May 9, 2025 • 9 mins
Week two of the trial of Erin Patterson ended with testimony from her son.
The Mushroom Cook team is Brooke Grebert-Craig, Laura Placella, Anthony Dowsley, Jordy Atkinson and Jonty Burton. Our intern is Jasmine Geddes. Jase Geddes provided voice acting for this episode.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
And then there was the leftover meat from the lunch. Yes,
so describe that part of the meal to me.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
The meat, it was very soft and it was probably
some of the best meat I Eiverver had, actually very easy
to cut.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Today, at the end of the second week of the
trial of Aaron Patterson, the jury heard from her fourteen
year old son. He talked about the leftovers of the lunch,
her interest in mushrooms, and her strained relationship with his dad.
I'm Brooke Greebert Craig and this is the mushroom cook. Hi, Laura,
(00:38):
it's Friday.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
We've made it to the end of the second week.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
We did have a short day today, so it will
definitely be a short episode, but rest assured we'll have
a longer subscriber episode on Sunday where we talk about
the timeline of the events that we have heard in
court so far. So today the jury heard the last
ten minutes of Aaron's daughter's testimony. They also heard from
(01:01):
Aaron's son. That's what you heard at the start of
the episode, and it was his words, but not his voice.
So the son's interview was set up in the exact
same way as his sisters. It was a pre recorded
video from August twenty twenty three. Laura, can you set
the scene for our listeners? What did the room look
(01:21):
like that they were being interviewed in.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
I'm glad you asked that question because I realized we
didn't touch on it yesterday when his sister was giving evidence.
We really focused on Aaron's reaction in court in the dock,
where she was becoming quite emotional seeing them pop up
on the screen. But in terms of what everyone in
court could see, it was an interview room in Morewell,
(01:46):
but it wasn't cold as you might think an interview
room would be. This was clearly a room used for
interviewing children. So when the first video played of Aaron's daughter,
you could see her sitting on a blue armchair, and
she's only nine years old in this vision, so she's
very small. Her feet barely touched the ground. In front
(02:07):
of her is a table with some pencils and some paper,
but they weren't used during the interview. Her brother gave
evidence in this same room, but being five years older
than her, he was definitely quite taller, and he was
sitting on the chair just in a hoodie and some trackies.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
So In the daughter's testimony, she was questioned in detail
by the interviewer about mushrooms. These are her words, but
not her voice.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
When you cook with mum? Have you ever cooked anything
with mushrooms in it? No? Do you like mushrooms eating them?
Speaker 2 (02:45):
No?
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Have you ever been mushroom picking?
Speaker 4 (02:50):
No?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
No?
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Have you ever seen a mushroom growing out in the wild?
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Oh? Wait, I did see some at school once.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
So we heard the interviewer ask a lot of different
questions about mushrooms, and really Aaron's daughter didn't have a
lot to say, but Laura, she did talk about cooking
with her mum.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
Yeah, that's right. The interviewer asked her whether or not
her mother was a good cook, and whether she enjoyed cooking,
and the girl answered yes to both of those questions.
And she expanded a little bit further and said, we
make cupcakes or muffins or brownies.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
And then the jury went on to hear Aaron's son's testimony.
You know, I think the jury were able to get
a greater insight into that family dynamic through the boy's perspective.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
And this was especially because his interview went for a
lot longer, so the recording of her son went for
an hour and forty minutes, and considering he is five
years older than his sister, he was able to expand
a lot more on his answers.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
And for example, he spoke about the relationship between his
mum and dad. What can you tell us about that, Laura?
