Murray Olds: Australian correspondent on Erin Patterson giving additional evidence in murder trial

Triple murder accused and mushroom cook Erin Patterson continued to give her evidence in an Australian court today. 

Three family members of Patterson's estranged husband died after eating the lunch she prepared at her Victoria home in 2023.

Australian correspondent Murray Olds says Patterson opened up about her issues during today's trial - and she explained that she hoped to get closer to her in-laws.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And finally, thirteen year old Faizan Zaki is this year's
Champion of the Script selling b in the US. Here
is how it went.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Your word is a clar cy small, A clary small
E C L A I R C I S S
E M E and T if its.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Not that is correct? How cute knew he got there? Yeah,
it means a clearing up of something obscure, enlightenment.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
International correspondence with ends and eye insurance, peace of mind
for New Zealand business. Sorry, what was the word that
he said? Then?

Speaker 1 (00:42):
Clarionism?

Speaker 3 (00:44):
Not very good? Never mind, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Look, I'm not even going to try. I don't even care.
Murray Old's Australian correspondent with US muz, Hello.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
Don't even ask me, mate. That a very good afternoon
and no idea at all that thirteen.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Year old can have that one? Hey erin, did Aaron
convince you?

Speaker 3 (01:02):
Well? It's early days yet she's still got some time
to spend in the witness box and look to be fair.
All along she's come across as a woman who's who
was not without issues, who was not without you know,
concerns for everybody who is aware of this trial it
seems like half the world is That meant she's got

(01:23):
what appears to be significant, significant personal issues, and look,
she shared some of those in the witness box. You know,
she has has told us that, you know, she invited
her I suppose estranged in laws is probably the correct phrase,
but because she had you know, she and her husband
were not living together. But having said that, like many

(01:48):
couples who split, they still you know, they get on
well with the ex in laws, and that this was
the case in Thearon Patters's family. And that's what she
had the lunch for. She wanted, she said, to share
a cancer diagnosis with them. She wanted to get back
a bit closer to her in laws. That's why she
invited them around for that lunch. That fatal lunch. I mean,

(02:08):
three people died and the fourth survived only just and
we've heard that, you know, month before there's deadly lunch.
She was on doctor Google looking up cancer diagnoses, and
she sent messages to a group chat room complaining of
parents in law and did not want to be involved
in any attempt that she might make to get back

(02:29):
with their son. She told the courts she now regrets
sending those messages. She was asked today by her defense counsel,
have you ever had cancer?

Speaker 2 (02:36):
No?

Speaker 3 (02:36):
I haven't. I mean, so there were all these issues
coming through. Did you kill your in laws and one
other woman with poisonous lunch death cap mushrooms? You'd forage
four in the forest?

Speaker 2 (02:49):
No?

Speaker 3 (02:50):
I never did that. So this is absolutely fascinating stuff.
You know, people are lining up of about five six in
the morning to try and get limited seats in the courthouse.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Really, did you say half past five in the morning.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
And it's freezing. It's like Central Victorious is.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Your court and must is your court like ours?

Speaker 3 (03:07):
Kack Off at ten, Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's well, that's
my understanding down there. Yeah o'clock.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
Okay, So it really is quite exciting, isn't it.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
Now?

Speaker 1 (03:16):
Elbows told the US you guys are going to sign
on your own own defense SPED and rather than have
it I suppose given to you by the US. Is
there right?

Speaker 3 (03:24):
Well? Yes, And yet and in the last half hour
forty five minutes or so, there's been perhaps I don't
know how you'd phrased this, but perhaps he's prepared to,
you know, couldceed some ground. He's apparently in a fortnite
he's going to be at a G seven meeting in Canada,
and apparently there's a bilateral arrange with Donald Trump that
will be interesting. If Albanezi has said, listen, but put

(03:45):
that in your pipe and smoke it. Son, I'm not
going to be dictated to you by your people. I mean,
the fact of the matter is Australia can't afford to
go to three and a half percent. That the impossibly
good looking Defense Secretary of the United States has said,
Australia command, you have to have to pay you one
and Australia at two point three percent. We're straining at
the edges. Don't forget we're on the hook to the

(04:07):
United States for nearly four hundred billion dollars way out
of the never never to get submarines we may or
may not ever receive that aren't built yet, no guarantees
the United States will even sell them. And so there's
a good degree of reflection here. I mean, this was
a deal. It was signed off on by the Morrison government.

(04:27):
Remember all that who are yes, we'll buy French submarines.
I know we're not going to scrap the French deal
and buy American and labor went along with this, So
it's a long term joint commitment by both sides of politics.
But is it worth the money? And with the United
States now banging the drums saying listen, you've got to
come along, you've got to spend more. I mean, if
you look at the success this week of the Ukrainian

(04:49):
drone strikes right across the Soviet Union, would Australia be
better off buying money or investing money in drone manufacturing,
missile manufacturer? Who knows? All we do know over here
is that the defense spend for the last thirty or
forty years has been a giant black hole with bugger
order show for it. Yeah, please, has been been catastrophic.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
Maz, thank you appreciate it. Murray Olds, Australia correspondent.

Speaker 3 (05:13):
For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to
News Talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.