Hi, it's Samantha Selinger. Morris here. Your host of the morning Edition. We bring you this bonus episode today on Wednesday, April 30th, after the first day of what's become known as the Mushrooms trial. This is the case that centers around a quiet country lunch that resulted in three people dead and another fighting for life after the food they ate contained, as a jury was told, death cap mushrooms. To tell us what unfolded in court today, we are
joined by The Age's court reporter, Erin Pearson. So, Erin, first off, can you just set the scene for us? I mean, tell us about the location of the trial, what it's actually like in the courtroom, and what the jury is going to have to weigh up over the next 5 to 6 weeks.
The the trial has been held at the Supreme Court sitting at Morwell. It's a small country town in regional Victoria, in the Gippsland area. Today, what happened in the courtroom was the jury were given the opening addresses from the prosecution and the defence. This is where they both sort of set out their cases a little bit before the evidence begins. But it's the first time that the jury will hear the details of the prosecution case against Erin Patterson.
It followed a bit of a timeline and went for about 3.5 hours. So there was quite a lot of information. Uh, Crown Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC, said the prosecution case against Erin Patterson is that she deliberately laced a beef Wellington meal with death cap mushrooms. She then lured members of her family, her estranged husband Simon Patterson's family to lunch at her home in Leongatha on July 29th, 2023. The four lunch guests who attended were Gail and Don Patterson,
and also Ian and Heather Wilkinson. The prosecution alleged that she did so under the guise of having cancer, which the jury were told was something that she in fact did not have. She allegedly told the guests that she needed their assistance in coming up with a plan on how to break the news to her children, essentially. So they attended her property. They all sat down for lunch, and they were served these individual segments of of beef
Wellington with green beans and potatoes. Um, the prosecution alleged that Aaron Patterson served the four guests their meals on grey coloured plates, but she served her own meal to herself on a sort of an orangey tan colored plate that was a little bit smaller.
Okay. And so just to sum up, Aaron Patterson, she's been charged with three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. She says she's innocent of of all these charges. But can you just tell us a bit more about her background and her relationship to her former husband and his family?
Yeah. So we heard that they, uh, they married and met many, many years ago. The jury were told that their relationship remained amicable. They shared custody of their children. And defence barrister, um Colin Mandy uh essay said that she was a loving mother, a doting mother. Everything seemed to be pretty good between the family. He was also invited to the lunch. They were at the local church when Aaron Patterson invited the four in-laws and Simon Patterson
to lunch, but Simon Patterson later declined messaging. Aaron Patterson to say that, in fact, he would not be attending. Nanette Rogers told the jury that Aaron Patterson appeared quite upset about that and persisted and really wanted him to attend. Mentioned that she had a medical issue that she, you know, needed help discussing, but he did not attend the meal at all.
Okay. And then the court heard that during the night, a few hours after this lunch, that Don and Gail Patterson and then also Ian and Heather Wilkinson, they all became unwell. The couples were separately taken to hospital and their conditions declined. But Aaron Patterson also went to hospital. Can you just tell us a bit about that?
Yeah. So she went to the local hospital.
And when she went to sort of knock on the door, it's more of an urgent care centre. Um, nobody immediately came to her because they were treating two of these other, uh, in-laws in hospital at the time. But there was a doctor called Doctor Webster who, when he was told that it was Aaron Patterson at the door, immediately let her in, and she was assessed and seen to by nurses and a doctor. But she didn't stay. She told staff she
wasn't prepared to be admitted and left. The hospital staff then took what the jury was told was an unusual step of contacting police to try and track her down.
Such was the worry that she may have also consumed deathcap mushrooms later on that same day, though she did return to hospital and was later transported to Dandenong Hospital, where herself and her two children were assessed over the next week or so as the other lunch guests got progressively more and more unwell there, their treatment was increased, but unfortunately three of them passed away. Um, and then one of them, Ian Wilkinson, who is the the local pastor.
He survived but spent a significant amount of time in hospital.
There's also an issue that she told doctors that her children had eaten the leftovers, but she'd scraped the mushrooms off. The doctors wanted her children attended to, I believe. So what was her response to that?
Uh, the jury were told that she was a little bit hesitant in that regard, that she she was worried that if she went and picked them up from school and brought them to hospital, it would stress them out. Um, she was she was the jury were told that that that was a primary concern at the time. She really didn't want to stress her children out. She didn't believe that they'd consumed any of these these mushrooms, which at that time was still being worked out and figured out
whether or not it was, in fact, deathcap mushrooms. It's something that took a little bit of time to to figure out as everybody was being treated. But yeah, at the time she wasn't really keen for children to be seen, but eventually they were all taken to hospital. The prosecution case, though, is that she feigned this illness and that she wasn't sick and she knew that her children weren't sick. Um, this is something that the defense, uh, reject in their
opening addresses. They said no, she was, in fact, sick. They say the defense case is this was all a tragic accident. She never, ever intended to harm anybody. But also, uh, something that was quite confronting for everyone.
And so how does one actually obtain death cap mushrooms? And where did Aaron Patterson say that they'd actually come from?