Speaker 4 (04:01):
So he spoke about how they stopped living together when
he was younger, and to remind our listeners that was
in about twenty fifteen that they permanently separated, and he
said they weren't great at relating to each other. The
interviewer then asked a number of questions about the lead
up to the lunch and how their relationship was at
that point. These are his words, it's not his voice.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
How would you describe your mum and dad's relationship? Probably
of recent times.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Before the lunch. It's all just very negative. I know
that does a lot of things.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Which I had heard mom, such ads.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Like missing around with the school. Mom didn't put his
name on the billing, the billing.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
For the school, like the school fees.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Yeah, Dad really wanted to be on that so he
could have access all the events.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
He went on to say Dad wouldn't.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Talk to mom about that. He would just ring the
school and told the school put his name on the billing.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
Soon after, in the interview, the boy was asked a
few more questions about his relationship with his dad. He
explained how he and his sister weren't staying at his
dad's house in the twelve months before the lunch. Again,
these are his words, it's not his voice.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
He kept trying to convinced me to go to his
and I told him, I'm sorry, I didn't want to
because he never did anything with us over the weekends.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
The interviewer then asked about the hours and days after
the lunch, and the sun actually confirmed that he wasn't
there at the mill.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
That's right, But he arrived when the lunch was wrapping up.
Everyone was still there, all of the guests, including his grandparents,
Don and Gail Patterson, And he said he spoke with
his grandfather for a little bit about his flying lessons.
Soon after the guest left, and the fourteen year old
said he helped clean up the table. He described collecting
(05:55):
all the plates and bringing them to the sink.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
And in his evidence, what color did he say the
plates were.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
He said the plates were white and about fifteen centimeters
in diameter. The interviewer asked a follow up question and
asked him whether or not the plates were all the same,
and he said they were so.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
After that, what did he do?
Speaker 4 (06:15):
So, just to give a little bit more context here,
While the lunch was happening at his house, him, his sister,
and one of their friends went to the cinemas nearby
to go watch the twenty twenty three film Elemental. I
believe it's an animated film. After that was done, they
came back. That's when he saw everyone there at the home,
(06:35):
and then he cleaned up with his mum, and then
him and his friends started playing.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Video games like every teens do these days.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
Yes, very much so. They described playing for a few
hours with their headsets on. They were very locked in,
and then it got later in the evening, maybe around
five six o'clock, and it was time for his friend.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
To go home.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
He explained to the jury that he went upstairs to
go see his mum to ask if she could give
his friend a lift back home, and he described in
that moment she was building lego.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Interesting. What else did he say?
Speaker 4 (07:08):
He then started speaking about the next day. He remembers
waking up and walking into the kitchen and seeing his
mom drinking a coffee, but she said to him that
she was feeling quite sick and had been experiencing some diarrhea.
The boy's sister gave the same evidence yesterday and said
that because their mum was feeling sick, they didn't go to.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Church that day, and then that night the kids ate
leftovers of that meal that the guests ate On July
twenty nine.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
He was asked by the interviewer what they ate, and
he said it was potatoes, beans, and the leftover meat
from the lunch. That's what you heard at the top
of the episode. When Aaron's son was explaining about the
meat that he ate, the interviewer asked him how he
knew it was the leftover meat, and he said he
asked his mum whether or not that was the leftover
meat from the day before, and she confirmed that it was,
(07:58):
and he remembered seeing her cook it in the kitchen
on the Saturday morning prior to the lunch, saying it
appeared that she was cooking it in a fry pan,
just like the interviewer did with his sister. He was
asked a few questions about mushrooms and one of these
questions evoked a memory he had of a period of
time during the pandemic. He explained how him and his
mum took a walk through the botanic gardens near their
(08:20):
home and they spotted some mushrooms that were growing. Again,
these are his words, it's not his voice.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
It was just a very fond memory in my head.
We were talking about how mushrooms grow, how they grew
with the trees and they support each other.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
And that was the end of Aaron's Sons evidence. So
we're all wrapped up for week two.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
We'll be back next week to do it all again.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Thanks Laura. Enjoy your weekend and don't forget that we
have a subscriber episode with our colleague Anthony Dowsley that
will be released on Sunday morning and details on how
to get it will be in the description of this episode.
Thanks for listening. This has been a worlds on production
for True Crime Australia. The show is reported and presented
(09:05):
by me Brook, Greebert Craig and Laura Placella. Reporting and
presenting for our weekend subscriber only shows by Anthony Dowsley.
