May 6, 2025 • 15 mins
Ian Wilkinson, the only guest that survived the deadly lunch, gave evidence in court, publicly revealing details about the meal for the first time.
The Mushroom Cook team is Brooke Grebert-Craig, Laura Placella, Anthony Dowsley, Jordy Atkinson and Jonty Burton.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
On a cold winter morning at the Green End of Victoria,
five people sat down for a meal beef wrapped in
pastry with a mushroom paste. Within days, three were dead.
Now two years on, the two survivors of that meal
are facing one another in a Latrobe Valley courtroom. Aaron
(00:20):
Patterson is in the dock and Ian Wilkinson is in
the witness box, and for the first time, Ian explains
exactly what happened at that lunch.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Each person had an individual serve. It was very much
like a pasty if you imagine a pasty being put
on a plate, pastry incaste, and when we cut into
it there was steak and mushrooms.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
I'm Brook Greebert Craig, and this is the mushroom cook. Hi, Laura,
we're back for another episode.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
We certainly are.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
What the listeners just heard was a voice actor. It's
what Ian Wilkinson, the only guest to survive that deadly
lunch on July twenty nine, set in court today.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
And can I just say that voice actor sounded remarkably
like Ian where you heard his voice in court today
and they are very similar.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yeah, they are.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
So I think we need to just take a step
back here and remind our listeners why we're here reporting
on this trial. This case centers around a lunch, and
of the last few episodes, we actually haven't spoken too
much about the lunch. Last week, Erin's estranged husband, Simon,
gave evidence, but he wasn't in attendance at this lunch.
(01:35):
The four people that were there were Simon's parents, Don
and Gail Patterson, Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, and Heather's husband,
who is Ian So.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Ian's the pastor of the karen Borough Baptist Church. He's
been in that role for twenty six years. We heard
in court today that he met Heather in nineteen seventy
six and they married in nineteen seventy nine. So, Laura,
this was the first time that Ian has publicly spoken
about the details of the lunch.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
That's correct, and as you can imagine, he had a
lot to say. The three other guests that were sitting
around that table with him, they're no longer with us,
So his evidence is really important. And just to remind
our listeners, Erin claims what happened at the lunch was
a tragedy and a terrible accident. She has pleaded not
guilty to all of the charges against her.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
So before we get into the nitty gritty of the lunch,
let's chat about what Ian said about his relationship with Aaron.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
He was asked this at the start of today. He
told the jury that they were friendly, they were amicable,
keeping in mind that for more than a decade Aaron
was married to his nephew Simon. But he said their
relationship didn't have much depth. They were more like acquaintances
and didn't really see too much of each other besides
the occasional time Erin would come to church or at
(02:56):
family gatherings like Christmas.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Ian also said that Heather's relationship with Aaron was quite
similar to his, but he did say that Heather would
have seen Aaron Moore and would have talked to her more.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
And I mentioned church before, and that is actually the
place that Ian said. Aaron invited both himself and his
wife to that lunch on July twenty.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Nine, and this was about one or two weeks before
the lunch.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
That's correct. And Ian recalled Heather being fairly excited that
they had received this invitation and that they would be
very happy to attend. He said it seemed like their
relationship with Erin was going to improve. Before Ian was
asked any questions about the lunch, he was quizzed about
the days beforehand what he and his wife were doing.
(03:42):
He said they went for a walk on the morning
of the lunch, they bought a newspaper and they had
a coffee with some of their neighbors at a local cafe.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
So at about twelve thirty PM, all four of the
guests arrived at Aaron's Lee and Gatha home. And just
for the listeners who are aware how far kar and
Barra and Lean Gatha are, it's about a fifteen minute
journey by car.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
And there was even a little joke in court that
the Pattisons were late to pick up the Wilkinson so
they didn't get to Erin's quite in time.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
They were meant to get there at twelve, but they
got there at twelve thirty. That's correct, So Laura in court,
Ian said that Heather mentioned something to them in the
car that stood out to her. When they arrived at Aaron's.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
She told the others that she noticed Simon's car wasn't
at Aaron's home, and it was at that moment Don
and Gale piped up and said that their son would
not be attending.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Then Aaron met the guests outside and they all then
went into Aaron's house and Aaron gave them a tour
of the house because Ian and Heather had never been
there before.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
And we heard that the tour kind of focused on
one area of the house. Do you want to talk
a bit more about that?
