe book the way that it was explained to her.
In touching on that, the Crown prosecutor mentioned that Aaron Patterson, she alleges, sought specifically out the individual stakes to make individual portions of beef Wellington rather than the Logs style larger piece of meat than the recipe tin eats recipe actually called for, and she noted in her closing that Aaron Patterson, she says, not only sought out that meat, but so that she could create these individual parcels and so that she could be certain that there would be
a parcel for her to eat, that the prosecution alleges, wasn't poisoned and that's that so.
She got avoid poisoning herself.
To go a step further, they say the reason Aaron Patterson was or the way they say Aaron Patterson was ensuring she wouldn't eat that was with a different colored plate, and to explain that, they went back to the evidence of Ian Wilkinson. These are some of the words of Nnette Rogers.
Sc Ian Wilkinson told you that the accused plated the food by herself. He gave clear evidence of four matching large gray dinner plates, not dark or light gray, but a sort of middle gray color was his evidence. And then a fifth smaller orangey tan colored plate. Under cross examination, he conveyed no doubt about what he had seen. There were four plates that the same, they were gray, and
there was one smaller, different colored plate. Ian Wilkinson was a compelling witness who was able to recall a substantial amount of detail about the lunch. You might recall him describing the discussions at the house about a sick looking tree and the accused pantry. He had a clear memory of where everyone sat at the dining table during the lunch, and you will remember the photo where he marked where
people were sitting at the dining table. He had a clear memory of exactly what was served at the lunch. The individual wholly encased pasty type beef wellington, mashed potato and green beans. You will have no trouble in being satisfied that he is a reliable witness, and you can confidently accept what he told you about the details of the lunch, including the four gray plates and the fifth odd plate. Of course, as you have heard, Ian was not the only person to know not the different plate.
Heather Wilkinson said to Simon Patterson on the Sunday morning that she noticed Aaron served herself her food on a colored plate which was different to the rest. This was clearly something that's stuck in Heather's mind.
It was noteworthy the prosecutor put to the jury that this website I Naturalist, then they've heard a lot about She alleges that Aaron Patterson had the knowledge to use that website, that she'd visited that website back in May twenty twenty two, bit over a year before the lunch was put to the jury. This evidence that they've seen a number of times of the particular search for I Naturalist and then the narrowing in on a map of Victoria for deathcap mushroom sightings.
At the same time that there was a.
Search for the curran Borough Middle Pub and that purchase that was made with Aaron Patterson's details for a family dinner at that time.
The prosecutor really put to the jury.
That they should take on board this evidence as being an example of Aaron Patterson, they say, being able to use that website, using that website to look for death cat mushrooms at that particular occasion, and they said that she also had the knowledge to blitz these mushrooms up, as heard through the evidence of her estranged husband, Simon Patterson, in a conversation they had at the hospital with their children of how she had hidden mushrooms before in muffins
for their daughter to taste test. Nanette Rogers sc referred to that as being a knowledge base for Aaron Patterson and an example of her blitzing up mushrooms before, and that this was something she knew how to do well at this time.
Yeah, and then she explained a little bit further about the fact that any suggestion that wild mushrooms were added accidentally should should be rejected, not only for the reasons that you just said, Penny, but also that we heard from this expert witness, Tom May and he'd said that he'd dried death cat mushrooms in the past as part of his job, and he recalled them smelling very, very unpleasant, and that was unlikely then that somebody would put something
that smelt really, really unpleasant deliberately into a meal that was supposed to be special In connecting these dots here as she was doing today, that's when she spoke a little bit more about the fact that because they would have smelt very unpleasant, it's a prosecution's case that it's unlikely that deathcat mushrooms would have then just been chopped up. They would have had to have been blitzed into a
powder to be then hidden into the food. And this is something the accused had told her online friends as well that she'd done before, as she mentioned with the muffins as well, that experimentation and it was another type of experimentation as well that Nanette Rogers put to the jury was part of this particular deception, and that was within days of purchasing a food dehydrator we know happened
in April twenty twenty three. The prosecution say that Patterson undertook a test run with button mushrooms and then took photographs with the device and then sent them to her online friends. Test run it was another part of that experimentation that the prosecution allege happened before deathcap mushrooms were actually picked forage and then put into the dehydrator before going into the meal.
