- 13 hours ago
Revealed: Death Cap Murders - Season 1 Episode 3 -
The Truth?
The Truth?
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04:31What you want from your client is for them to explain any mistakes that they've made in the past
04:37and to give their explanation so the jury have a rival alternate theory aka the rat.
04:44Colin, Mandy doesn't waste any time.
04:51It's really simply.
04:52Did you have an interest in wild mushrooms?
04:59It would have been an interest in the past.
05:06During the pandemic, people were looking for ways to fill their limited time they got outside each day.
05:12She did it by going for walks for her kids and foraging for mushrooms.
05:16The whole defense rested on the past, she has no witnesses who can back her up so it's got to be her and her alone.
05:26What did you like about the more exotic mushrooms?
05:29They just taste more interesting.
05:33I got to a point where I was confident about what I thought that they were.
05:38I cut a bit off one of the mushrooms, fried it up with some butter, ate it and then saw what happened.
05:45She basically says she got in the habit of adding these mushrooms to any dish she sort of felt needed a bit of a kick.
05:52So she chucked in some of these dried mushrooms and that's how the accident happened.
05:56The case, quite simply, is that she's foraged for mushrooms and got the wrong ones.
06:02This love of foraging has come out of the wilderness.
06:06Her own kids can't remember it.
06:09Simon doesn't remember it.
06:11A circumstantial case is where there is no direct evidence that somebody committed the crime.
06:18There's no direct evidence that Erin Patterson deliberately put death-capped mushrooms in the beef wellington.
06:25Circumstantial cases can be extremely strong, overwhelming in fact.
06:32But if there is another possible explanation, how can a jury be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt?
06:43And at this point we're moving into the next chapter of Erin's version of events.
06:47There is this narrative that the prosecution has painted that she painted her in-laws and Simon
06:52and so she'd serve them a poison meal on purpose.
06:58She's going to have to explain this growing animosity between her and Simon
07:02that's coming out in this series of text messages she sent her friends.
07:05I'd like to understand why you had his parents and his uncle and auntie over for lunch.
07:18Because I've got no other family, so they're only supportive.
07:24And they've always been really good to me.
07:28And I want to maintain those relationships with him in spite of what's happened with Simon.
07:35I love them a lot.
07:40They've always been really good to me.
07:42And they always said to me that they would support me with love and emotional support.
07:48Even though Simon and I were separated, I really appreciated that.
07:52Yeah.
07:54I think Simon hated that I still had a relationship with his parents.
07:58But I love them.
08:01She's got no reason to want to poison not only her in-laws but people who are in no way connected or related to her.
08:09She said pretty damning things about her relationship with them.
08:13She described that as her venting to her online friends as a way to deal with that frustration that she was feeling around not getting supported within the family.
08:24Now, she said I was venting.
08:27Yeah, people do that.
08:30It's a very relatable thing.
08:31Like, we've all complained about our bosses, about our partners, about our in-laws, at some point or another with our friends.
08:39Looking at those words now, this family, I swear to fucking God, how do you feel about it?
08:46I wish I'd never said it.
08:48I feel very ashamed for saying it.
08:50And I wish the family didn't have to hear that I said that.
08:54They didn't deserve it.
08:56Her entire support system wasn't there anymore.
08:59Like, all of a sudden, she had nobody.
09:02Her in-laws weren't there.
09:03Simon wasn't there.
09:05She doesn't have any friends.
09:06She doesn't get on with her sister.
09:07She's alone, right?
09:09And I got the feeling that she was sad.
09:11Like, she was just a sad person that felt like her entire life had disintegrated.
09:19The main support that she had in court was Ali Rose Breyer, her power of attorney, who did come throughout most of the trial.
09:26And she was one of the only support people that Erin had.
09:30The whole invitation for the lunch was premised on a lie. That was the prosecution case.
09:44Ian's version of events, which is also the prosecution's version of events, Erin invited her family members over because she told them she had some serious news health-wise that she wanted to discuss.
