I suggest you weren't very very helpful to the department at all.
I was trying to be that was untrue, incorrect.
In fact, you sent them on a wild goose chase trying to locate this Asian grocer correct or incorrect, incorrect.
Accused mushroom cook killer Aaron Pattison face Crown Prosecutor Nannette Rodgers in the witness box again today. Virtually every claim that Aaron made about the mushrooms at the center of this case was put under the microscope, from her evidence that she was a forager, to a story about dried mushrooms from an Asian grocer, to the phone records that suggested she traveled to locations where death caps had been sighted. The exchanges between the two came in thick and fast,
and will break them all down today. I'm Brooke Greebert Craig, and this is the mushroom cook. We've reached day thirty of Aaron Patterson's murder trial, and as always I'm joy by my colleague court reporter Laura Ploseller.
Today almost feels like a milestone day thirty and it was also Erin's seventh day in the witness box, so She's had three days so far of evidence in chief and this was her fourth day of cross examination.
As I mentioned in the intro, there was a lot of questions around mushrooms today, so let's get into it and start with the topic of foraging. The prosecution accused Erin of not having an interest in it.
Erin denied that she lied about having an interest in foraging. To explain how wild mushrooms ended up in her beef Wellington meal last week, Erin told the jury that she started foraging for mushrooms around twenty twenty during the COVID lockdowns, and spoke about becoming more confident when foraging after doing some research and getting to a point where she felt like she could eat some of the mushrooms she had picked.
But today doctor Rogers suggested that Erin did not have this interest in foraging, and brought her to the book located by police during the search at her house on August five and later cataloged. She said police found more than four hundred books, and Aaron agreed today that probably none of those books were on foraging. She did add, though, that at the time of the search she had hundreds more books in her garage that she was yet to unpack after moving.
Doctor Rodgers then took Erin to the evidence of her children, who told investigators that they did not recall picking mushrooms with their mum.
Erin was taken today to the pre recorded evidence of her children where they were asked these specific questions around foraging. Doctor Rogers then suggested to Erin that her children never knew her to pick wild mushrooms, but Erin disagreed. After that, doctor Rogers went on to say, this is a story you have made up for this jury. Agree or disagree. Erin disagreed with that statement.
Moving on now, Doctor Rodgers suggested to Erin that she traveled to Locke on April twenty eight, eight, twenty twenty three, and lock An Outram on May twenty two, and this was to find deathcap mushrooms after they were cited on citizen website I naturalist.
Doctor Rogers was relying on the evidence of digital forensics expert Dr Matthew Cerell to make these suggestions. Earlier in the trial, doctor Cerell told the court that he examined Erin's phone records and concluded that she made possible visits to these areas on those dates.
Let's start with the possible visit to lock. On April twenty eight.
Doctor Rogers suggested to Erin that she traveled to Locke from Lee and Gatha on this day after she saw an ironaturalist post by Christine McKenzie on April eighteen, ten days earlier that said there were deathcap mushrooms growing in a reserve in Locke. This was not the only suggestion Doctor Rogers made to Erin. Here's their exchange today. It's their words, but not their voices.
I suggest you drove to Locke from your house at Leongatha to specifically find death cap mushrooms on the twenty eighth of April. Disagree, and I suggest that you found some Agree or disagree? Disagree, And I suggest that within two hours of finding those death cap mushrooms you drove to the Hartley Wells Better Home Living in Leongatha and bought yourself a dehydrator at twelve seventeen PM.
I did buy that that day, yes.
And the purpose of buying the dehydrator was to dehydrate death cap mushrooms. Agree or disagree?
Disagree.
Doctor Rogers then suggested that on April thirty, two days after traveling to Locke that Erin practiced by dehydrating button mushrooms from Woolworth's. The jury was shown a photo extracted from Erin's tablet that showed button mushrooms on a dehydrated tray, before another photo was shown of yellow tinged mushrooms on a similar tray. Doctor Rogers claimed that rain was practicing so she would not waste the death caps she had
just found, since she wanted to preserve them. She went on to suggest that the yellow tinged mushrooms were the death caps themselves, but Erin denied that she was practicing, saying she dehydrated the button mushrooms to simply eat them. Erin was then asked about another possible visit her phone
made to lock on May twenty two. Doctor Rogers put to Erin that she went back to this reserve because she thought there might have been more deathcap mushrooms growing at the location that Miss Mackenzie had previously geotagged.