Speaker 1 (04:52):
This was quite heartwarming. In court today, Ian told the
jury that Heather was particularly interested in pantry because the
couple had just built one in their own home.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Ian said that Heather was kind of obsessed with seeing
the way other people decked out their pantries and the
way they probably organized everything. So Heather started making her
way to the pantry, but Ian recalled that Aaron appeared
reluctant to show them the pantry. But Ian said that
he thought maybe Erin was reluctant because the pantry might
have been a bit of a mess and he didn't
(05:24):
want to cause her any more embarrassment, So him and
Don just stayed in the living area, continuing to chat,
and left the women to the pantry.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
After that, all five of them moved out of the
house and went on to the Verandah where they started
talking about Aaron's garden.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Gail and Heather were really into gardening, so they were
engaging in a conversation about that, and then soon after
it was time for lunch.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Yes, that's right, So Aaron was in the kitchen plating
up their food at the island bench. Heather and Gail
were on the other side of the island bench and
they he actually offered to help Aaron plate up the food,
but that offer was rejected by Aaron, so essentially all
of the food was plated up by Aaron herself.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
As our listeners may remember from last week, the jury
were told that the guests ate their meals off four
large gray plates, while Aaron ate her meal off a
smaller orange tan plate, and this was Ian's evidence today.
Aaron's defense barrister Colin Mandy tried to suggest to Ian
(06:31):
that those four gray plates were not the same, but
Ian doubled down. He said to mister Mandy that he
was sure that those plates were the same, and those
were the plates the guests ate off.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
So on the plates were individual serves of beef, wellington,
mashed potato, and green beans. Ian said in court today
that he ate his entire meal. His wife Heather did too,
gayl ate her vegetables and ate half of her beef
Wellington and then don ate his entire meal and half
(07:02):
of Gail's beef Wellington.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Ian was also asked if he remembered how much Aaron
ate and he said he could not recall.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
So after the lunch, Aaron announced something to the guests.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Hang on, we're forgetting about dessert. Oh, you're right about that.
We heard today that Gail brought a cake to the
lunch and Heather bought a fruit platter. But we heard
that they were served on the table, but not much
was eden by the guests. They were way too full
from lunch.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
So back to what I was about to say. Sorry,
So after the lunch, Ian said that Aaron had an announcement.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
He did, He said, Erin revealed to the guests that
she had cancer. This is his evidence, but it's not
his voice.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
She said she was very concerned because she believed it
was very serious, life threatening. She was anxious about telling
the kids. She was asking our advice about that. He
went on to say, in that moment, I thought this
is the reason we have been invited to the lunch.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Ian told the jury the group then prayed.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
I prayed, asking God's blessing on Erin, that she would
get the treatment that she needed, that the kids would
be okay, that Sh'd have wisdom in how she told
the kids So Laura.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Ian was then questioned about Aaron's cancer. Further, wasn't he
he was?
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Mister Mandy suggested to Ian that what was actually said
at that kitchen table by Erin was that she had
a suspected diagnosis of cancer. Just to cast our listener's
mind back to last week, the defense have conceded that
Erin does not have cancer. That in itself is not
in dispute. But Ian was questioned about his recollections from
(08:44):
that lunch because it is the defense case that Erin
only said at this lunch that she had a suspected diagnosis.
