The Trial: Proceedings begin this week

The town of Morwell is bracing for an influx of visitors as the trial of accused mushroom killer Erin Patterson comes to town this week.

For coverage of the trial, podcast episodes and more, go to:themushroomcook.com.au

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This week, one of Australia's most anticipated trials is set
to start. Aaron Patterson is accused of murdering her former
husband's family at a Saturday lunch. Police allege she served
them at beef Wellington mill laced with death cap mushrooms.
Now she will face trial. I'm Brook Greebert Craig and

(00:20):
this is the Mushroom cook. So I'm here with my
colleague court reporter Laura Pliscella. At the moment, we're in Morewell.
We're in our makeshift Herald sign office. How are you feeling.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
It's great to be here, Brook, and I think that's
a very apt description of our current situation. Most trials
in Victoria are held in Melbourne at the Supreme Court Building,
but this trial will be heard in Morewell. So. Morewell
is a regional town. It's about an hour and a
half's drive southeast of Melbourne and I think there's about
fifteen thousand people who live here. We've been here for

(01:00):
the last day or so settling in. We'll be here
every day covering this trial until it's over, so we'll
get to know more Well quite well, what have you
thought of the town's sover.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
So It's been quite busy with all the media descending
down here over the last couple of days. Even we
went into the coffee store today and it was packed
with journos, photographers, cameramen, lawyers, police officers. Everyone was in
this one cafe. It had good coffee, I will say that, yeah,
and good toasties as well. So yeah, more Weell is

(01:31):
going to be the place to be over the next
couple of weeks. So can you tell the listeners what
Erin has been charged with? Yes?

Speaker 2 (01:38):
So, Erin has been charged with three counts of murder
and one count of attempted murder. So these charges follow
a lunch that Erin hosted at her home in Leo
and Gatha in July twenty twenty three. Her former in
laws Don and Gail Patterson were at this lunch, as
well as Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson. Police alleged that Erin

(01:59):
cooked a beef well to meal a lace with death
cap mushrooms. Don, Gail, and Heather died in hospital days
after that lunch, but Ian survived. But I think it's
really important to note at this point Brook, especially for
our listeners, that Erin has pleaded not guilty to all
of the charges, which is why her trial is about
to get underway.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
What happens at the beginning of a trial.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
So any trial begins with the impanelment of the jury.
After a jury has been selected, then the opening addresses
get underway. We'll talk more about all of those processes
in our episodes to come, but the openings are essentially
the summaries of the cases from the prosecution and defense sides.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
So what are you going to be doing down here?

Speaker 2 (02:38):
So I'm a court reported by trade, so every day
I'll be at court reporting the evidence that the jury
is hearing. In Australia, trials aren't live streams, so the
public can't just chuck in a URL into their browser
and watch the proceedings. So if they want to follow
along and listen to the evidence and understand it for themselves,
they will turn to media organizations and their coverage. Every day,

(03:00):
I'll be at court following along, listening in to all
of the evidence. We'll be running live blogs on our
Herald Sun website and they'll also be coverage in our newspaper.
But most days of the trial, you and I will
jump into our makeshift podcast booth and we'll record an
episode for our listeners to make sure they're also up
to date with all of the evidence that has been
heard by the jury.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
For all the details, go to the mushroomcook dot com
dot au for all our coverage, live blogs, and podcast
episodes