09:54When they were all sat around the table, she revealed that she had cancer.
10:00Now, Erin's version of events is slightly different.
10:03She claims that she did tell them that she had some medical news she wanted to talk about.
10:06But when it came to the cracks of the issue, it had nothing to do with cancer and everything to do with the fact that she wanted to undergo weight loss surgery.
10:15I've been fighting a never-ending battle of low self-esteem most of my adult life.
10:22And the further inroads I made into being middle-aged, the less good I felt about myself.
10:29Erin starts telling this story that actually goes way back to when she was a kid.
10:34She explains that while she was a child, her mother would weigh her.
10:38And she has really, really strong memories of this.
10:41And she was basically controlling how much her two daughters weighed.
10:45This had a profound impact on Erin as a kid and it kick-started this whole raft of issues.
10:51She describes struggling with bulimia from her twenties and how a lot of these issues around her body image and her weight became a massive thing for her internally.
11:03How she struggled privately and alone.
11:06I come to the conclusion that I wanted to do something for once and for all about my weight and my poor eating habits.
11:15So I was planning to have gastric bypass surgery.
11:19I was really embarrassed about it.
11:21So I thought perhaps letting them believe I had some serious issue that needed treatment
11:26might mean they'd be able to help me with the logistics around the kids and I wouldn't have to tell them the real reason.
11:33She tells us for the first time on the stand that she had plans to have gastric sleeve bypass surgery.
11:40So if you like, cancer was the alibi because she was embarrassed about weight loss surgery.
11:45A lot of issues around shame, stigma and self-esteem are so private, you might not want to tell them that you're having embarrassing weight loss surgery.
11:54And Erin's saying, well look, yes I did lie about having cancer but I was booked in for a major medical procedure.
11:59It was this weight loss surgery.
12:02As she talks about what happened at the lunch itself, Erin starts to paint yet again another version of events.
12:09She needed to explain why they were individual beef wellingtons that were served at the lunch instead of the log that the recipe she used called for.
12:17The prosecution case is that that was a deliberate decision.
12:22Not because she couldn't find the right meat but because it enabled her to control how much mushrooms went into the individual beef wellingtons.
12:30Erin describes going to the supermarket and looking for that log of meat to be able to make the beef wellingtons but she says she can't find it.
12:39So instead she bought those individual eye fillets that she turned into the little pasties.
12:44She ends up making six individual beef wellingtons remembering that she'd invited her former husband Simon and she was still hopeful.
12:54The key plank of Ian's evidence is the fact that she served the beef wellingtons in four large grey plates and a smaller orangey coloured plate.
13:03And that Erin was the one that ate from the different coloured plate.
13:06And what plates did you use to serve up the food?
13:10Um, just the dinner plates I had.
13:13So I think there's a couple of black, a couple of white, one that's red on top and black underneath.
13:20And then I've got one that my child made at kindergarten.
13:23Did you own any grey plates?
13:25No.
13:27There is evidence that supports this.
13:30When the police came to her house and searched her house on August 5th, they could not find four large grey plates.
13:37Ian Wilkinson is like the star prosecution witness, right?
13:41He's the man that went to the lunch and survived.
13:44And if he's wrong about the plates, then he's wrong about potentially everything else.
13:50The human memory alters and changes.
13:53How many times in your own life have you said something which you thought was absolutely correct and then realised that you've made a mistake?
14:00It happens all the time.
14:01It's not a CCTV camera.
14:04It's not a tape recorder.
14:07So now Erin's explained how the mill unfolded, how it was served, but there's still one pressing question that she hasn't provided an answer for and it's why didn't she get sick?
14:19If she ate the same amount of food that Gail did, why is Gail dead but Erin isn't?
14:24As my mother told me, you never show up at a lunch or a dinner without bringing something.
14:30The Paterson family brought along with them an orange cake.
14:34I kept cleaning up the kitchen and putting everything away.
14:40And I had a piece of cake.
14:43And then another piece of cake.
14:46And then another.