Ian was even taken back to a police statement he
made in September twenty twenty three after he had recovered
in hospital. He told police at that point in time
that his recollection was that Aaron said at the lunch
she had a suspected diagnosis. So mister Mandy really wanted
(09:07):
to hone in on this today to refresh Ian's memory
and push him as to whether or not that's what
he actually remembered, but Ian held firm. He said that
he recalled her saying that she had cancer because she
went on to talk about a scan of some sort
that she had which showed a tumor.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Ian then told the jury that he, Gail, Don and
Heather all left Aaron's house about two forty five pm
that day. He then went on to tell the jury
that he and Heather were feeling okay and went to
bed around ten thirty eleven PM that night.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
And this is where some of the evidence in court
today became more graphic in nature. Ian was asked about
the symptoms he and Heather had throughout the night, which
included vomiting and diarrhea, and by dawn they realized the
Pattersons had also fallen.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Ill Ian told the jury that he and Heather started
to feel pretty washed out. That morning, Simon went over
to Ian in Heather's house and the trio ended up
at Lean Gather Hospital. Ian told the jury that this
is where doctors first suspected that he and his wife
(10:18):
had food poisoning. Ian and Heather stayed at lean Gatha
Hospital for one night, but then Ian said they were
abruptly woken up by nurses the next morning. After there
were some communications between Dannyng Hospital and lean Gatha Hospital.
So these communications involved conversations around suspected mushroom poisoning. The
(10:42):
couple were then told they needed urgent care.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
By this time we were nearing the end of Ian's
evidence because soon after they realized they had fallen ill
with mushroom poisoning. Ian was sedated and taken to the
Austin Hospital to be transferred into the ICU.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
After weeks in hospital, Ian recovered and he was eventually
discharged on September twenty one, twenty twenty three. So that
was all of Ian's evidence. But Laura, what was he
like on the stand?
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Yes, So I was sitting in court today when Ian
walked in. He was wearing a black vest with a
brown shirt, and when he approached the witness box you
could see him look towards Aaron sitting in the dock.
It was only a glance, and then his evidence got
underway soon after that. During his testimony today, there were
(11:33):
actually some light moments where he laughed, he smiled, and
on one occasion his chair almost broke. He kind of
got a bit of a shock, and just as Christopher Beale,
the judge running this trial, joked that that was something
that they did with all of their witnesses, which got
a really good laugh from everyone in the courtroom. But
I think it was fair to say that Ian brought
some warmth into the courtroom. He was being asked questions
(11:56):
about a very difficult period in his life at the
center of this trial would have been one of the
last meals he ever shared with his wife. But he
didn't become emotional in court, like I said, choosing at
times to laugh and smile when giving evidence. So this
was the first time and the last time Ian will
give evidence in this trial. Once he was excused by
(12:17):
the judge, he walked back into the body of the
courtroom and took a seat next to one of the
Patterson family members and they put their arm around Ian.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
So after Ian was done with his evidence, we also
heard from more witnesses we did.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
We heard from three medical witnesses, so we had a
paramedic Cindy Hyde, a nurse Lisa Shannon, and a doctor
Beth Morgan. These three all treated Don and Gale the
day after the lunch. Doctor Morgan gave evidence around Don
and Gale arriving to hospital, and Don being a lot
(12:52):
sicker than Heather, he was given a drug to protect
his liver. And I'm definitely not going to try and
pronounce this one. But after that, she told the court
that an antidote to death cap mushroom poisoning was not
something he was given. She told the jury that at
the time, the doctors at the hospital did not have
enough evidence that anyone else was unwell or anyone else
(13:15):
was experiencing the type of liver injury that would indicate
death cap mushroom poisoning. She also mentioned that another doctor
had contacted police after finding out that Erin had discharged
herself from hospital against medical advice. But we must keep
in mind that over the coming weeks we're expected to
hear from a lot more medical witnesses who will shed
(13:36):
more light on the hospitals and the way they treated
these patients.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Okay, let's move on to the dehydrader now. So for
the last four or five days, the dehydrata has made
a cameo in our podcast because obviously it's made a
cameo in court.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Yes, I think we've mentioned it almost every day.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Yes, so today we heard from a witness called Darren Fox,
who was he Laura.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
He owns a Better Home Living store in Lee and Gatha.
This is a store that sells small appliances, bedding, furniture
and electrical devices.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
So he told the court that one of his employees
actually sold something to Aaron Patterson in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Yes, and it's that dehydrator. And we heard a little
bit more about this appliance. It's a Sunbeam Food Lab
dehydrator and it's about two hundred and twenty nine dollars.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
The Drew was actually shown a tax invoice with Aaron
Patterson's details on it. The tax invoice was dated April
twenty eight, twenty twenty three, and the dehydrator was purchased
at twelve seventeen PM.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
And rest assured this is not the last you'll be
hearing about the dehydrator.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Thanks Laura. Remember you can catch up on all of
our live blogs, coverage and more at the mushroomcook dot
com dot au
On a cold winter morning at the Green End of Victoria,
five people sat down for a meal beef wrapped in
pastry with a mushroom paste. Within days, three were dead.