Now, the third point that the prosecution took the jury through as part of these closing arguments sort of subheadings, was that they say Aaron Patterson was attempting to make herself look sick so that medical professionals and other people would think she had ingested the deathcap mushrooms, because they allege if she wasn't seen to be sick like her lunch guests, that would be suspicious.
Yeah, the prosecution maintained that Aaron Patterson wasn't sick, and so these attempts to make it look so were to try and cover her tracks a little bit or to disguise her crimes. Is the way that the prosecution explained it. And as part of this third deception, the prosecution said the accused of different accounts of when she became sick to different people. There was lots of different ways the prosecution alleged the evidence contradicted itself, and there was a
lot of back and forth about these different things. But yeah, one of those elements of this being unwow was when was she sick? How sick was she before she even made it to the hospital.
And one of those points that the prosecution went back to a number of times, as you said, was that Aaron Patterson, their prosecution alleged, through Simon Patterson's evidence, initially told him that she'd become ill about this four four thirty time on the Saturday afternoon. Now that's about an hour and an hour and a half since the gun
lunch guests left her home. The other lunch guests all became ill sort of after eleven thirty around midnight one am following that lunch, and the jury was told some evidence that had come through one of the doctors at one of the hospitals that this was an initial flag for some of these medical professionals, that this may have been a mushroom poisoning incident rather than regular food poisoning, because the prosecution says in the evidence that the jury
has heard from these witnesses, usually food poisoning sets in within a couple of hours, which it appeared with what Patterson was talking about with her symptoms, that they were relatively soon to having eaten the meal, but that it was these lunch guests who became gravely ill and three of whom lost their lives. Actually, they had become sicker much later in terms of the onset of their particular symptoms.
Two to three hours for the onset of sort of gas stro or food poisoning related symptoms, but twelve hours typically round about four deathcat mushroom poisoning. And it was the on call toxicologist at the dating On hospital. The jury were reminded today that was the one that put those pieces together, along with the doctor who was working at lean at the hospital. The two of them had a foreign conversation and that's when deathcat mushroom poisoning was
really put on their radar for the first time. But we also then heard a little bit about what happened the day after the lunch Penny and the prosecution was saying, this is another example of why Aaron Pattison couldn't have been as ill as she was telling health officials and friends and family she really was, and that was a
long two hour round trip. We heard that she was taking her son to a flying lessons in tai Ab, but it was at this time she also had told later on a health Department official that she had explosive diary. During this time, Sonette Rodgers was explaining to the jury
that there was these different versions of events happening. Could somebody with explosive diary driver to our around trip and not have an accident, and that these were the different pieces of evidence that we'd heard over the last month or so that Nenette Rogers was really putting together and trying to convince the jury why they should side with the prosecution in this case.
And as some of this, what the prosecution was also touching on was the Saturday night trip in taking the friend's son home after the lunch that Aaron Patterson had told Simon Patterson and other people that she had taken this boy home at around seven seven thirty, that she'd then taken her son to subway, And the prosecution was putting to the jury why would she have made that stop when she'd also told other witnesses that at that point she was really worried that she wasn't really well
enough and she wouldn't really make it through other sort of trips without an accident. Why is that she was then stopping to get a takeaway meal? But the jury was then taken to another day after the lunch, being the Monday, the thirty first, the day Aaron Patterson first presented at the Lee and Gatha Hospital, and they were told that when she first presented that she seemed, on the prosecution's allegation, reluctant to have treatment, but reluctant even to come.
Into the hospital.
That the prosecution put to the jury that it was this point when she arrived that it was put to her that there might be mushroom poisoning. That that was the first time she, they alleged, realized that there was a concern about deathcat mushroom poisoning and that there was a concern that perhaps she may have something to do with that, and that's why the prosecution alleged that she left the hospital at.