Erin was then taken to doctor Sorel's evidence about another possible visit her phone made on May twenty two, but this time to Outram. This was one day after an i naturalist post by doctor Tom May, where he reported seeing death cap mushrooms growing in the area.
I suggest that you traveled from lean Gather to Outrim on twenty sive second of May twenty twenty three.
No, I didn't.
I suggest you went to Nielsen Street in Outram correct or incorrect incorrect. I suggest that you had read Dr Tom May's post dated twenty first of May twenty three of his sighting of deathcap mushrooms in Nielsen Street, Outram on the Eye Naturalist website. Agree or disagree?
Disagree.
I suggest that you went to Nielsen Street in Outrim looking for the death cap mushrooms as posted by Dr Tom May. Agree or disagree, disagree, and that's why your phone was I suggest stationary between approximately eleven twenty four am and eleven forty one am.
Disagree.
Do you agree that you had no legitimate reason to travel to Outram on twenty second of May twenty twenty three.
No, I don't agree with that.
On another topic, let's talk about the Asian grosser. The jury has previously heard that Aaron told officials that she had used mushrooms from Wolworths and dried mushrooms from an Asian groser in the beef Wellington dish, but doctor Rodgers suggested to Erin that she never bought mushrooms from an Asian grocer in April twenty twenty three and did not use them in the mill. Aaron denied both of these claims.
She spoke today about not having a distinct memory of the purchase, but remembered buying them in April around the school holidays. She then went on to say that she dehydrated these dried mushrooms at some stage because they appeared rubbery and she wanted to make them crispier.
Doctor Rogers then suggested to Aarin that she was deliberately vague when she was asked by officials about the suburb of the Asian grocer. She said Aaron was familiar with Mount Waverley and the adjoining areas such as glem Waverley, Oakley and Clayton. This was because Aaron owned a property in Mount Waverley and previously worked for the Monash City Council.
I suggest you're very familiar with Mount Waverley correct or incorrect, incorrec I suggest that you're also familiar with the adjoining areas, which include Glen Waverley, Oakley, and Clayton correct or incorrect.
I'm familiar with them, yes.
And yet you're unable to tell any person with any degree of certainty where it was that you purchased these dried mushrooms.
That's correct.
In fact, I suggest that you were deliberately vague about the suburb when you were asked about it. Correct or incorrect, incorrect. Your story kept changing, I suggest I don't think it did. Your description of the packaging kept changing. I suggest I don't think it did. And that's because the Asian grosser story was a deliberate lie. Correct incorrect.
Doctor Rogers then took Erin to a record of interview where she told detectives that she had been very helpful during the Department of Health's investigation. But doctor Rogers suggested to Erin today that she had not been very helpful. Our listener's heard part of this exchange at the top of the episode, but here's more of what was said.
In fact, you you sent them on a wild goose chase trying to locate this Asian grosser correct or incorrect, incorrect. Initially you were not very responsive to the Department of Health. I think that's been your evidence.
No, it's not my evidence. The first time she rang me, I answered and spoke to her for fifteen minutes.
The first on first of August twenty twenty three at eight thirty three am.
Correct.
But then you didn't respond to some of the other texts correct.
Correct. And I think we have established why that was already.
And I suggest that the reason that you didn't answer some of those texts from her was because you didn't want to be pressed for details about the Asian grosers. Incorrect, because that story was not true.
Incorrect.
It was a lie that you used dried mushrooms from an Asian grosser correct or incorrect.
Incorrect.
You lied about the source of the death cat mushrooms because you knew you were guilty of having deliberately poisoned your four lunch guests.
Incorrect.
Okay, let's move on. Aaron was asked about the beef Wellington recipe she followed in a best selling recipe Tin Eats cookbook. The recipe called for seven hundred grams of sliced mushrooms.
