Donna Demaio: Australia Correspondent on the Erin Patterson trial and verdict

Australia's mushroom murder trial is set to go down in the history books. 

Erin Patterson was found guilty of murdering her estranged husband's parents and aunt and attempting to kill his uncle with a beef wellington with death cap mushrooms in it. 

Newstalk ZB's Donna Demaio is in Victoria, following developments. 

She told Andrew Dickens hundreds of people have been descending on the small town of Morwell for the trial. 

Demaio says people took time off work and arrived early each morning for a chance to be in court. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Oh Well talked about it. The mushroom trial in Australia,
mushroom cook Aaron Patterson has been found guilty on all
charges in her murder trial. The jury took a week
to come to a decision, but found her ultimately guilty
of the murder of her in laws, Gail and Donald
Patterson and Heather Wilkinson. The dinner's guest's blood was coursing

(00:20):
with amatoxin, are deadly poison produced by the death cap
mushrooms nine to sprout under oak trees of Victoria. So Don, Gale,
and Heather died of organ failure, all within a week.
Now for more on this, we've got Donna Tomay on
the LAN. Good morning to your.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Donna, Good morning to you.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
People said that jury took quite a long time, a
whole week. What was that.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
About, Well, there a lot to take as long as
they want. So it was about a week of deliberations
for the jury, seven men and five women, and they
ultimately found the fifty year old guilty of murdering the
in laws that you just mentioned here, Donal and Gale
Patterson and Heather Wilkinson. Heather was Gail's sister, younger sister

(01:02):
so Don Gale, aged seventy head a sixty six years
old and had his husband in Wilkinson was the sole
survivor of that that lunch. He was not in court
on the day of the verdict when it was delivered yesterday.
We know that Simon Patterson, the estranged husband of Aaron,

(01:25):
was invited to that lunch, you might recall, but he
canceled the night before because he said he had felt
uncomfortable yes about about attending. So there you go. Take
take that with interest. But you know, each day, for
more than two months, every seat at that tiny courthouse

(01:49):
more wells La Trow Valley law courts in regional Touria
were filled. And we heard that some people were so
fascinated by this case that, you know, the general public
were telling stories that you know, so they gave up
work and they would get there super early to sit
in on in court and watch this unfold, watch this

(02:09):
trial unfold.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
Look it's the same here. Don't worry. Everybody's fascinated here,
and of course the passions are high. So the people
that thought she was guilty thought she was guilty and
thought it would only take everybody twenty minutes to come
up with the decision. That's why one week was quite interesting.
What can we expect for sentencing, Well.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
The sentencing data is yet to be determined. But ultimately
Aaron Patterson's legal team can appeal. There's a lodge appeal
can be lodged, and I should say she has twenty
eight days to begin the process of lodging an appeal
according to the Supreme Court of Australia, So her legal
team can consider that either to appeal the guilty verdict itself,

(02:49):
the sentence which we don't know what it is yet,
or both. Now the grounds for appeal you might be interested.
The most common ground is that the verdict was unsatisfactory
or unreasonable and the Court of appeal might find that
it just wasn't sufficient to justify a conviction. So interesting
that you might note also that no motion was ever

(03:11):
provided to the court. I found that fascinating. But the
prosecutors described Erin Paterson as a duplicitous liar who prepared
a meal with murderous intent. He showed no emotion when
the guilty verdict was handed down. By the way, that
was a.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
Very good sentence to prisitus liar who showed murderous Intent
Donna Tomorrow. For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge,
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