14:49All of it.
14:52I felt sick.
14:54I felt over full.
14:56So I went to the toilets and I brought it back up again.
14:59Which means you threw up the mushrooms.
15:02You threw up the beef wellingtons.
15:04That's why you only got a little bit sick.
15:06That to me was the single most shocking piece of evidence that Erin said.
15:12She says she ate the same beef wellingtons as them, but because she made herself vomit within kind of hours of eating it as opposed to the rest of her lunch guests.
15:21That, you know, she says is a plausible explanation for why she doesn't get as sick.
15:27It gives her a really strong defence.
15:29It humanises her at a whole different level.
15:33This isn't a woman in that moment that's in control.
15:36This isn't a woman that's planning some sinister event.
15:40This is a woman who's struggling with serious mental health issues.
15:45Who's completely lost control of her life.
15:47And is feeling shame and humiliation at home as she's grappling with this eating disorder.
15:53I felt like I was sitting there and watching a car crash in slow motion.
15:58I was watching the prosecution case implode.
16:01After sitting there listening to her evidence in chief for a number of days, she needed to explain why her behaviour after the lunch had been so suspicious.
16:22One of the first things that Erin tells the jury about why she distrusts the medical establishment relates to the birth of her son in the late 2000s.
16:30My child's birth was very traumatic.
16:34They didn't think I had healed quite well enough from the surgery and they wanted me to stay and I wanted to go with my child.
16:41Did that involve you discharging yourself against medical advice?
16:46Yep, it did.
16:48What Erin is trying to say is like, look, I didn't discharge myself because I'm guilty.
16:52I discharged myself because I deeply mistrust doctors.
16:55We had heard already from Simon Patterson by this point that he knew his wife didn't like going to hospital.
17:04He explained that she discharged herself early a number of different times.
17:08Erin said that at the hospital her ex-husband Simon said, did you use the dehydrator to poison my parents?
17:22And what was your response?
17:24I said, of course not.
17:26Did that comment by Simon cause you to reflect on what might have been in the meal?
17:31It caused me to do a lot of thinking about a lot of things.
17:36Yeah.
17:37Simon denied ever saying that, but Erin says that triggered me off.
17:42And it is at that moment that Erin describes in the witness box that the light bulb went on and she went,
17:48Oh, could I have possibly picked up death cap mushrooms, dehydrated them and put them in the same container that I had the Asian grocery store of mushrooms in and then use that to make the beef wellington accidentally.
18:00The fact that you behave like a headless chook doing and saying silly things, I would describe as indicators of innocence.
18:09If you're preparing and planning all of this, you'd have a plan B.
18:14She's telling the jury so they can perhaps understand a little better the evidence they've already heard about her fleeing hospital within five minutes.
18:22The problem for the prosecution was there's a fundamental flaw in their case.
18:30The prosecution relied on her behavior afterwards, which was panic.
18:36The indicators of innocence are panic because that's the entire opposite of being conniving, scheming and cunning.
18:45Erin basically says that everything that follows is just one big panic.
18:51Then I just dumped into dehydrated because I knew that I would become suspect number one.
18:57This fact that Erin was switching between phones and SIM cards and remotely erasing all the information in her phone, including when her phone was in the custody of the police.
19:08She had an answer for everything.
19:12I just thought that her story had enough to sow a seed of doubt.
19:18To me, that part of reasonable doubt has shifted.
19:21She didn't come across as a triple murderer.
19:23You know, she came across as someone I thought who could have potentially just stuffed up a pantry.
19:29After listening silently for four days, it was time for the Crown Prosecutor to launch her tirade of questions.
19:47Erin Patterson was really calm and collected on the stand while her defence team were asking her questions.
19:52Everything changed when Annette Rogers stood at the lectern and started asking questions of Erin Patterson.
19:59On Monday the 28th of April 2023, the mobile service records for you indicate a possible visit to the Lock Township.
20:09I don't mean to be argumentative, but I think the 28th of April was a Friday.
