In terms of the meal that you cooked for the lunch which is the subject of this trial. Yes, do you accept that there must have been deathcap mushrooms in that meal?
Yes?
I do. And speaking globally, do you remember where the mushrooms that went into that meal came from? So all of the mushrooms that went into.
The meal, right, So the vast majority came from the local Wilworth's in Leongatha. Yes, and there were some from the grocer in Melbourne.
That was actors voicing the words of defense barrister Colin Mandy and his client, accused murderer Aaron Patterson. It was the first time she was asked about the beef Wellington meal at the center of this trial, the first time she said there must have been deathcap mushrooms in it. Her responses formed part of her day long testimony. Today, testimony will break down this episode. I'm Brooke Greebert Cray
and this is the Mushroom cook. It's day twenty five of Aaron Patterson's murder trial, and I'm here with court reporter Laura Plassella. It was another big day in court, wasn't it.
Yes, Erin took the stand for the entire day, she was wearing a different outfit than she was yesterday. She was in a navy blouse with white polka dots on it, but she still had her hair out, and today she brought her glasses with her.
In yesterday's episode, we wanted our listeners to hear Erin in her own words as she gave evidence for the first time, but in today's episode will be providing more contexts around the topics.
That she was asked about yes At the top of the episode, our listener's heard in exchange between mister Mandy and Aaron today where she was specifically asked about the lunch on July twenty nine, and this was actually the first time she has been asked in court by mister Mandy about this lunch. It hasn't been touched on before, and she admitted in her response that there must have been death caps in that meal. Now it has been
a few episodes since we've mentioned the defense case. Just as a reminder, Erin has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. She says what happened at that lunch was a tragedy and a terrible accident.
Erin was also asked about her love of mushrooms and she said she discussed fungi with her Facebook friends, who have given evidence already in this trial.
Erin explained to the jury today how much she loves mushrooms of all different varieties. She explained how she would buy mushrooms from the local woolies near where she lived, as well as farmers' markets and Asian grocers whenever she came to Melbourne. These grocers were located around one of her properties in Mount Waverley, namely in suburbs such as Oakley, Clayton and Glen Waverley, and she said that she would visit these stores when she was staying in Melbourne with
her children during the school holidays. The court heard that some of the mushrooms she brought from these doors included shataki, enochi or porscini mushrooms, and she said she would use them in a variety of dishes such as curries, pasta dishes and soup. When asked today by mister Mandy what she liked about exotic mushrooms, she said, they just taste more interesting, they have more flavor.
Aaron told the jury that she developed an interest in wild mushrooms in early twenty twenty during COVID lockdowns in Victoria. Aaron said she spotted mushrooms growing in the paddocks at one of her properties at Shelcott Road in karram Burra, and this is where she had animals. I think it's important to note to our listeners that over eleven years Aaron owned six properties. She owned four in karram Burrough and that included in Nason Street Anthony Court, and she
had two properties on Shelcott Road. She had another property in Mount Waverley at Lion Street which we mentioned earlier. And finally she had another property at Gibson Street in Lean Gathera and that's where the lunch took place. On July twenty nine, twenty twenty three.
Erin told the court that it took a while for her to confidently identify the mushrooms she was spotting. She said she relied on a Facebook group for mushroom lovers, where people could post the mushrooms they were seeing in the wild and ask other people to help identify them. After she said her knowledge increased, she began regularly picking mushrooms and cooking them. Minmeals, including those she served her children. She told the court she would chop the mushrooms up
very small so her children couldn't pick them out. She told the court the mushrooms they were eating tasted good and she didn't get sick.
Mister Mandy also asked Aaron questions about her purchasing a dehydrator in April twenty twenty three. The jury previously heard that Aaron dumped this dehydrator at Kunwara Tip and police seized it. Asked why she bought the dehydrator, Aaron said, I liked eating wild mushrooms, but it's a very small season. You can't keep them too long in the fridge, so it was one way of sort of preserving them and
having them available later on throughout the year. But it wasn't just for mushrooms, so I thought perhaps I could use it to preserve a whole range of things.