That time and for almost two hours.
Penny, Yeah, they say that that one hour and thirty eight minutes that she left for that she had done that because she realized what the doctors and nurses were thinking and therefore didn't want to be in that place. So the prosecutor touched on some evidence from some of the nurses, one who said that she couldn't get Aaron Patterson to come in and initially get her observations taken properly. She'd said that it was to prepare things for her children.
She'd said it was to prepare things for her animals. She'd also said that it was to pack her daughter's
ballet bag. But it was touched on quite a bit by the prosecutor that she'd also said to her estranged husband, Simon Patterson, on his evidence that when she went to her home at land Gatha, that she'd laid down on the floor for around forty five minutes and fallen asleep, and the prosecutor put to the jury that even if that was the case, the prosecutor says that she feels that's an unlikely thing for someone to do in this situation when they knew other people were sick in hospital
and they themselves had these symptoms, but that even if she did lay down for forty five minutes, that doesn't
account for the entire space of time. And that's when the prosecutor also said to the jury that they had seen CCTV some security footage of Aaron Patterson leaving that hospital, and she put to the jury that there was nothing to indicate that she was weak or unable to walk in that particular footage that she'd driven away from the hospital and eventually after that hour and thirty eight minutes she drove herself back.
Yeah, and Nnette Rogers took quite a bit of time comparing who said what at one point as well explaining to the jury that it was this witness that said this in contradiction to what the accused were saying, and that at this point this other witness had said this really painting a picture of the prosecution case in fine detail.
And she also spoke.
About as part of that what Aaron Patterson was doing at different times compared to her lunch guests who were growing, as the prosecution says, sicker and sicker.
Here's some more of the words as the jury heard it.
Nurse Miriam Sespond did one on one nursing care for Heather Wilkinson, while another nurse did the same one on one care for Ian. This is the same morning that the accused drove her to children to the bus stop and then drove herself to hospital on that say, day thirty one July. By the time Ian and Heather Wilkinson were also transferred to Dandenong Hospital. Ian was reported to be extremely nauseated and constantly vomiting. That was the evidence
of doctor Mark Douglas. This is around the time that the accused had discharged herself from lean Gatha Hospital and drove home. She said to pack her daughter's ballet bag. You saw for yourselves how she appeared on the CCTV shortly after eight five am as she was discharging herself from Leanngatha Hospital. Don and Gale Patterson were both transferred to the Austin Hospital on thirty one July. At two thirty pm that day, Don Patterson was critically ill and
in multiple organ failure. He was on life support ventilation with a tube down his windpipe. At this time, the accused was being transported by ambulance to Modash Medical Center and was calm and chatty. By August first, twenty twenty three, all four of the lunch guests had been conveyed to the Austin Hospital ICEE you on life support and in an advanced state of multiple organ failure with their organs essentially shutting down. Gail Patterson was in an advanced state
of shock. That was the evidence of Professor Warrillo. This is the day the accused was discharged home from the Modash Medical Center with no clinical or biochemical evidence of Amanita mushroom poisoning or any other toxic substance, and no liver damage.
Here's more of what the prosecutor went on to say.
It is inexplicable about why four of five people who ostensibly ate the same meal fell fatally ill and only one person, the person who prepared the meal, did not.
We'll be back after this with more of the prosecution closing arguments. The fourth deception topic allegation Penny that the jury were taken through was the sustained cover up, a sustained cover up to conceal what the prosecution alleged really was the truth at that time, and this included lying about feeding her children leftovers, lying about the source of the mushrooms, disposing of the food dehydrator, and then allegedly
deliberately concealing her usual mobile phone from police. These were the elements that the prosecutions say make up this last deception, this sustained cover up. Yes, so sort of dot points or subheadings within subheadings that and Nannette Rodgers she really signposted these for the jury, and then she went through them in detail, and we'll try and do that for you now as well. So beginning with feeding her the
leftovers to the children. Now, the prosecution alleged Aaron Patterson never fed leftovers from the lunch to the children, that what she fed to the children was something else entirely that night, despite the fact that they've given evidence that
it was the leftovers from the lunch. And what the Crown prosecutor pointed to as part of this was some of the different things that Aaron Patterson had said or had said to her by different witnesses at different times, and what they say was her reluctance to have her children initially medically assessed.