Our executive producer is Jordy Atkinson. Extra production support this
week was from our intern Jasmine Gettys. The Mushroom Cook
is produced, written and edited by Johnty Burton and go
(09:28):
to The mushroomcook dot com dot au for all the
latest updates, live blogs, features and more
And then there was the leftover meat from the lunch. Yes,
so describe that part of the meal to me.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
The meat, it was very soft and it was probably
some of the best meat I Eiverver had, actually very easy
to cut.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Today, at the end of the second week of the
trial of Aaron Patterson, the jury heard from her fourteen
year old son. He talked about the leftovers of the lunch,
her interest in mushrooms, and her strained relationship with his dad.
I'm Brooke Greebert Craig and this is the mushroom cook. Hi, Laura,
(00:38):
it's Friday.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
We've made it to the end of the second week.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
We did have a short day today, so it will
definitely be a short episode, but rest assured we'll have
a longer subscriber episode on Sunday where we talk about
the timeline of the events that we have heard in
court so far. So today the jury heard the last
ten minutes of Aaron's daughter's testimony. They also heard from
(01:01):
Aaron's son. That's what you heard at the start of
the episode, and it was his words, but not his voice.
So the son's interview was set up in the exact
same way as his sisters. It was a pre recorded
video from August twenty twenty three. Laura, can you set
the scene for our listeners? What did the room look
(01:21):
like that they were being interviewed in.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
I'm glad you asked that question because I realized we
didn't touch on it yesterday when his sister was giving evidence.
We really focused on Aaron's reaction in court in the dock,
where she was becoming quite emotional seeing them pop up
on the screen. But in terms of what everyone in
court could see, it was an interview room in Morewell,
(01:46):
but it wasn't cold as you might think an interview
room would be. This was clearly a room used for
interviewing children. So when the first video played of Aaron's daughter,
you could see her sitting on a blue armchair, and
she's only nine years old in this vision, so she's
very small. Her feet barely touched the ground. In front
(02:07):
of her is a table with some pencils and some paper,
but they weren't used during the interview. Her brother gave
evidence in this same room, but being five years older
than her, he was definitely quite taller, and he was
sitting on the chair just in a hoodie and some trackies.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
So In the daughter's testimony, she was questioned in detail
by the interviewer about mushrooms. These are her words, but
not her voice.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
When you cook with mum? Have you ever cooked anything
with mushrooms in it? No? Do you like mushrooms eating them?
Speaker 2 (02:45):
No?
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Have you ever been mushroom picking?
Speaker 4 (02:50):
No?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
No?
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Have you ever seen a mushroom growing out in the wild?
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Oh? Wait, I did see some at school once.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
So we heard the interviewer ask a lot of different
questions about mushrooms, and really Aaron's daughter didn't have a
lot to say, but Laura, she did talk about cooking
with her mum.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
Yeah, that's right. The interviewer asked her whether or not
her mother was a good cook, and whether she enjoyed cooking,
and the girl answered yes to both of those questions.
And she expanded a little bit further and said, we
make cupcakes or muffins or brownies.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
And then the jury went on to hear Aaron's son's testimony.
You know, I think the jury were able to get
a greater insight into that family dynamic through the boy's perspective.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
And this was especially because his interview went for a
lot longer, so the recording of her son went for
an hour and forty minutes, and considering he is five
years older than his sister, he was able to expand
a lot more on his answers.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
And for example, he spoke about the relationship between his
mum and dad. What can you tell us about that, Laura?
Speaker 4 (04:01):
So he spoke about how they stopped living together when
he was younger, and to remind our listeners that was
in about twenty fifteen that they permanently separated, and he
said they weren't great at relating to each other. The
interviewer then asked a number of questions about the lead
up to the lunch and how their relationship was at
that point. These are his words, it's not his voice.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
How would you describe your mum and dad's relationship? Probably
of recent times.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Before the lunch. It's all just very negative. I know
that does a lot of things.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Which I had heard mom, such ads.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Like missing around with the school. Mom didn't put his
name on the billing, the billing.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
For the school, like the school fees.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Yeah, Dad really wanted to be on that so he
could have access all the events.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
He went on to say Dad wouldn't.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Talk to mom about that. He would just ring the
school and told the school put his name on the billing.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
Soon after, in the interview, the boy was asked a
few more questions about his relationship with his dad. He
explained how he and his sister weren't staying at his
dad's house in the twelve months before the lunch. Again,
these are his words, it's not his voice.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
He kept trying to convinced me to go to his
and I told him, I'm sorry, I didn't want to
because he never did anything with us over the weekends.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
The interviewer then asked about the hours and days after
the lunch, and the sun actually confirmed that he wasn't
there at the mill.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
That's right, But he arrived when the lunch was wrapping up.
