In this case, the prosecution relies on certain alleged conduct by the accused as incriminating conduct, that is, as implied admissions of guilt.
Guilt and innocence were at the heart of Justice Christopher Bill's words today as he continued his charge to the jury in the trial of Aaron Patterson, and for the first time, the jury heard a role call of the incriminating conduct allegedly committed by the accused. It was a short session today, but Justice Bill had a lot to say. I'm Brook Greebert Craig, and this is the mushroom cook.
I'm hearing Morewell with my colleague court reporter Laura Plossella, and we just finished day thirty seven of the trial.
Hey there, Brooke. I don't know if our listeners can hear this, but it has just started bucketing down in Morewell. I don't think we've heard rain this loud the entire time we've been here, but we will solder On.
Yes we will. It's been freezing down here.
I think today just fell shy of being the shortest day the jury have had in the trial. I think more than a month ago we had a day where we only heard forty minutes of evidence, and today the jury only heard around two hours of Justice Bill's charge. That was because the parties had some matters they had to work through this morning, so they were able to enjoy a lunch break and then come in to hear more from Justice Bill.
Yes, and that was around two fifteen today, So Justice Bill spoke to the jury in depth about the topic of incriminating conduct. These are his words, but not his voice.
In other words, prosecution argues that the only reasonable explanation of the conduct alleged is that the accused knew she was guilty of the offenses with which she's charged and engaged in the relevant conduct in an endeavor to conceal her guilt. The defense, on the other hand, argues that there are other reasonable, innocent explanations for the alleged conduct relied on by the prosecution.
Justice Bill then went on to outline what the prosecution claims in the case.
And this is where he made his way through that role call you mentioned at the top of the episode, Brook, and I'll run through it today just like he did. He pretty much put it together as a list. And while the jury have obviously heard evidence around all of these points and The prosecution referred to all of these points in their closing address. This was the first time, at least in my memory, that these points have been
put to the jury one after the other. So again before I launch in, these are all of the allegations of incriminating conduct that the prosecution alleged were committed by Erin after the lunch. So they say she lied about being unwell and was faking deathcat mushroom poisoning. She lied about using dried mushrooms from an Asian grosser. She refused treatment on her first presentation to hospital and discharged herself against medical advice. She was reluctant to accept treatment on
her second presentation to hospital. She was reluctant to obtain treatment for her children. She lied about feeding her children the leftovers of the beef Wellington with the mushrooms and pastry scraped off. She reset Phone B, a phone she handed to police multiple times. She disposed of her dehydrator at the local tip. She provided police phone B instead
of phone A, her usual phone. She lied about her phone number ending in eight three five during her record of interview, and finally she lied about never having foraged for mushrooms and never having owned a dehydrator.
Justice Bill then said that he would summarize the evidence relating to each allegation, and he started with Aaron refusing treatment on her first presentation to hospital and discharging herself against medical advice.
He took them back to the evidence of doctor Chris Webster, doctor Fronica Foot, and nurse Kylie Ashton, among others. After he summarized the evidence, he then moved on to the arguments from the prosecution about this allegation. Here is what he said.
The prosecution argued that the only reasonable explanation for her unwillingness to receive emergency treatment and her discharging herself against medical advice is that she knew she hadn't consumed death cap mushrooms because she had deliberately poisoned her guests with death cap mushrooms, making sure she did not also consume the toxins.
He also took them to the arguments from the defense, and.
In brief, the defense argued that a reasonable explanation for refusing to receive treatment was that she found it difficult to accept that she could have suffered death cap mushroom poisoning she wasn't informed to the full extent of the
medical conditions of the lunch guests. She did not come prepared to be admitted overnight, but she was led to believe it involved transfer to a tertiary hospital, he added, and to assess this all in the context of her having a history of discharging herself against medical advice and second guessing medicos.
Incriminating conduct was the last topic Justice Bihal spoke about today and was only able to make his way through the evidence of one of the eleven allegations. He will return to summarizing the rest tomorrow, but earlier Justice Bill returned to the topic of expert evidence, in particular the testimony of senior digital forensics officer Charman fox Henry from Victoria Police.
And just to remind our listeners, mister fox Henry was one of the officers who examined devices seized from Aaron's home, just.
As he did yesterday with digital forensics expert Matthew Cerell. Justice Beal reminded the jury of his qualifications and how long he had spent at Victoria Police. He told them that mister fox Henry moved across to the cyber crime squad in July twenty three, and did not have any of the qualificationations he now holds when he received the
devices the next month. In a similar fashion to how he dealt with doctor Currel's evidence yesterday, Justice Beale summarized what mister fox Henry said about the cooler Master computer that was seized from Aaron's house, as well as a Samsung tablet and phone B. As part of his summary, Justice Beial also referred to Erin's evidence, where she said it was possible she may have used the cooler Master computer to visit the I Natchalist website on May twenty eight,
twenty twenty two, and how she admitted to factory resetting Phone B in a panic while police were searching her home. Justice Beale then turned to how the jury can use this expert evidence from mister fox Henry. This is what he said.
The issues that his opinions bear upon include whether you can reasonably infer that on twenty eight May twenty twenty two, the accused sought information on the I Naturalist website regarding
the locations of deathcap mushrooms in victorm Arrea. For a second time, whether the accused access to Christine Mackenzie's post on I Naturalist of the Observation of deathcap Mushrooms in Locke Reserve on eighteen April twenty twenty three, whether she sourced death cap mushrooms in Locke on twenty eight April twenty twenty three, whether she accessed doctor May's post on Iron Naturalist of the Observation of deathcap Mushrooms in Nielsen Street,
Outrim on twenty one May twenty twenty three, whether she sourced or attempted to source deathcap mushrooms in Locke on twenty two May twenty twenty three, and whether she sourced or attempted to source deathcap mushrooms in Autrim on twenty two May twenty twenty three, and whether she deliberately and knowingly put death cap mushrooms into the beef. Wellington's served to the lunch guests on twenty nine July.
But he also reminded the jury that there was no evidence in this case of erin seeing the posts by Miss mcken's and doctor May, So.
After just two hours of being in court, the jury was done for the day.
Before they left, Justice Biale told them that he wouldn't be completing his charge tomorrow. He then said, you can live in Hope, which prompted laughs from the jurors.
So we'll be back tomorrow with more of Justice Bill's charge. Thanks brook In the meantime, go to the mushroomcook dot com dot au for more