Before she found herself at the center of her own murder trial, Aaron Patterson joined an online group to discuss another high profile okase, Kelly Lane. After Kelly Lane was Kelly Lane found Kelly Lane's killing. Overtime, she formed friendships with some of the women in the group. Talking about the case of Kelly Lane, she also discussed other things.
I've been hiding powdered mushrooms in everything, mixed it into chocolate brownies yesterday. The kids had no idea so fun fact the dehydrator reduces mushroom mass by ninety percent. Do you think woolies would mind if I brought the dehydrator into their vegetable section and dry things before I buy them.
Some of the conversations she had in that group were laid out in court in the first day of the second week of her murder trial. I'm Brook Crebert Craig, and this is the mushroom Cork. I'm joined once again by my colleague, court reporter Laura Placella. Laura, let's put in some contacts around what we just heard.
Yes, and can I say it's great to be back with you, Brook. We had a nice relaxing weekend and we're ready to jump back into the evidence. So what our listeners heard earlier was a voice actor reading some messages that Aaron wrote in a Facebook group chat with a number of women she met years earlier, but she met these women online. She came to know them through
a Facebook group about the Kelly Laane case. This was a large group at the time, it had a few thousand people in it, but over time these women formed a smaller group that they used to start talking about their lives. They spoke about the news, politics and really leaned on each other, especially during the pandemic.
We heard in court today that it was essentially a place for the women to vent to each other.
That's correct, and three women gave evidence today in court. Their names were Christine Hunt, Daniella Barclay, and Jenny Hay. These women were all in that smaller group chat we were referred to where Erin was a member herself, and they started to recall some of the conversations they remember Aaron having.
And the jury heard today that one of the witnesses, Daniella, said that Aaron loved mushrooms and she posted photos of mushrooms in this group, and she also posted photos of a dehydrader.
And the jury were actually shown some of these photos. They were screenshots provided by Daniella, and they were put up on the screen and in one of the photos you can see the dehydrader. It has six trays and on every one of those trays you can see dozens of sliced mushrooms. We also heard from another witness, Jenny,
who we mentioned earlier. She said that she remembers Aarin mentioning the fact she was making mushroom soup and she was blitzing these mushrooms to make powder to put into food items for her children because they didn't like mushrooms.
Now, we also heard that Aaron used different Facebook name like Aaron Pattison, Aaron Aaron, and Aaron Aaron Aaron while she was communicating to these online friends.
That's correct, and all of these friends mentioned that at some point in July twenty twenty three, when they were discussing things relating to cooking, Aaron mentioned that she wanted to make a beef Wellington. One of the witnesses, Daniella, actually joked that when Aaron asked the group chat how to make this meal, she said she didn't know because she was a vegetarian herself. She said that she'd maybe make a tofu Wellington, and everyone in that group chat
joked that that must taste awful. One of the other witnesses, Christine, she said she had made a beef Wellington before and gave Erin some advice about how to go about preparing that meal.
Now. Christine also said in court that Aaron was well regarded. She was a really good researcher, and she was well known to be able to get information. And this kind of goes back to how these women all met. They met while discussing the Kellie Lane case and true crime more broadly, and if there was anyone in the group chat who had a question about something, Aaron was seen as someone who would be able to go search for that information and come back with an answer.
Now.
Christine also said that Aaron spoke about her relationship with Simon Patterson in these online Facebook.
Groups, and just to remind everyone, Simon is Erin's estranged husband. Erin has been accused of murdering Simon's parents, Don and Gail Patterson, as well as Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson, and attempting to murder Heather's husband, Ian Wilkinson.
Christine said that Aaron said Simon was coercive and controlling. She also said that the family, as in Simon's family, was very demanding.
She said she was challenged by their demands, particularly around the kids attending a faith based school. Christine also expanded on this topic of religion, telling the jury that she believed Erin was two sided when it came to her religious beliefs. Week we heard in court that Aaron was an atheist before she met Simon, and then in Simon's evidence, he speaks of Erin attending church with him in the early two thousands and having an epiphany of sorts and
becoming religious after that. But according to Christine, Erin was only going to church because of Simon's family. She was saying in that group chat that they were all a part of that She didn't necessarily believe in God, and Christine said that Erin described herself as an atheist.
Witness Daniella also said that Aaron said Simon wasn't a very nice person. She told the jury that Aaron wasn't happy with his cleanliness and she didn't want the kids to sleep over at Simon's house because she wasn't happy with the way that he lived. Laura, this might be the right time that we start talking about Simon's evidence.
Yes, as our listeners might remember, Simon didn't finish giving evidence on Friday to return to the witness box today to complete his testimony.
Now, the court was told last week that Simon said Aaron sent extremely aggressive messages. We got more detail about that today, didn't we, Laura.
We did. Lead Prosecutor Nnette Rodgers asked Simon to describe the message he was referring to. This comes after a previous exchange with the defense barrister mister Mandy, where mister Mandy walked Simon through a whole host of messages, But Simon told the court that these weren't the ones he was referring to. He said that the ones that stuck in his mind as being extremely aggressive or inflammatory were
ones Aaron sent in early twenty twenty three. She sent these in that signal family group chat we were talking about, But it was around the time that Simon's mum, Gail, was sick with encephalitis and was feeling quite anxious. Simon said that his mother wasn't going to read any messages in the group chat from Aaron at the time to
give a little bit more contact. Simon said that him and Aaron were having a private conversation at the time, where Simon was telling Erin that their son had been very sleepy and quite exhausted whenever he was spending time with him. He messaged Erin about this again privately, but in response, Aaron went to the family group chat and, in Simon's words, started having a crack at him. He then said this to the court, it's his words, it's not his voice.
If Mum had read that, I don't know what that would have done to her.
He went on to say, it was.
Having a crack at me and accusing me of some things.
That's not the bit I objected to.
It was the fact that she'd said it, especially to Mum, knowing Mum's condition and what it can do to mum.
The court then heard that a few weeks later, things seemed to have smooved over. On December eighteen, Aaron sent a message to Simon saying we don't really have the kind of a relationship right now where I can ask for favors, but I don't have anywhere else to turn She went on to say that neighbors had caught her saying a tree had come down across a fence before asking Simon if he could help remove it.
In response, Simon said, hey, there, I'm always your husband no matter how we're doing, so no probs with you asking. I'd be up for it, but I'm in Brisbane, so I can't today. Sorry, I'll be back tomorrow if it can wait for them.
Aaron then replied and said that's very kind. I hope you enjoy your time in Brisbane. I'll let you know tomorrow if I still need help. Much appreciated.
After taking Simon to this exchange, mister Mandy asked whether this exchange proved that his earlier arguments with Erin about school fees and child support had abated by this time, but Simon said they had not, and he was very firm about that. And so after three days of evidence, Simon was done in the witness box. He was excused by the judge and will no longer need to give evidence in this trial.
So it was another busy day in court. Laura for sure, well tomorrow or we'll hear from another key witness. To stay updated with all our latest coverage, go to The mushroomcook dot com, dot au