Yeah, this was one of the first lies that the prosecution say Aaron Patterson told as part of this whole case, and that was that her children had been fed some of the leftovers. Now, the prosecution agree that the children did eat steak and that they would have eaten mashed potato and beans, which is the evidence that we've heard during this trial. But they maintained it certainly wasn't the steak that had been cooked in the mushroom paste and with the pastry over it the day before, and there
was a number of different reasons. She said that was the case and why they should be able to satisfy the jury beyond reasonable doubt. That this particular part was satisfied, and that was because when remnants of the lunch ended up with scientists, she was explaining that even they were struggling to separate the mushroom paste from the meat in
their testing. The prosecution's cases, it would make absolutely no sense for a mother to feed her child something that she could have believed could have made the lunch guest sick. And when she fed her children this meal on the Sunday night, Penny, we know at that point Aaron Patterson already knew that a number of the lunch.
Guests had got sick.
And it's the prosecution case that there is no way that a mother would feed their beloved children anything that could potentially make them sick.
Let's hear a little bit of that scientific evidence, as Annette Rodgers sc put it to the jury.
This is voiced by an actor.
The accused attempted to explain why the children would not be sick despite eating the leftovers by repeatedly stating that she'd scraped the mushrooms off their serves because they didn't like mushrooms. However, the scientific evidence in this case strongly suggests that simply scraping the mushroom paste away would not have been enough to prevent the children from ingesting amatoxins
had they also eaten the leftover beef Wellington. You might remember mister Mandy Cross examining doctor Jeris de Mulus about the leftover meat sample and how tiny pieces of mushroom or mushroom paste were still stuck to it inside the small glass vials. Mister Mandy may argue that the toxins did not really penetrate the meat. The meat sample was simply unable to be separated from the poisonous mushroom paste, and that is why the specimen tested positive for beta amaneton.
Maybe that is so, Maybe the toxin penetrated the meat, or maybe the mushroom paste just could not be separated so that the sample tested positive for beta amaneitan. But it doesn't really matter. The result is the same. The meat from that dish carried beta amaneitan in it. Even when a forensic toxicologist tried to extract the meat portion for analysis, it could not be entirely separated from the
mushroom paste. It is impossible, we suggest to you, that the accused could have served up a piece of leftover steak with all of the poisonous mushrooms or mushroom paste removed. Not even a forensic toxicologist managed to do that in an laboratory.
So as you touched on before, then erin as well as we've just heard in that evidence that prosecutions say that physically Aaron Patterson could never have removed the toxins from the meat if she was to feed it to those children. There was a lot of what they were putting to the jury, these words of the beloved children, the doting mother, that they've heard a lot of evidence that Aaron Patterson really was those things and that she
really did protect her children. And that's why they say that they really wouldn't have been put in a situation where they ate this meal, nor where they could have
possibly been at the particular lunch. But what they also say the prosecution as part of this is that while the leftover showed there was the toxin, they say that this was from the sixth beatf Wellington, this beef Wellington that ended up in the outside bin at Aaron Patterson's home, and the Crown Prosecutor has put to the jury in the closings that this sixth beef Wellington was on their case,
intended for Simon Patterson. That while he had texted to say he wouldn't be attending to the meal, the last words that he and Aaron Patterson had exchanged on text before the lunch itself was her saying I hope to see you there. And that the prosecution say these shows that she had this meal prepared ready to go for Simon Patterson, but that she'd got rid of that, put it in the bin, and that's the leftovers that were
eventually tested. It's not the leftovers that the children were actually eating.
