Now you'll be pleased to know. I've got three final questions. I suggest that you deliberately sourced death cap mushrooms in twenty twenty three. Agree or disagree, disagree. I suggest you deliberately included them in the beef wellingtons you served to Don Patterson, Gail Patterson, Ian Wilkinson and Heather Wilkinson Agree or disagree, disagree, and you did so intending to kill them. Agree or disagree, disagree? Thank you. I have no further questions.
It's been a long stint on the stand for Aaron Patterson, but after another day of cross examination by Crown prosecutor Nanette Rodgers, the accused mushroom Cook murderer ended her testimony. It was a day where the Crown tried to tie up loose ends, quizzing Aaron on leftovers, phones and her actions after that deadly lunch. I'm Brook GREYB. Craig, and this is the Mushroom Cook. It's day thirty one of Aaron Patterson murder trial, and I'm here with court reporter
Laura Placella. Hi, Laura, Hey, Brook.
We've made it. We've made it to the end of Aaron's testimony. She has been in the witness box over eight days, and today was her fifth day of cross examination. As our listeners heard at the top of the episode, three final questions were put to Erin before doctor Rogers said she was done with her cross examination, and I think today was the last time we'll hear doctor Rogers ask the immortal question, agree or disagree?
Yes, I think you're right, Laura. I think it's also going to be the last time that we hear doctor Rogers asking correct or incorrect two once again. Several topics were covered in court today, so let's start with the dehydrating of mushrooms. Doctor Rogers asked Aaron about her evidence from yesterday that she dehydrated the dried mushrooms she purchased from the Asian grosser because they appeared.
Erin confirmed that she never told Senior Public Health Adviser Sally Anne Atkinson that she dehydrated the dried mushrooms, and she also agreed that she didn't mention it in her evidence in chief that was led by her defense barrister Colin Mandy. Doctor Rogers accused Erin of lying about dehydrating these dried mushrooms. Here's what was said in court. The exchange has been voiced by actors.
I suggest this is another lie that you've made up on the spot. Incorrect. I suggest that you're hedging your bets, trying to make it sound like there are multiple possible sources for the deafcat mushrooms.
Incorrect.
Doctor Rogers then took Erin to her testimony that she was drinking herbal tea on the morning of July thirty, and this is the day after the deadly lunch.
Erin's son told an investigator in his pre recorded evidence that he remembered his mum drinking coffee that morning. But Erin said her son would have seen her drinking coffee in the morning for nine twenty nine percent of his life, so she said he would assume she was doing the same on July thirty. Doctor Rogers put to Erin that she would not be drinking coffee if she was experiencing diarrhea. Erin agreed with that comment, but reiterated that she was drinking tea that morning.
Yes, Aaron's bow movements were once again mentioned in court today.
Told the court last week that she pulled over on the side of the South Gippsland Highway on her way to tie up with her children because she needed to go to the toilet. She said she went to the toilet in the bushes, cleaned herself up with some tissues before they hit the road again. But in his prerecorded evidence, Erin's son made no mention of them needing to pull over for her to go to the toilet. Doctor Rogers accused Erin today of lying about this, but Erin denied this.
Onto the next topic, Doctor Rogers returned to the issue of the leftovers. Aaron said she fed her children on the Sunday night after the lane lunch, and this series of questions also touched upon what Aaron ate that evening. In the pre recorded evidence of Erin's daughter, she said that her mum had prepared a plate of leftovers for herself, but wasn't very hungry, so her brother ate their mum's portion.
In her brother's pre recorded evidence, he also said that their mum had plated up a portion of leftovers for herself. But today Erin disputed both of her children's recollections. Here's what she was asked, and.
Do you say that your daughter is wrong about what you prepared yourself for dinner on Sunday night? She is.
The exchange continued, do you say.
That your son is incorrect about what you prepared yourself for dinner on the Sunday night?
Yes, he is.
Dr Rogers then took Erin to her evidence in chief, where she told the jury she had a conversation with her estranged husband, Simon Patterson, and her children while they were all at Modash Medical Center about dehydrating mushrooms and hiding them in muffins.
As our listeners may remember, Erin claimed that after the children left the room, Simon turned to her and accused her of poisoning his parents with her dehydrator. She said, he asked her, is that what you used to poison my parents? In his evidence, Simon denied ever saying this to Erin. Doctor Rogers accused Erin of lying about this question from Simon to disguise why she went to the koon Wara Tip the next day to dumb her dehydrator. She denied that she lied about this.
Doctor Rogers also asked Aaron about her devices, dubbed phone A, which was never located by police, Phone B, which Aaron handed to police during the search warrant of her home on August five, and phone C which is a nochia. She continued to use after the search. Laura, let's start with Phone A. What did the jury hear about it today?
So we're going to try and step our listeners through all of these phones slowly, so I'm glad we're breaking it down and focusing on each phone individually. So focusing on Phone A. This was a phone that Erin bought in February twenty twenty three, so by the time of the lunch it was about six months old. She confirmed she was using her usual SIM card ending in seven
eighty three in this phone. Today. Doctor Rogers asked her if she was using this SIM card right up until August fourteen, and Erin actually said that she still thinks that simcard is connected to this day. Dr Rogers then put a series of accusations to Erin.
I suggest that you use this phone to research deathcap mushrooms, agree or disagree?
Disagree.
I suggest you also used Phone A to look up I naturalist in twenty twenty three. Agree or disagree, disagree? And I have already put this to you previously, but I just want to make clear that I suggest you saw the post by Tom May on twenty first of May twenty twenty three on this phone. Disagree Phone A. Disagree, And that's how you saw the post by Christine McKenzie that she'd posted on eighteenth of April twenty twenty three.