Between twenty twenty and twenty twenty three, Erin said she foraged for mushrooms from a whole range of locations around where she lived in Leengatha and carr And Borough. This also included picking mushrooms on some of the properties she owned. Mister Mandy asked her today whether she ever foraged for mushrooms under oak trees, and she said she did not. Photos were shown to Erin today that have been previously
shown to the jury. She confirmed these were photos she had taken that had been extracted from devices seized from her home. In the photos, the jury could see trays from the dehydrader and on them there were slices of dried mushrooms. She explained that she was doing some experimenting with the de high and wanted to see how long it would take to dry out fungi and what temperature the dehydrata needed to be.
Said to so Laura.
At the start of the episode, our listeners would have heard an exchange between mister Mandy and Aaron. Can you talk more about where Aaron said the mushrooms in the beef Wellington were from?
As we've heard previously, Aaron said that the mushrooms in the Beef Wellington came from a Woolworth's and Leandngatha and an Asian grocer in Melbourne. She told the court today that she wasn't quite clear exactly where she bought them, but she remembered buying them in April, bringing the product
home and realizing they smelled very pungent. She didn't think a mushroom with that smell would work well in the dish she was making at the time, so she put them in a container and then placed that container in
her pantry. She told the court that that container with the dried mushrooms from the Asian grocer was in her pantry around the time she was dehydrating wild mushrooms in May and June, and she went on to say that she remembered putting dehydrated wild mushrooms into a container that already held other dried mushrooms.
Okay, let's move on from mushrooms, and let's talk about another topic that Aaron was asked questions about, that being child support.
The jury has previously heard evidence that Aaron and Simon permanently separated in twenty fifteen, but had remained friends until around October twenty twenty two. This was when a dispute arose about child support after Aaron had found out that Simon changed the marital status on his tax return to single.
Erin told the court that she was annoyed that Simon had not told her that he was making this change on her tax return, and if he had told her earlier, she would have been able to make an application for a family tax benefit.
Erin spoke to her friends about the child support issue in a Facebook group chat. She became emotional today when answering questions about those messages that she sent. When speaking, Erin and wiped her eyes with her hand and grabbed a tissue. She went on to say that she had been part of this chat since January twenty twenty.
The messages that Erin was being asked about today were sent in December twenty twenty two, and they are about Don's response to the issue. Don being Simon's father. The jury were once again shown these messages in court. Here is the first one.
So Don said, they can't adjudicate if they don't know both sides, and Simon won't give his side, so he said, all he can ask is that Simon and I get together and pray for the children this family. I swear to fucking God.
Erin told the court today that she sent this message to her Facebook friends because she felt hurt, frustrated, and a little bit desperate. Here's more of what she said today.
I knew that the women would probably support me. Being annoyed about those things, and so I sent them to them knowing they would probably latch on and become like a cheer squad for your problems. Does that make sense? She then went on to say, I wish I never said that. I feel very feel ashamed for saying it, and I wish the families didn't have to hear that I said that they didn't deserve it.
Mister Mandy then asked Aaron questions about this message she sent her online friends.
I'm sick of this shit. I want nothing to do with them. I thought his parents would want him to do the right thing, but it seems they're concern about not wanting to feel uncomfortable and not wanting to get involved in their son's personal matters. Are overwriting that?
So fulcom Aaron told the court she regretted the language that she used. Here's more of what she said.
I needed to vent. I needed to get the frustration off my chest, and the choices are go into the paddock and tell the sheep or vent to these women. I regret the language that I used, but I knew that they would rally around me. I probably played up the emotion to get that support.
In court today. Aaron went on to say that she didn't mean those things.
I was really frustrated with Simon, but it wasn't done Gale's fault, it wasn't the family's fault, and it wasn't even entirely Simon's fault. I played a part in the issue too.