Everyone was still there, all of the guests, including his grandparents,
Don and Gail Patterson, And he said he spoke with
his grandfather for a little bit about his flying lessons.
Soon after the guest left, and the fourteen year old
said he helped clean up the table. He described collecting
(05:55):
all the plates and bringing them to the sink.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
And in his evidence, what color did he say the
plates were.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
He said the plates were white and about fifteen centimeters
in diameter. The interviewer asked a follow up question and
asked him whether or not the plates were all the same,
and he said they were so.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
After that, what did he do?
Speaker 4 (06:15):
So, just to give a little bit more context here,
While the lunch was happening at his house, him, his sister,
and one of their friends went to the cinemas nearby
to go watch the twenty twenty three film Elemental. I
believe it's an animated film. After that was done, they
came back. That's when he saw everyone there at the home,
(06:35):
and then he cleaned up with his mum, and then
him and his friends started playing.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Video games like every teens do these days.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
Yes, very much so. They described playing for a few
hours with their headsets on. They were very locked in,
and then it got later in the evening, maybe around
five six o'clock, and it was time for his friend.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
To go home.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
He explained to the jury that he went upstairs to
go see his mum to ask if she could give
his friend a lift back home, and he described in
that moment she was building lego.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Interesting. What else did he say?
Speaker 4 (07:08):
He then started speaking about the next day. He remembers
waking up and walking into the kitchen and seeing his
mom drinking a coffee, but she said to him that
she was feeling quite sick and had been experiencing some diarrhea.
The boy's sister gave the same evidence yesterday and said
that because their mum was feeling sick, they didn't go to.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Church that day, and then that night the kids ate
leftovers of that meal that the guests ate On July
twenty nine.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
He was asked by the interviewer what they ate, and
he said it was potatoes, beans, and the leftover meat
from the lunch. That's what you heard at the top
of the episode. When Aaron's son was explaining about the
meat that he ate, the interviewer asked him how he
knew it was the leftover meat, and he said he
asked his mum whether or not that was the leftover
meat from the day before, and she confirmed that it was,
(07:58):
and he remembered seeing her cook it in the kitchen
on the Saturday morning prior to the lunch, saying it
appeared that she was cooking it in a fry pan,
just like the interviewer did with his sister. He was
asked a few questions about mushrooms and one of these
questions evoked a memory he had of a period of
time during the pandemic. He explained how him and his
mum took a walk through the botanic gardens near their
(08:20):
home and they spotted some mushrooms that were growing. Again,
these are his words, it's not his voice.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
It was just a very fond memory in my head.
We were talking about how mushrooms grow, how they grew
with the trees and they support each other.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
And that was the end of Aaron's Sons evidence. So
we're all wrapped up for week two.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
We'll be back next week to do it all again.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Thanks Laura. Enjoy your weekend and don't forget that we
have a subscriber episode with our colleague Anthony Dowsley that
will be released on Sunday morning and details on how
to get it will be in the description of this episode.
Thanks for listening. This has been a worlds on production
for True Crime Australia. The show is reported and presented
(09:05):
by me Brook, Greebert Craig and Laura Placella. Reporting and
presenting for our weekend subscriber only shows by Anthony Dowsley.
Our executive producer is Jordy Atkinson. Extra production support this
week was from our intern Jasmine Gettys. The Mushroom Cook
is produced, written and edited by Johnty Burton and go
(09:28):
to The mushroomcook dot com dot au for all the
latest updates, live blogs, features and more
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