20:16I think the change in the minute from Erin is one of the things that I will remember forever because I think it showed Erin's true nature.
20:24Her thinking she's better than everybody else, that she's smarter than everybody else.
20:30She was challenging Annette Rogers on what day of the week it was that she was being asked about.
20:36She was incredibly defensive, almost a little bit sarcastic, was almost trying to belittle her in the sense that I know more about this case than you do.
20:47Annette Rogers had a very long binder this thick full of questions she wanted to get through to the point that she'd actually kind of say yes or no, correct or incorrect.
20:58At the end of each single question.
21:01I suggested that the OPP get some t-shirts made with agree on the front and disagree on the back.
21:08The way that you control a witness is by what's called short leading questions, which call for a yes or no answer as opposed to an explanation, which keeps the witness confined in their answers.
21:21Rogers was really challenging Erin Patterson's versions of events in relation to her memory of key pieces of evidence.
21:28She pretty much disagreed with every single witness that came before her.
21:32At that point in time, did he ask you that? Where did you get the mushrooms?
21:37No. He said to me, where did you get the ingredients from for the beef wellingtons? And my answer to that was Woolworths.
21:48So clearly that's quite different to what he said, but I can only deal with what my memory is.
21:54But that didn't happen. I said to her, there's a strong concern that death cat mushrooms were in the meal. Where did you get the mushrooms?
22:07Because the Crown hasn't got a smoking gun. It's layer upon layer upon layer. So it's about producing a series of lies.
22:16Is your evidence that you laid down for a bit when you got home for a while?
22:22On Monday the 31st of July, she discharged herself about five minutes after arriving at the hospital.
22:28She drives home and then she has a nap for about 40 minutes or so.
22:33But her phone says that she connected to the Outram Bay station at around 9am. How does that happen?
22:39I can't see how Outram would provide coverage to the western part of the Lee and Gatha township when the Lee and Gatha Bay station doesn't.
22:51This doesn't fit her version of events at all.
22:55One of the things that makes absolutely no sense to me as we look at Erin's story is the fact that she fed the meal leftovers to her children.
23:02I did.
23:04Knowing that all of her guests were seriously ill and she claims she was also ill.
23:12So five out of five and yet she still fed them. The idea of scraping mushrooms off is an absurdity.
23:19She has five packets of eye fillets. Each one's got two.
23:23She's got four perfectly fine steaks sitting in the fridge that she could give to her children.
23:33Okay. Now this part of the evidence isn't super pleasant so I apologise but bear with me.
23:39In this trial there was more discussions about poo than in Christopher Robin.
23:45So she ended up driving her son to a flying lesson. She said,
23:49Half an hour into the trip I felt like I needed to go to the toilet so we pulled over on a stretch of road where there was quite a bit of bush.
23:57I had diarrhoea so I cleaned myself up with tissues and put it in the dog bag and put it in my handbag.
24:05She told the jury that she just had done a poo on the side of the road. She had diarrhoea and then she's walked into the service station because she wanted to put the tissues in a rubbish bin.
24:14I don't know whether the jury considered the fact that she wore white pants when she was suffering, in her words, violent diarrhoea.
24:22She disagreed her own son's memory of what happened the day that they went for a drive to his flying lesson.
24:29And at this point I could see her sitting in the witness box, biting her lip, fiddling with her glasses.
24:36I suggest he did not recall you stopping in the bushes on the side of the road because it did not happen.
24:43Agree or disagree?
24:45Disagree.
24:52The longer the witnesses in the witness box, the greater the opportunity for them to make mistakes because they just get tired.
24:58Aaron is in the box for eight days talking about mushrooms.
25:02There's this very sort of like tense, multiple days of evidence as Nanette is asking all these questions and Aaron is seemingly getting frustrated.
25:12You could feel that the strings were starting to come a little bit loose.
25:17There was one point when Annette Rogers was firing questions at Aaron and there was no, no, no disagree.
25:24And all of a sudden she paused and goes, are you making this up as you go along Miss Patterson?