Yeah, And the prosecution also said that it would, in their mind more readily help people believe that this whole ordeal was just a big shocking accident. If Aaron Patterson had in fact fed this beef Wellington leftover to her children, a lie helped cover her tracks. Is a quote I remember from today. I looked at the jury as they were being taken through this particular deception chapter and it was quite lengthy and it was quite complicated, but they
seem to be following every single word. There wasn't a lot of eyes darting around the room other than to look at Aaron Patterson herself in the dock. It was a jury who were all really fixed on Whatnette Rogers was saying to.
Them, and Aaron Patterson, as we've mentioned, is back in the dock. She's no longer in the witness box where she was for quite a few days giving her evidence, but she was sitting behind us erin and looking back at her a couple of times. She was very much watching Nenette Rogers sc as you mentioned, She's sort of moved her positioning slightly so that she's very much presenting to the jury and her back is entirely to the public, to the media.
And to Aaron Patterson. And Aaron Patterson.
She was certainly watching with a lot of interest and very much fixed on what the prosecutor was saying, with her glasses sort of right down her nose and keeping her direction of her gaze fixed right in that area of the prout and the jury box.
She was also taking a lot of notes today, Penny. I saw a blue pen in her right hand as she was looking down her nose through her glasses. She was frantically taking notes at some stage, other times pausing to reflect on what the evidence was or reflecting on what the prosecution had to say. And once again we had a number of family members in court. There was about ten members I counted from the Wilkinson and Patterson families.
Ian Wilkinson again was there seated in the back row, seated today between one of his daughters and his son in law. This was at a time, Penny where the jury were really being reminded of what happened in those final days as well, including to Ian Wilkinson himself, and how their illnesses really got worse and worse over a number of days. While Aaron Patterson was experiencing one thing, these four lunch guests were going into organ failure and there wasn't a lot of reaction from those in the
court room. I think every was really focused on what Neette Rodgers had to say.
Yeah, and as part of what Nanette Rodgers was talking about with this organ failure and the progressive decline of the lunch guests, she spoke to the jury about that. At the same time Aaron Patterson was being asked about where these mushrooms had come from, and the prosecution allege at this point she came up with, they say, another elaborate lie regarding the source of the mushrooms and started
to tell people they'd come from an Asian grocer. But the prosecution put to the jury that this story about the Asian grosser and the details became broader over time and more complex.
Yeah, she said that on their case, Aaron Patterson sat on her hands as her loved ones were growing more and more unwell, and she really sent the Department of Health and also the City of Monash on a wild goose chase to find what they say was a fictional
Asian grocer store. With something we've heard a lot about in this trial and was again mentioned today at length, was whether or Aaron Patterson somebody who used to work and used to live in this particular part of Melbourne many many many years earlier, would have known the areas and would have known the suburbs. And as you said, this lie, the prosecution say, grew bigger and bigger as time went on, and more suburbs they say, were added in.
More broad descriptions of things then followed, and they say this was all not as somebody who was panicking, but somebody who was caught in their own lives. Yeah.
And the one of the words that Nnette Rodgers used that really stuck out for me was she called it a frolic. She said that they had been sent on a frolic the Health Department. And then she also went through how the Monash Health investigators were also involved in this foot on the ground search going through all of these different local businesses looking for any source of mushrooms.
The three hundred and forty photos that were taken by that environmental officer and sent to the Department of Health because there was this major concern that as well as this one family was really unwell in hospital, that there could be a big part public health emergency. At the same time, Nannette Rodgers, as part of the closings and this part of her address, she took the jury through
eleven times. The prosecution allege between when Aaron Patterson first spoke with doctor Chris Webster on the thirty first of July, that Monday that she first presented at Leanngatha Hospital, through to a couple of days after the lunch on the second of August, when she was visited by a Child Protection worker and she had a speakerphone conversation with a public health official.
The prosecution says.