Ultimately, Aaron said it was wrong to try and involve Don and Gail and she should have approached it differently with Simon. Let's move on to another topic. Yesterday. Aaron spoke about her low self esteem in July twenty twenty three, but today mister Mandy asked her more about her relationship with food.
She explained that she has struggled with body image issues ever since she was a teenager. She said she tried every diet under the sun, and also battled Bolimia. This is what she said today. I mean, it's been a rollercoaster over the years. When I was a kid, Mum would weigh us every week to make sure we weren't putting on too much weight, and so I went to the extreme of barely eating then and through my adult
years going the other way binging. I suppose, for lack of a better word, I had never had a good relationship with food, a healthy relationship with food.
Erin and mister Mandy also had an exchange about her health, in particular about cancer. In week one of the trial. When Simon gave his evidence, he said Aaron had invited him, along with Don, Gail Ian and Heather to lunch as she wanted to discuss some important medical issues. According to Ian, Aaron told her guests she had cancer and described it as life threatening.
However, the defense have conceded since the beginning of the trial that Erin was never diagnosed with cancer, but have suggested that Erin only told the lunch guests that she had a suspected diagnosis of cancer. Here's her exchange with mister Mandy today.
I want to ask you some questions now about your health over the years. The first question is, have you ever been diagnosed with ovarian cancer?
I have not.
Have you ever had a needle biopsy on a lump on your elbow?
I've never had a needle biopsy anywhere.
Were you worried about having ovarian cancer at any stage?
Yeah, I was. I was quite worried about it at certain times.
And the jury has seen some medical records from the end of twenty twenty one. Exhibit are yeap where you went to the doctor and complained and suggested to the doctor that you might have of a cancer. Is that right? Yeah?
I did do that.
What were your symptoms? What was going on?
I'd been having for a few months by then, a multitude of symptoms. I felt very fatigued. I had ongoing abdominal pain, I had chronic headaches. I put on a lot of weight in quite a short period of time, and had like my feet and my hands seemed to
retain a lot of fluid. And what set me over the edge to actually go to the doctor was my wedding ring suddenly wouldn't fit, and so I took them to the local jeweler to be resized, and only a few weeks later when I picked them up, they, like my hands had outgrown them again and I so this was like a rapid thing that caused me concern.
Now the notes indicate this Aaron Worries ovarian cancer has been googling her symptoms.
That's right, yep?
Is that what you had been doing?
I had, yep. I consulted doctor Google.
Were there any other reasons about from your own symptoms where you thought you might have avarian cancer.
Yeah, there were a few. I had a family history of it on both sides of my parents. I'd had an overian cyst myself in about two thousand and two, and my daughter had an ovarian mass when she was a baby. Erin went on to say that her daughter's experience in hospital damaged her faith in the medical system, especially since they dismissed her concern about her daughter's ovarian mass.
Erin also said she suffered chronic headaches and started googling her symptoms, convincing herself that she had a brain tumor or a brain disease.
To finish off, Laura, let's talk about the long queue that was outside La Troe Valley Law Courts today. I believe some people were lining up at six am.
News broke very late yesterday that Erin would be taking the stand in her own trial, so there wasn't much time for members of the public to get down to the courthouse in Morwell to hopefully snag a seat. But today people were very much prepared. Like you said, Brooke, they were arriving very early to get their spot in the queue.
Yes, I think by eight am there were about twenty people in the line, and the doors to the courthouse don't actually open until nine am.
Not everyone got a seat at the beginning of the trial, which kicks off at ten thirty every day, but we will say that the staff at the courthouse in Morwell have been doing a great job of making sure everything's been running smoothly considering that more people than usual are coming through the building.
Yes, we definitely have to give a shout out to the security guards. They do an awesome job. And I think that's all for today, so we will be back tomorrow as Aaron Pattison takes the stand for a third day.