Yeah. So the prosecution case is that death cap. Mushrooms are rare and they can't be cultivated. They can only grow in the wild on the basis of certain trees. Uh, May, I think is the time of year that they said was the most common to find them in this particular case, um, the prosecution alleged that Aaron Patterson had seen on this website that there'd been sightings at two very small towns
on the outskirts of that Leongatha Korumburra area. And they allege that she, um, she went to those areas to deliberately, I guess, pick those mushrooms to use in the meal. Now with the defence. Did say today, though, that she admits while she lied to police firstly about, um, not foraging for mushrooms, she has since admitted that she had foraged for mushrooms. The main point of this, and the the juxtaposition of it all, is that the prosecution are
saying that was a deliberate act. She deliberately went and sought out deathcap mushrooms and deliberately then put them in the meal. Uh, the defence are saying the complete opposite. No, that this was a this was a tragic accident. She may have gone foraging for mushrooms at, at one time, but at no point was she deliberately looking for deathcap mushrooms.
And did the defence actually say anything about why Aaron Patterson lied to police originally about foraging for mushrooms, telling police originally that she did not forage for mushrooms.
The court heard that there was a number of lies that Aaron Patterson told along the way, but the defense counsel reminded the jury that they have to remember that Aaron Patterson had just learned that members of her extended
family were critically ill or had just died. When all of these lies had started to come out, and to remember, maybe the actions of somebody could be somebody who's panicked and somebody who who knew at the time that the meal that they had served had led to this illness, deliberately or not.
Okay. And you also heard in the courtroom today a little bit about the police investigation that was carried out in the months after the launch. So what were some of the more notable things, I guess, that came out of that?
They they executed search warrants or raids on her home on two different occasions, one in the August and one in the November of 2023. Um, police seized a number of items, including electronic devices, that the jury were told
they would hear more about later on in the trial. Um, the prosecution also said, though, that during the raid, ride, Aaron Patterson had a mobile phone on her as she was sitting at the dining table, and she was given permission to use that to call and get legal advice, and also to arrange childcare arrangements for her two children.
They allege, though, that during that time that she was given that permission to use that phone, she in fact factory reset that device and then did that again another two times, one of them remotely. I think that was the the main part of the police investigation that we really heard about today.
And did the jury actually hear anything about why the prosecutors think Aaron Patterson did this or anything about motive, for that matter?
No. Motive was something that was quite heavily focused on today. The jury were reminded that the prosecution, in order to prove the elements of murder and attempted murder, um, don't actually have to, um, I guess convince them or show them or roll out any sort of motive. Motive isn't something that's at the heart of these types of cases, the prosecution doesn't, in fact, have to put one forward in order for a finding of guilt to be made by a jury. Um, they said in this case, there
a clear one, isn't there? Um, and that was something that the defence also leant into as well. They reminded the jury that the prosecution had not presented thus far any evidence of motive.
Okay. Well, this brings me to my next question, because we have heard a lot from the prosecution today. That's usual at the start of a trial. But did the jury actually hear from Aaron Pedersen at all today? And was she in court watching on?
She was in court watching on. She was seated in the dock at the back of the courtroom. If you think about the design of this particular courtroom, you've got the judge at the the top of the room, you've got the bar table in front of him, you've got about three rows of, um, members of the public and press. And then Aaron Patterson is in the dock in the back of the room with the jury to the right
hand side. If, if that, if that makes sense. So Aaron Patterson was present and will be present throughout the trial. She was a little bit teary at the beginning of the trial, and while her defense team were addressing the court, she was seen crying and looking up at the ceiling and looking a little bit upset. Other times she was looking at the jury and looking around the room. But as you mentioned, the defense hasn't said much and Colin
Mandi reminded the jury that that is completely normal. What happens is the time for argument for the defense isn't at the beginning. The time for the argument for the defense is at the very end. So today was largely all about the prosecution case, as I mentioned earlier. It was about 3.5 hours of speaking from Nanette Rogers as she was taking the jury through the prosecution case. And then there was maybe about 30 minutes from the defense.
And that's when the defense really reminded the jury to keep an open mind that they are the judges of the facts and not of any sort of rumors and innuendos and things like that. Not to get caught up in that and really focus on the evidence. So they were reminded that the openings, yes, it is setting out the cases, but it's not actually the evidence. The evidence begins with the first witness. So he gave quite a short address at the end, which the jury were told
was quite normal. And it's at the very end of the trial after all the witnesses have concluded. And we know this is going to be about a 5 or 6 week trial at this stage. That's when everybody will hear a lot more from the defense.
And finally, Aaron, what happens from here?
What happens from here is we've got a prosecution will call quite a number of witnesses over the next six weeks. So we'll be back in court tomorrow for more. We know that the trial is sitting at this stage from 1030 in the morning to just after 4:00 every single day, with a lunch break in the middle. The jurors are also given a morning and afternoon break, so we will be here in court, um, following the case for our readers and listeners, and we'll bring you more when we can.
Well, thank you so much for your time and for all you listeners who want to stay up to date with the case, can you please go to The Age and Sydney Morning Herald's website or follow Erin's podcast called say Grace The Mushroom Trial?
Thanks for having me.
Today's episode of The Morning Edition was produced by Tammy Mills, with technical assistance by Josh towers. Tom McKendrick is our head of audio. To listen to our episodes as soon as they drop, follow the Morning Edition on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. Our newsrooms are powered by subscriptions, so to support independent journalism, visit The Age
or smh.com.au. Subscribe and to stay up to date, sign up to our Morningedition newsletter to receive a summary of the day's most important news in your inbox every morning. Links are in the show. Notes. I'm Samantha Selinger Morris. Thanks for listening.