There's eleven times there and they signposted them there to the jury of the things Aaron Patterson said and they say didn't say regarding where these particular mushrooms came from, beginning with that first doctor saying that the mushrooms, they say on the evidence of him, and with what the prosecution alleged that she just replied Woolli's and that despite the defense saying that she had said, he had asked where the ingredients came from, the prosecution said that the
jury should consider that he asked where the mushrooms had come from, and that that doctor, doctor Chris Webster, was very much focused on mushrooms at the time, not on the ingredients.
As a whole.
All the way through to these different suburbs and the different descriptions that they say Aaron Patterson gave these particular public health officials and investigators. But what they also touched on was the prosecution say that it was Aaron Patterson not always responding or not always being forthcoming with information that the jury should also look at here that towards the end of Sally Ann Atkinson needing to get information
from her. In those later days, Aaron Patterson wasn't always returning her calls or her voicemail messages.
At other times text messages were responded to, but they didn't answer the questions of Sally Ane Atkinson from the Department of Health was asking, now we do know this time Aaron Patterson gave evidence and the jury were reminded of this today that in one of the messages she did right back, well, I'm a bit busy, I'm dealing with my children. I've got a bit of my plate at the moment, essentially, but that it was some of those other phone calls that followed that she was so
difficult to get hold of. And this is something as well. The jury reminded that was the complete opposite to what Aaron Patterson said in her police interview. She told police that she was very, very helpful with the Department of Health, where Asnette Rodgers said that really wasn't the case.
Here's a little bit of what Nenette Rogers told the jury. It's voiced by an actor.
Even if you could accept it is something you might not remember. You would think that if you were in a situation like this, for the sake of your very ill family members, and for anyone else who might be exposed, you would do everything you could to try and remember the store. But the accused sat on her hands while Don, gail Ian and Heather were all in comas. She was slow to respond to the Department of Health, even totally non responsive at times, and as time passed, her description
of the Chinese food store shifted and grew broader. You noticed that when the accused was giving the evidence that she appeared to have a remarkable memory. She could recall dates, evidence, and details easily, as she was being asked questions over many days. Even now in June twenty twenty five, she could recall that April twenty eighth, twenty twenty three was a Friday and not a Monday, as I had suggested
to her in cross examination. Yet in August twenty twenty three, she could not recall the shop or even the suburb where she purchased the mushrooms from an Asian grosser in the same April of twenty twenty three. It's simply beggar's belief. How were the mushrooms packaged? Not only did the locations of the supposed Asian grosser spread across more and more suburbs.
The story about the mushrooms from the Asian Grosser also became more complex when professionals asked the accused about the packaging, She said she didn't have it, then came up with an elaborate ex explanation for why that would be the case, given that she had only prepared the meal a few days earlier.
Now, another point that Nanette Rodgers sc has taken the jury too in part of her closings were the claims around that Aaron Patterson says she read hydrated the Asian
grosser mushrooms and added them into this particular meal. Now, she went back to some of Aaron Patterson's evidence that she said while she was on the stand that she'd noticed how crisp things were when they came out of her dehydrator, and she felt these particular Asian mushrooms, which previously the jury had heard evidence from other witnesses that she'd told them, smelt a bit funny or a little bit strange, and that's why she hadn't included them in
other foods at the time. That she felt that those mushrooms were a bit rubbery in the tupper where she'd put them in, so at some point she couldn't remember exactly when, but she'd taken them out, she'd popped them into the dehydrator and that was to crisp them up. And what Nanette Rogers told the jury was that in telling the taught this in her evidence that she was telling a ridiculous lie. That was Nnette Roger's words, that she was trying to show that there could still be
some contamination with the Asian grosser mushrooms. But that really all along, Aaron Patterson knew. The prosecution alleges that she had dehydrated deathcat mushrooms in her own sun Beam dehydrator, and they suggest that she bought that dehydrator for the exact purpose of dehydrating those mushrooms.
