The Trial: The son's testimony

And then there was the leftover meat from the lunch. Yes, so describe that part of the meal to me.

The meat, it was very soft and it was probably some of the best meat I Eiverver had, actually very easy to cut.

Today, at the end of the second week of the trial of Aaron Patterson, the jury heard from her fourteen year old son. He talked about the leftovers of the lunch, her interest in mushrooms, and her strained relationship with his dad. I'm Brooke Greebert Craig and this is the mushroom cook. Hi, Laura, it's Friday.

We've made it to the end of the second week.

We did have a short day today, so it will definitely be a short episode, but rest assured we'll have a longer subscriber episode on Sunday where we talk about the timeline of the events that we have heard in court so far. So today the jury heard the last ten minutes of Aaron's daughter's testimony. They also heard from Aaron's son. That's what you heard at the start of the episode, and it was his words, but not his voice. So the son's interview was set up in the exact

I'm glad you asked that question because I realized we didn't touch on it yesterday when his sister was giving evidence. We really focused on Aaron's reaction in court in the dock, where she was becoming quite emotional seeing them pop up on the screen. But in terms of what everyone in court could see, it was an interview room in Morewell, but it wasn't cold as you might think an interview room would be. This was clearly a room used for

So In the daughter's testimony, she was questioned in detail by the interviewer about mushrooms. These are her words, but not her voice.

When you cook with mum? Have you ever cooked anything with mushrooms in it? No? Do you like mushrooms eating them?

No?

Have you ever been mushroom picking?

No?

No?

Have you ever seen a mushroom growing out in the wild?

Oh? Wait, I did see some at school once.

So we heard the interviewer ask a lot of different questions about mushrooms, and really Aaron's daughter didn't have a lot to say, but Laura, she did talk about cooking with her mum.

Yeah, that's right. The interviewer asked her whether or not her mother was a good cook, and whether she enjoyed cooking, and the girl answered yes to both of those questions. And she expanded a little bit further and said, we make cupcakes or muffins or brownies.

And then the jury went on to hear Aaron's son's testimony. You know, I think the jury were able to get a greater insight into that family dynamic through the boy's perspective.

And this was especially because his interview went for a lot longer, so the recording of her son went for an hour and forty minutes, and considering he is five years older than his sister, he was able to expand a lot more on his answers.

And for example, he spoke about the relationship between his mum and dad. What can you tell us about that, Laura?

So he spoke about how they stopped living together when he was younger, and to remind our listeners that was in about twenty fifteen that they permanently separated, and he said they weren't great at relating to each other. The interviewer then asked a number of questions about the lead up to the lunch and how their relationship was at that point. These are his words, it's not his voice.

How would you describe your mum and dad's relationship? Probably of recent times.

Before the lunch. It's all just very negative. I know that does a lot of things.

Which I had heard mom, such ads.

Like missing around with the school. Mom didn't put his name on the billing, the billing.

For the school, like the school fees.

Yeah, Dad really wanted to be on that so he could have access all the events.

He went on to say Dad wouldn't.

Talk to mom about that. He would just ring the school and told the school put his name on the billing.

Soon after, in the interview, the boy was asked a few more questions about his relationship with his dad. He explained how he and his sister weren't staying at his dad's house in the twelve months before the lunch. Again, these are his words, it's not his voice.

He kept trying to convinced me to go to his and I told him, I'm sorry, I didn't want to because he never did anything with us over the weekends.

The interviewer then asked about the hours and days after the lunch, and the sun actually confirmed that he wasn't there at the mill.

That's right, But he arrived when the lunch was wrapping up. Everyone was still there, all of the guests, including his grandparents, Don and Gail Patterson, And he said he spoke with his grandfather for a little bit about his flying lessons. Soon after the guest left, and the fourteen year old said he helped clean up the table. He described collecting all the plates and bringing them to the sink.

And in his evidence, what color did he say the plates were.

He said the plates were white and about fifteen centimeters in diameter. The interviewer asked a follow up question and asked him whether or not the plates were all the same, and he said they were so.

After that, what did he do?

So, just to give a little bit more context here, While the lunch was happening at his house, him, his sister, and one of their friends went to the cinemas nearby to go watch the twenty twenty three film Elemental. I believe it's an animated film. After that was done, they came back. That's when he saw everyone there at the home, and then he cleaned up with his mum, and then him and his friends started playing.

Video games like every teens do these days.

Yes, very much so. They described playing for a few hours with their headsets on. They were very locked in, and then it got later in the evening, maybe around five six o'clock, and it was time for his friend.

To go home.

He explained to the jury that he went upstairs to go see his mum to ask if she could give his friend a lift back home, and he described in that moment she was building lego.

Interesting. What else did he say?

He then started speaking about the next day. He remembers waking up and walking into the kitchen and seeing his mom drinking a coffee, but she said to him that she was feeling quite sick and had been experiencing some diarrhea. The boy's sister gave the same evidence yesterday and said that because their mum was feeling sick, they didn't go to.

Church that day, and then that night the kids ate leftovers of that meal that the guests ate On July twenty nine.

He was asked by the interviewer what they ate, and he said it was potatoes, beans, and the leftover meat from the lunch. That's what you heard at the top

It was just a very fond memory in my head. We were talking about how mushrooms grow, how they grew with the trees and they support each other.

And that was the end of Aaron's Sons evidence. So we're all wrapped up for week two.

We'll be back next week to do it all again.

Thanks Laura. Enjoy your weekend and don't forget that we have a subscriber episode with our colleague Anthony Dowsley that will be released on Sunday morning and details on how to get it will be in the description of this episode. Thanks for listening. This has been a worlds on production for True Crime Australia. The show is reported and presented by me Brook, Greebert Craig and Laura Placella. Reporting and presenting for our weekend subscriber only shows by Anthony Dowsley.