Now two years on, the two survivors of that meal
are facing one another in a Latrobe Valley courtroom. Aaron
(00:20):
Patterson is in the dock and Ian Wilkinson is in
the witness box, and for the first time, Ian explains
exactly what happened at that lunch.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Each person had an individual serve. It was very much
like a pasty if you imagine a pasty being put
on a plate, pastry incaste, and when we cut into
it there was steak and mushrooms.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
I'm Brook Greebert Craig, and this is the mushroom cook. Hi, Laura,
we're back for another episode.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
We certainly are.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
What the listeners just heard was a voice actor. It's
what Ian Wilkinson, the only guest to survive that deadly
lunch on July twenty nine, set in court today.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
And can I just say that voice actor sounded remarkably
like Ian where you heard his voice in court today
and they are very similar.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yeah, they are.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
So I think we need to just take a step
back here and remind our listeners why we're here reporting
on this trial. This case centers around a lunch, and
of the last few episodes, we actually haven't spoken too
much about the lunch. Last week, Erin's estranged husband, Simon,
gave evidence, but he wasn't in attendance at this lunch.
(01:35):
The four people that were there were Simon's parents, Don
and Gail Patterson, Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, and Heather's husband,
who is Ian So.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Ian's the pastor of the karen Borough Baptist Church. He's
been in that role for twenty six years. We heard
in court today that he met Heather in nineteen seventy
six and they married in nineteen seventy nine. So, Laura,
this was the first time that Ian has publicly spoken
about the details of the lunch.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
That's correct, and as you can imagine, he had a
lot to say. The three other guests that were sitting
around that table with him, they're no longer with us,
So his evidence is really important. And just to remind
our listeners, Erin claims what happened at the lunch was
a tragedy and a terrible accident. She has pleaded not
guilty to all of the charges against her.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
So before we get into the nitty gritty of the lunch,
let's chat about what Ian said about his relationship with Aaron.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
He was asked this at the start of today. He
told the jury that they were friendly, they were amicable,
keeping in mind that for more than a decade Aaron
was married to his nephew Simon. But he said their
relationship didn't have much depth. They were more like acquaintances
and didn't really see too much of each other besides
the occasional time Erin would come to church or at
(02:56):
family gatherings like Christmas.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Ian also said that Heather's relationship with Aaron was quite
similar to his, but he did say that Heather would
have seen Aaron Moore and would have talked to her more.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
And I mentioned church before, and that is actually the
place that Ian said. Aaron invited both himself and his
wife to that lunch on July twenty.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Nine, and this was about one or two weeks before
the lunch.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
That's correct. And Ian recalled Heather being fairly excited that
they had received this invitation and that they would be
very happy to attend. He said it seemed like their
relationship with Erin was going to improve. Before Ian was
asked any questions about the lunch, he was quizzed about
the days beforehand what he and his wife were doing.
(03:42):
He said they went for a walk on the morning
of the lunch, they bought a newspaper and they had
a coffee with some of their neighbors at a local cafe.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
So at about twelve thirty PM, all four of the
guests arrived at Aaron's Lee and Gatha home. And just
for the listeners who are aware how far kar and
Barra and Lean Gatha are, it's about a fifteen minute
journey by car.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
And there was even a little joke in court that
the Pattisons were late to pick up the Wilkinson so
they didn't get to Erin's quite in time.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
They were meant to get there at twelve, but they
got there at twelve thirty. That's correct, So Laura in court,
Ian said that Heather mentioned something to them in the
car that stood out to her. When they arrived at Aaron's.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
She told the others that she noticed Simon's car wasn't
at Aaron's home, and it was at that moment Don
and Gale piped up and said that their son would
not be attending.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Then Aaron met the guests outside and they all then
went into Aaron's house and Aaron gave them a tour
of the house because Ian and Heather had never been
there before.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
And we heard that the tour kind of focused on
one area of the house. Do you want to talk
a bit more about that?