Yeah, Rogers said that it wouldn't make sense to purchase dried mushrooms to then rehydrate them, to put them in this meal, to then chop them up to then redry them again. And that was at a point where there was a few of us are a little bit confused trying to make sense of this. But the way she broke it down was, yes, Aaron Patterson's evidence was, when I took these mushrooms out of the pantry, I rehydrated them with a little bit of water, I chopped them up,
and then I added them to the meal. But why and then and how has remnants of death cat mushrooms then made their way onto the dehydrator. So and Nette Rogers was saying essentially that that is another lie, it doesn't make sense, and that Aaron Patterson did in fact source dry and add mushrooms deathcat mushrooms to the meal.
It's a little bit more from what Nannette Rogers told the jury regarding the dumping of the dehydrator.
The defense may argue that this was part of a wild panic, that the accused did this because she was worried she would be falsely accused of deliberately poisoning her lunch guests. You should completely reject that position. Her story about Simon accusing her in the hospital of using the dehydrator and this sending her into a panic is nonsense. Simon Patterson categorically denied to you ever saying such a
thing to the accused. You will use your common sense when you're considering the evidence in this case, including this piece of evidence. If there was nothing incriminating about the deh hydrator, why hide it? And there is only one reasonable explanation. She knew it would incriminate her. She knew that she had dehydrated death cap mushrooms in that appliance and that she had deliberately done so, and she knew that keeping it was going to be far too risky.
Yeah, this dumping of the dehydrator, Rogers said, was one of the first things that Aaron Patterson did as soon as she was released from that Monash hospital. And she then took the jury through a number of other things that they say she did that prove she was covering her tracks after she attempted to kill some of her lunch guests. And this next thing that they say she did was the dumping of what Nanette called the dummy phone.
We've heard during some of this evidence that there was fhone A in phone B, but she really used different terminology during her closings and explained that Aaron Patterson had a usual phone and she had a dummy phone. And their case is that Aaron Patterson handed police the dummy phone, a phone that she knew that had been wiped and then was later wiped again while it was in the locker of the police informat and that she didn't actually
hand over her usual phone. Now, Neett Rodgers reminded the jury that the defense case was this other phone, this usual phone was just left on the window sill in there in Patterson's house and police had missed it. And Rogers really encouraged the jury to reject that suggestion and said that the police had been there for four hours.
They're searching for all of the devices that they could find, and it wouldn't make any sense for them to have missed or looked over a phone that was now sitting on a window sill in air in Patterson's house.
Yeah, and for the listeners that have been listening along we have referred to in previous episodes, like the prosecution and the defense have that what the prosecution now alleged is a dummy phone, that is Phone B and the phone A, that phone that police never recovered is what Nenette Rodgers is referring to there as well.
Toward the end of.
Her final submission her closing arguments, Nanette Rodgers spoke a lot about the relationships within the family and why she says there may have been while there doesn't need to be a motive in this particular case, but there may have been some animosity in this particular family. And she touched on what she says is evidence that these particular relationships had changed over time and changed around the time of the lunch.
She reminded the jury when she was speaking about this that the prosecution doesn't need to prove a motive to prove murder. It's not one of the full elements of murder that a jury needs to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that they have reached to find somebody guilty of murder. But the way it was explained was that sometimes the reasons are obvious as to why somebody might kill somebody, in other times they're not. And so that was part of the explanation about what was going on then with
the family at the time. And she noted that on the surface, it may have seemed like the accused was in this really loving family, this loving relationship, yes, but perhaps the truth was that what was really going on with Don and Gail Patterson and Aaron Patterson at that time was that things weren't always really harmonious.
Hiss a little bit of what the jury was told about the situation within the family at the time of the lunch.
The accused professed her love for Don and Gail in her police interview. Even Simon told you that they got on well, that is, the accused and his parents, and that the accused seemed to love his parents. On the surface, perhaps it seemed that way even to the family members themselves, but you have heard evidence which shows that the relationship between the accused and Don and Gail was not always a harmonious one, particularly in the nine months or so
leading up to the lunch. Don and Gail were dragged unwillingly into the conflict between the accused and Simon over child support.
And this is what Annette Rogers told the jury about motive.