25:29No.
25:30If you have called a defence witness, you are fingers crossed that they hold the line.
25:37That there isn't something comes out of the woodwork that destroys their credibility.
25:42But you weren't confronting any medical issues, were you?
25:46Correct?
25:47Uh, yeah.
25:48No.
25:49No, I think I was.
25:50Yeah.
25:51And what were they?
25:52I was going to have surgery soon.
25:54What surgery?
25:55The gastric bypass surgery.
25:57With who?
25:59Uh, was the Enrich Clinic in Melbourne.
26:02That's the first time we're hearing about Enrich Clinic.
26:05Everything changed.
26:07That wasn't any evidence.
26:09That is something that the prosecution hadn't heard before that comes out for the first time.
26:13Bang!
26:14Stephen Eppingstall gets up and leaves the room.
26:16The prosecution team are speaking to each other on the computers.
26:19You can see them typing in their laptops.
26:21And it turns out Enrich Clinic don't offer weight loss surgery.
26:24They've never offered weight loss surgery.
26:26Not only was it a lie that Erin had told to the jury in front of the jury,
26:31but it was a lie that had been told to explain another lie.
26:35The prosecution did their research and they came into court prepared.
26:39Prepared to make her throw herself under the bus.
26:42And that's exactly what happened.
26:43I've seen cases turn on an answer.
26:47Turn on an answer.
26:49The witness had said something so completely stupid and out of sync with everything.
26:55It was the moment.
26:59I think Erin had done a reasonable job up until that point of batting away any questions about
27:04her story.
27:05But in this instance she'd been caught out.
27:07People had really got invested in this case.
27:25And we know members of the public had come to nearly every single day of the trial.
27:29Some had taken work off.
27:31Some had changed their work hours just to be there.
27:34The first few weeks actually has been easy to get a seat.
27:37But this week it has been literally the Hunger Games.
27:40With the number of general public getting in.
27:43And you know almost elbows out to get a spot.
27:47So yeah we're just getting here early and earlier.
27:49Like this morning we're here at 6.30 to make sure we're getting a seat.
27:52Come this far I'm not getting a seat.
27:55I've really enjoyed watching you know the prosecution and the defence like do what they do.
28:01And I've always grown up like I don't know how people can defend murders.
28:04But now seeing the defence do their thing you're like I actually appreciate what you're doing.
28:10Because everyone seems to have an opinion on how the police work or the legal system work.
28:13But they've never actually physically gone out and seen it first hand.
28:17So it's been good.
28:18I actually like the human psychology of it.
28:21So I don't believe that if Erin is guilty that she just woke up one day and went I'm going to take out my whole in-laws.
28:28There's some psychology.
28:29There's more to the story.
28:30And that's the part that intrigues me.
28:33In 30 odd years of being around serious criminal offences that go through the court system.
28:43I think it's almost unheard of not to present in terms of defence with a psychiatric, a forensic psychiatric or a forensic psychological assessment.
28:54My name's Karen Owen. I'm a forensic and clinical psychologist.
28:58My work has been originally with the Department of Justice.
29:03So working within prisons and community corrections, developing treatment programs for high risk offenders.
29:10It's certainly possible that she would have had some kind of assessment.
29:16And it may well, for whatever reason, might not have suited the storyline that the defence wanted to portray.
29:26We know that she's at least of high average, if not higher intelligence.
29:31We know that she's organised.
29:33We know that she's a good researcher.
29:35And yet when you look at her in terms of the persona that she presents,
29:41which is this kind of flat, affect, sort of dowdy, middle aged woman,
29:48it's not consistent with who historically,
29:51throughout all the other information that we've got, who we know she is.
29:54If I were conducting an evaluation of her based on the information that I've got now,
30:01without question there's an underlying, borderline personality disorder or something similar,
30:07some kind of sort of behavioural affective issue.
30:11And that is really consistent with the fact that she's talked about in the transcript around having a long term eating disorder issues.