Speaker 1 (04:52):
This was quite heartwarming. In court today, Ian told the
jury that Heather was particularly interested in pantry because the
couple had just built one in their own home.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Ian said that Heather was kind of obsessed with seeing
the way other people decked out their pantries and the
way they probably organized everything. So Heather started making her
way to the pantry, but Ian recalled that Aaron appeared
reluctant to show them the pantry. But Ian said that
he thought maybe Erin was reluctant because the pantry might
have been a bit of a mess and he didn't
(05:24):
want to cause her any more embarrassment, So him and
Don just stayed in the living area, continuing to chat,
and left the women to the pantry.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
After that, all five of them moved out of the
house and went on to the Verandah where they started
talking about Aaron's garden.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Gail and Heather were really into gardening, so they were
engaging in a conversation about that, and then soon after
it was time for lunch.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Yes, that's right, So Aaron was in the kitchen plating
up their food at the island bench. Heather and Gail
were on the other side of the island bench and
they he actually offered to help Aaron plate up the food,
but that offer was rejected by Aaron, so essentially all
of the food was plated up by Aaron herself.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
As our listeners may remember from last week, the jury
were told that the guests ate their meals off four
large gray plates, while Aaron ate her meal off a
smaller orange tan plate, and this was Ian's evidence today.
Aaron's defense barrister Colin Mandy tried to suggest to Ian
(06:31):
that those four gray plates were not the same, but
Ian doubled down. He said to mister Mandy that he
was sure that those plates were the same, and those
were the plates the guests ate off.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
So on the plates were individual serves of beef, wellington,
mashed potato, and green beans. Ian said in court today
that he ate his entire meal. His wife Heather did too,
gayl ate her vegetables and ate half of her beef
Wellington and then don ate his entire meal and half
(07:02):
of Gail's beef Wellington.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Ian was also asked if he remembered how much Aaron
ate and he said he could not recall.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
So after the lunch, Aaron announced something to the guests.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Hang on, we're forgetting about dessert. Oh, you're right about that.
We heard today that Gail brought a cake to the
lunch and Heather bought a fruit platter. But we heard
that they were served on the table, but not much
was eden by the guests. They were way too full
from lunch.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
So back to what I was about to say. Sorry,
So after the lunch, Ian said that Aaron had an announcement.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
He did, He said, Erin revealed to the guests that
she had cancer. This is his evidence, but it's not
his voice.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
She said she was very concerned because she believed it
was very serious, life threatening. She was anxious about telling
the kids. She was asking our advice about that. He
went on to say, in that moment, I thought this
is the reason we have been invited to the lunch.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Ian told the jury the group then prayed.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
I prayed, asking God's blessing on Erin, that she would
get the treatment that she needed, that the kids would
be okay, that Sh'd have wisdom in how she told
the kids So Laura.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Ian was then questioned about Aaron's cancer. Further, wasn't he
he was?
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Mister Mandy suggested to Ian that what was actually said
at that kitchen table by Erin was that she had
a suspected diagnosis of cancer. Just to cast our listener's
mind back to last week, the defense have conceded that
Erin does not have cancer. That in itself is not
in dispute. But Ian was questioned about his recollections from
(08:44):
that lunch because it is the defense case that Erin
only said at this lunch that she had a suspected diagnosis.
Ian was even taken back to a police statement he
made in September twenty twenty three after he had recovered
in hospital. He told police at that point in time
that his recollection was that Aaron said at the lunch
she had a suspected diagnosis. So mister Mandy really wanted
(09:07):
to hone in on this today to refresh Ian's memory
and push him as to whether or not that's what
he actually remembered, but Ian held firm. He said that
he recalled her saying that she had cancer because she
went on to talk about a scan of some sort
that she had which showed a tumor.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Ian then told the jury that he, Gail, Don and
Heather all left Aaron's house about two forty five pm
that day. He then went on to tell the jury
that he and Heather were feeling okay and went to
bed around ten thirty eleven PM that night.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
And this is where some of the evidence in court
today became more graphic in nature. Ian was asked about
the symptoms he and Heather had throughout the night, which
included vomiting and diarrhea, and by dawn they realized the
Pattersons had also fallen.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Ill Ian told the jury that he and Heather started
to feel pretty washed out. That morning, Simon went over
to Ian in Heather's house and the trio ended up
at Lean Gather Hospital. Ian told the jury that this
is where doctors first suspected that he and his wife
(10:18):
had food poisoning. Ian and Heather stayed at lean Gatha
Hospital for one night, but then Ian said they were
abruptly woken up by nurses the next morning. After there
were some communications between Dannyng Hospital and lean Gatha Hospital.