Motive is not an element of the crime of murder or the crime of attempted murder, and it is only the elements of the offense that you must find proven beyond reasonable doubt that makes sense. People do different things for different reasons. Sometimes the reason is obvious enough to others. At other times, the internal motivations are only known by the person themselves. You don't have to know why a person does something in order to know they did it.
Now, this is the part that we have alluded to earlier in the episode that there was a surprise for the jury, for us sitting in the courtroom as well and the members of the public when it came to the number of calculated deceptions that the prosecution alleged Aaron Patterson took part in.
Initially, Annette Rodgers.
As you heard outlined in what she told the jury earlier in this episode, said there were four calculated deceptions.
Then she said there was a fifth calculated deception.
She says, this deception is Aaron Patterson herself saying that, in Nnette Roger's words, that Aaron Patterson tried to play the jury.
Yeah, Nenette Rogers was facing the jury at this time, and the jury, as they really had behaved throughout all of her closing submissions, they couldn't be seen taking any notes, they weren't looking at their iPads. Their eyes were really fixed on Nett Rogers as she was speaking. And this was a moment where there was surprise across the faces of some of the jury members, and one of the male jurors as well, almost smirt He had a smile
on his face. When they were told that there would be this fifth element, and then all of a sudden we heard net Rodgers say, this is the lies that we say. Aaron Patterson told you the juror as while she was here in the courtroom. Now, I was sitting in the courtroom like I have been every day of this trial, Penny, and I looked around to see Aaron Patterson. She seated in the dock behind where the media is sitting, and she had been taking notes throughout both days, and
that was happening again today. Glasses on the end of her nose, and she was continuing to take notes, and there wasn't a lot of reaction to what was happening at that point.
So what Nanette Rodgers told the jury is that Aaron Patterson didn't have to give evidence, that she made the choice to give evidence off her own bat, and that therefore she opened herself up to cross examination just like
any other witness. And there were a number of those points that you mentioned that Nanette Rogers put to the jurors saying, we put to you that she lied about this, that she lied about this, that she lied about this, And she started off with the cancer diagnosis, quoting from what she'd told police what she'd told different witnesses, and then what she'd said on the stand, and she said every time we asked her questions about that that her story seemed to be changing.
She mentioned that Aaron Patterson seemed to have a really good memory for some things, particularly dates and the day of the week. She explained that in other parts Aaron Patterson was unable to explain certain elements, but also didn't
answer or give full some answers to other questions. And that was the reason or part of the reason why Anette Rogers said the jury should not put a lot of faith into what Aaron Patterson was saying, and to really put that aside and focus on what evidence it is that the prosecution brought to the table.
Now, the prosecution has anticipated in some of what they've told the jury, they expect the defense will say in their closings. You'll hear a little bit in these words of Nannette Rogers that were about to play you. This begins with her talking about the fact that the defense may try to suggest that a lot of these things happened because of an innocent panic.
This is voiced by an actor.
It might be suggested to you that some of the accused behavior after the lunch was the result of panic, innocent panic about the prospect of being blamed, and that this is why she disposed of the dehydrator and why she told some of the lies I have already referred to. We suggest you can reject those suggestions why, because panic does not explain the extent and prolonged efforts that the accused went to in order to cover up what she'd done.
It does not explain why the accused chose to persist with lies even when the lives of the lunch guests were at stake. And you might also remember that the accused volunteered some of those lies to someone who she had absolutely no reason to lie to.
From then innet, Rogers took the jury through a few more bits of evidence of different witnesses. What she says that Aaron Patterson told Jenny Hay, one of her online friends, regarding elements that had happened after the lunch with the leftovers and where she says she got the mushrooms. And after these two days of closings that the jury has heard from Nannette Rogers, it was time for her to sit back down and say she had finished these closing submissions.
She actually thanked the jury. She said thank you for your time and sat back down. And we know what happened next, Penny. Is that Colin Mandy. It was his turn at the lectern. He did the same. He came in and moved it so it was facing the jury and we'll bring you some more about what he has to say in our next episode.
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