30:20All the eating disorders are really highly correlated with some of those sort of cluster B personality characteristics.
30:28I think we're fairly safe in saying that she's someone who has a high degree of need in terms of inclusion
30:37and being part of a group or a social circle or a family unit.
30:42I mean, one of the key features in terms of borderline personality is the inherently unstable relationship.
30:49So you're either all in or you're all out.
30:52You know, I hate you or I love you, but there's nothing in between.
30:56Some borderline people can harbour and ruminate and plan for a long time.
31:05The prosecution did a very good job in their closing, I think, of kind of really clearly nailing every single lie they said that Erin Patterson's story was built on.
31:32It really brought the case home for the prosecution.
31:39At the heart of this case are four calculated deceptions made by the accused.
31:45The first deception was the fabricated cancer claim she used as a pretense for the lunch invitation.
31:52The second deception was the lethal doses of poison the accused secreted in the home cooked beef wellingtons.
32:00The third deception was her attempts to make it seem that she also suffered death cap mushroom poisoning.
32:07And fourthly, the fourth deception, the sustained cover up she embarked upon to conceal the truth.
32:14Here's a woman who remembered every finite detail of everything.
32:19But when it came to a lot of the key issues, she didn't agree or she couldn't remember or all of a sudden her memory was fading.
32:26You might have noticed that when the accused was giving evidence that she appeared to have a remarkable memory.
32:33Even now in June 2025, she could recall that the 28th of April 2023 was a Friday and not a Monday, as I had suggested to her in cross-examination.
32:45Yet in August 2023, she could not recall the shop or even the suburb where she purchased the mushrooms from, an Asian grocer in the same April of 2023.
32:56It simply beggars belief.
32:58The prosecutor said, this woman is smart as a tack.
33:01This woman remembers everything, but she conveniently forgets stuff when that sort of material damages her case.
33:08She basically hung her with her own robe.
33:11But one of the most powerful moments after outlying those four deceptions was the fact that Nanette just told the jury and there's a fifth secret deception.
33:20But there is a fifth deception.
33:22The deception she has tried to play on you, the jury, with her untruthful evidence.
33:29When she knew her lies had been uncovered, she came up with a carefully constructed narrative to fit with the evidence.
33:37Almost.
33:38If you think of it on a human level, all of a sudden those members of the jury had a personal reason to distrust Erin Patterson.
33:45It might be suggested to you that some of the accused behavior after the lunch was the result of panic, innocent panic about the prospect of being blamed.
33:58We suggest that you can reject those suggestions.
34:02Why?
34:03Because panic does not explain the extensive and prolonged efforts that the accused went to in order to cover up what she had done.
34:13Nanette Rogers was saying that if Erin's version of events went the way she said they did, how completely and utterly unlikely it was that that would occur.
34:24I felt like it was this sliding doors scene.
34:28It was the first time the prosecution really put that comparison in front of the jury.
34:33Nanette Rogers says on Saturday afternoon, while Don, Gail, Ian and Heather are going about their normal life, Erin claims that she's starting to experience gastro-like symptoms.
34:43On Sunday morning, the Wilkinsons and the Pattersons arrive in the hospital after being up all night vomiting.
34:54By Sunday afternoon, Don's condition has deteriorated.
34:57At that moment, Erin is taking her son to flying lessons in Tyre, a two-hour return trip.
35:06By Sunday evening, Don is admitted to ICU with organ and kidney damage.
35:10Meanwhile, Erin is serving her children the leftovers of the lunch with the pastry and the mushrooms scraped off.
35:17On Monday morning, as Ian and Heather's condition declines rapidly and doctors consider taking them to Dandenong Hospital, Erin arrives to Leangatha Hospital but discharges herself after five minutes.
35:29About an hour later on Monday morning, as Ian and Heather are being transported to Dandenong Hospital, Erin returns home, packs her daughter's ballet bag and has a nap.
35:38On Tuesday, August 1st, as Don and Gail are on life support, Erin is discharged from Monash Medical Center and returns home with no evidence of Amanita mushroom poisoning.