So these communications involved conversations around suspected mushroom poisoning. The
(10:42):
couple were then told they needed urgent care.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
By this time we were nearing the end of Ian's
evidence because soon after they realized they had fallen ill
with mushroom poisoning. Ian was sedated and taken to the
Austin Hospital to be transferred into the ICU.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
After weeks in hospital, Ian recovered and he was eventually
discharged on September twenty one, twenty twenty three. So that
was all of Ian's evidence. But Laura, what was he
like on the stand?
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Yes, So I was sitting in court today when Ian
walked in. He was wearing a black vest with a
brown shirt, and when he approached the witness box you
could see him look towards Aaron sitting in the dock.
It was only a glance, and then his evidence got
underway soon after that. During his testimony today, there were
(11:33):
actually some light moments where he laughed, he smiled, and
on one occasion his chair almost broke. He kind of
got a bit of a shock, and just as Christopher Beale,
the judge running this trial, joked that that was something
that they did with all of their witnesses, which got
a really good laugh from everyone in the courtroom. But
I think it was fair to say that Ian brought
some warmth into the courtroom. He was being asked questions
(11:56):
about a very difficult period in his life at the
center of this trial would have been one of the
last meals he ever shared with his wife. But he
didn't become emotional in court, like I said, choosing at
times to laugh and smile when giving evidence. So this
was the first time and the last time Ian will
give evidence in this trial. Once he was excused by
(12:17):
the judge, he walked back into the body of the
courtroom and took a seat next to one of the
Patterson family members and they put their arm around Ian.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
So after Ian was done with his evidence, we also
heard from more witnesses we did.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
We heard from three medical witnesses, so we had a
paramedic Cindy Hyde, a nurse Lisa Shannon, and a doctor
Beth Morgan. These three all treated Don and Gale the
day after the lunch. Doctor Morgan gave evidence around Don
and Gale arriving to hospital, and Don being a lot
(12:52):
sicker than Heather, he was given a drug to protect
his liver. And I'm definitely not going to try and
pronounce this one. But after that, she told the court
that an antidote to death cap mushroom poisoning was not
something he was given. She told the jury that at
the time, the doctors at the hospital did not have
enough evidence that anyone else was unwell or anyone else
(13:15):
was experiencing the type of liver injury that would indicate
death cap mushroom poisoning. She also mentioned that another doctor
had contacted police after finding out that Erin had discharged
herself from hospital against medical advice. But we must keep
in mind that over the coming weeks we're expected to
hear from a lot more medical witnesses who will shed
(13:36):
more light on the hospitals and the way they treated
these patients.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Okay, let's move on to the dehydrader now. So for
the last four or five days, the dehydrata has made
a cameo in our podcast because obviously it's made a
cameo in court.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Yes, I think we've mentioned it almost every day.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Yes, so today we heard from a witness called Darren Fox,
who was he Laura.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
He owns a Better Home Living store in Lee and Gatha.
This is a store that sells small appliances, bedding, furniture
and electrical devices.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
So he told the court that one of his employees
actually sold something to Aaron Patterson in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Yes, and it's that dehydrator. And we heard a little
bit more about this appliance. It's a Sunbeam Food Lab
dehydrator and it's about two hundred and twenty nine dollars.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
The Drew was actually shown a tax invoice with Aaron
Patterson's details on it. The tax invoice was dated April
twenty eight, twenty twenty three, and the dehydrator was purchased
at twelve seventeen PM.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
And rest assured this is not the last you'll be
hearing about the dehydrator.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Thanks Laura. Remember you can catch up on all of
our live blogs, coverage and more at the mushroomcook dot
com dot au
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