Erin was then taken to a Woolworth's transaction history that indicated that she bought a kilo of sliced mushrooms on July twenty three, and another seven hundred and fifty grams on July twenty seven, two days before the lunch. Erin disagreed that by July twenty nine she had all of these mushrooms still in her kitchen. She said only seven hundred and fifty grams remained. Doctor Rogers asked her where the other kilo of mushrooms went, and Erin replied, I
ate them. She then suggested to Erin that she had no need to use any additional mushrooms outside those she had bought from Woolworths, considering she had more than the recipe required. But Erin last week told the court that she added the mushrooms into the paste that would be used to cover the meat because she said it tasted a little bland. She told the court that she grabbed the dried mushrooms from the Asian grosser from her pan
that she had put in a container. She explained that she chopped them up and then sprinkled them over the mushroom paste. At the time, she said she only believed the dried mushrooms were in that container, But she told the jury last week that in the days after the lunch, she started to think there was a possibility there were foraged mushrooms in that container as well. Erin had previously described the dried mushrooms as pungent, but she disputed today
that they were too overpowering for the beef wellington. She said, I thought it was the perfect dish for them.
Doctor Rogers also took Erin to her testimony that her children ate leftovers of the beef wellington for dinner on July thirty, and this is the day after the lunch Aaron told the jury last week she prepared a six beef wellington, which she said she gave to her children after scraping off the mushrooms and pastry and leaving the steak.
Doctor Rogers then suggested to Erin that she lied about her children eating the steak of the six beef wellington.
I suggest that you told well over a dozen people, including your son and daughter, health professionals, child protection workers, police, and a friend, that you had fed your children the same meal that you had served at lunch on twenty ninth of July twenty twenty three.
Oh, I was pretty clear it was the meal minus the mushrooms and pastry, so not the same. But yes, But.
Isn't it the fact that on Sunday, the thirtieth of July you found out at least Don and Gail were unwell.
Yes, I did find out about that.
So why did you proceed to feed the same meal to your children when you knew or suspected that the meal that you'd served had made them ill?
I didn't. I don't know or suspect that.
Your son gave evidence in his recorded interview that you told him that Gail and Don were not well. Do you remember that evidence?
I do.
You told that to your son.
I'm sure I did on Sunday night. I don't know when on the Sunday or I don't know when I told him that, but I did tell him.
Doctor Rogers had more questions for or they accused about the leftovers.
You repeatedly told police you had scraped the mushrooms off in an attempt to explain why the children were not sick. Agree or disagree.
I don't think I've repeatedly told them, but I did tell them.
You told a number of people you had scraped the mushrooms off, correct, correct, And I suggest that was an attempt to explain why your children were not sick. No, you told the lie about feeding leftovers from the beef Wellington to your children. I suggest because it gave you some distance from a deliberate poisoning.
I don't see how it could, but I disagree anyway.
Finally, the topic moved away from mushrooms and to the issue of Erin's gastric bypass surgery. What did the jury hear about that today?
Laura Erin previously testified that she had a pre surgery appointment at the Enridge Clinic in Melbourne on September thirteen, twenty twenty three, but yesterday the jury heard that the clinic specializes in cosmetic dermatology and doesn't offer gastric bypass surge. Doctor Rogers peppered Errand with questions after she was provided with a record from the clinic.
Firstly, do you accept that the Enriched Clinic does not offer, and has never offered, gastric bypass surgery?
Yes?
Secondly, do you accept that the Enriched Clinic does not offer, and has never offered pre surgery assessments relating to gastric bypass surgery?
I do.
And Thirdly, do you accept that the Enriched Clinic only conducts examinations and procedures relating to the skin and its appendages such as hair and nails.
I do to finish off, It's safe to say the jury got their steps in today, didn't they, Laura.
Yeah, they really did. This afternoon when doctor Rogers was continuing her cross examination, there were certain questions that got asked that led to objections by defense barrister mister Mandy. The jury have become accustomed to this idea of once an objection is raised, there might need to be a discussion in their absence between the parties and Justice Christopher Beale,
and that happened quite a few times today. So they were in and out of the courtroom a few times, and I think on one occasion they'd only been in their seats for about a minute or two before they were asked to leave again, which did prompt some laughs from the courtroom.
Yes it did. And Aaron will be back in the witness box tomorrow, so stay tuned for our episode then, but for now, go to the mushroomcook dot com dot au to stay updated on the case.