I didn't see that post.
You didn't use that phone to do that.
I didn't see the post, is what I said.
Phone A was not recovered by police on fifth of August. Agreed.
Agree.
I suggest it's because you deliberately concealed this phone from police. Agree or disagree?
Disagree.
After these questions, doctor Rogers took Erin back to her evidence in chief when she said that Phone A was not cutting it anymore by early August because the screen was damaged. But doctor Rogers suggested to Erin today that there was actually nothing wrong with Phone A at all, and this was another lie. Erin disagreed. She was then shown dozens of pages of phone records that have previously
been shown to the jury. Erin confirmed that on August four, the phone record appeared to suggest that she was continuing to use her SIM card in this phone. Doctor Rogers then took Erin to August five, the day the search warrant was executed at her house. It was at this point that phone C entered the conversation. Doctor Rogers accused Erin of moving her SIM card from phone A into Phone C, that being the Nokia when she was privately calling a lawyer as police searched her house, but Erin
denied this accusation. The jury has previously heard that after the search of Erin's house, she was taken to one Thaggy police station for her record of interview. After that had taken place, Erin was returned home by the police and given a property seizure record. She told the court that when she read this record, she realized that Phone A and Phone C had not been seized by police. Erin had claimed that Phone A was left on a window sill in her loungey untouched by police, but doctor
Rogers suggested that claim was nonsense. Erin disagreed with her, so she said it was at that point that she moved the SIM card from Phone A to Phone C, keeping in mind that she said Phone A was damaged and she wanted to use a new phone.
Thanks Laura for that explanation. Let's now move on to Phone B.
All right, round two. So with Phone B, as you said, Brook, this was the phone that Aaron handed to police at the end of the search before she was taken to
the police station for her record of interview. As I just said, it was during this week that Aaron said she wanted to set up a new phone, but Erin told the jury last week that she not only wanted to switch from Phone A to Phone B because of the damaged screen, but she also wanted to change her phone number after Simon made that accusation that she had
poisoned his parents. The SIM card ending in seven eighty three was her usual phone number, but she said she set up Phone B with another SIM card ending in eight three five. But doctor Rogers suggested to Erin today that the real reason she handed Phone B to police was not because it was the phone she was beginning to use, but because she knew there was no data
on the device. But Erin disagreed, telling the court that since this was the phone she was starting to use, it was the phone she felt she should give the police.
And the factory resets of Phone B were also touched upon, weren't they, Yes, they were, and we have spoken a lot about them previously. But she confirmed again today that she did conduct two factory resets on August five and August six, having previously explained that she panicked during the search and didn't want police to find any photos on this device of mushrooms or her dehydrator. But doctor Rogers suggested Erin factory reset the phone for another reason. Here's what Erin was asked.
I suggest that you did three factory resets of this phone, Phone B after the lunch on twenty ninth of July twenty twenty three.
Agree.
I suggest you did that to conceal the true contents of Phone B. Agree or disagree?
Disagree.
I suggest that you did this so you could then pass off Phone B as your usual mobile phone without police realizing. Agree or disagree?
Disagree.
So to summarize Laura, is it right to say that the prosecution are accusing Aaron of concealing her real phone, Phone A, from police, after using it to research death caps and look up eye naturalists.
Yes, that's their case.
And they're also accusing her of then giving police Phone B because she knew there would be no data on the device. That's right. Great, I'm sure that's not the last time that we will hear about Phone A and Phone B. But now let's move on.
By this stage, doctor Rogers had come to the end of her cross examination and she had those final three questions for Erin we heard at the top of the episode. After the final disagree from Erin, doctor Rogers told the court she had no further questions and she sat back down in her seat.
After a short break, mister Mandy started his re examination of Erin, and.
He started off by asking her about the Enrich Clinic. Erin last week told the court that she had an appointment at this clinic to explore gastric bypass surgery on September thirteenth, twenty twenty three. This week, the jury heard that this clinic does not offer and has never offered, gastric bypass surgery. Erin accepted that that was the case, but today mister Mandy wanted to clarify something with her.
Erin explained that at the time she made the booking in twenty twenty three, she was of the understanding that the Enrich Clinic offered gastric bypass surgery or liposuction. She said that her understanding was they could discuss her needs and what would be the procedure that best suited her. But Erin conceded she must have been mistaken the clinic
offering gastric bypass surgery. The jury was shown a text message that confirmed she did have an appointment on September thirteen at the clinic, but as we previously heard, Aaron canceled that appointment two days earlier.
Mister Mandy then asked Erin why she prepared a six beef Wellington for that lunch on July twenty nine.
Doctor Rogers had previously accused Erin of preparing this beef Wellington for Simon if he turned up to the lunch, but Erin confirmed that after she bought five twin packs of iphillots and put two of those twin packs in the fridge, she decided to use the remaining six stakes for her beef Wellington. She said she had enough ingredients to make six and she thought she could eat the last one another day.
After briefly covering several more topics, mister Mandy announced he had no further questions for Aaron.
Just as Christopher Beale then asked, mister Mandy, does that close your case? And mister Mandy replied, it does your honor. With that, he sat back down and Justice Beale then turned to the jury. He then reiterated to them that they wouldn't be required for a little while because he would be having legal discussions with the prosecution and the
defense before the closing addresses could commence. Justice Bill told them that these discussions would commence this afternoon, so we told them that they could go home.
So the jury won't be coming in tomorrow. But rest assured, we do have a little something for you, but for now. To stay updated on the case, go to the mushroomcook dot com dot au for more