35:49And finally, on August 2nd, Simon Patterson summons his siblings and his cousins at the chapel at the Austin Hospital and reveals that Erin might have poisoned their parents on purpose.
36:00At that same time, Erin Patterson factory resets her phone and takes the dehydrator to the local tip.
36:06Nenette finished and she finished on a high and she went like, and that is it.
36:17And it's almost like she was just...
36:18She should have taken a bow.
36:19...bow and I'm out of here.
36:21So they were hanging on every word of Nenette.
36:23Yeah.
36:24Like, and I really felt like that was like a bombshell moment when she goes, I've taken you through the four deceptions I told you I was going to take you through, but I have a fifth.
36:31And even I was sitting there in the courtroom thinking...
36:33And I was like, what's the fifth?
36:34What's the fifth?
36:35Yeah.
36:36What have we missed?
36:37And got excited in that moment that there was something new, something different.
36:40The overflow room went like, whoa!
36:43Yeah.
36:44And I think even the jury were like, oh, hang on.
36:47This is a kerpa.
36:48Where are we going?
36:49And I think the moment that like there was a juxtaposition, basically, she was running through how the health of the lunch guests was deteriorating after the meal and the symptoms, the symptoms that they were experiencing on like, they went after the lunch, they two after the lunch.
37:02She was comparing that to what Erin Patterson was doing.
37:05The way that she simplified it and painted those two comparisons was the most chilling moment for me in the entire trial.
37:13And I think it was really smart for her to be, her version of events hinges exclusively on her own account and she's lied to you.
37:21And that's the bit saying like, that's that disclaimer at the beginning of Lolita by Nabokov, it's like everything you're about to hear is through the lens of a liar.
37:30Erin Patterson's defence barrister has told the jury she might be a liar, but she's not a killer.
37:37He also labelled the prosecution's allegation that the mother of two would murder her only support network as ridiculous.
37:44A lack of motive is a powerful thing for the defence.
37:49I mean, most human conduct has motive.
37:51If you're hungry, you eat.
37:53If a car cuts you off getting for the car park, you get annoyed.
37:56There's a reason, right?
37:58But to actually methodically set about poisoning somebody, there has to be a pretty strong reason.
38:06And the absence of that is very compelling in my view.
38:10After nine gruelling weeks of evidence, closing arguments and final instructions from the judge, the moment is finally here with the jury in the mushroom murder trial sent away to begin its deliberations.
38:25His honour reminded the jury that the onus is on the prosecution to prove those charges beyond reasonable doubt.
38:32And he said that Erin Patterson has nothing to prove.
38:37I was very much worried that there was plenty of reasonable doubt to actually sway a jury to find Erin not guilty at that point in time.
38:45They have actually been sequestered, which means they have been put up in local accommodation here, locked away from the outside world, with the judge warning them they are only to discuss the case with their fellow jurors.
38:57I still thought when the jury went out that not guilty or hung was more likely than guilty.
39:04There was enough about her story that, for me, planted the seed of doubt.
39:10As a very junior barrister, when I was doing my first murder trial, on the way to court, I stopped at the bathroom.
39:17And I saw an older, very experienced criminal barrister vomiting in the sink.
39:23And I said, are you all right? He said, no, I'm OK, I've just got a jury going out.
39:28It's a horrible time, particularly where the consequences are dire.
39:37There's still no movement from the jury in the mushroom murder trial as they enter their second day of deliberations.
39:43On the third day.
39:44On the fourth day.
39:45Fifth day.
39:46These days drag on and on. I think anyone with a heart would really feel for these jurors.
39:51Nobody knows. It could be a two week deliberation.
39:55Once we got to day five of deliberations, we all started getting really nervous.
40:00That's at the point where you think anything can happen and we're going to have a split verdict
40:04or we're going to have a hung jury.
40:06And you spend your time closer and closer to the courthouse.
40:10Mara and I were at lunch and all of a sudden I got a phone call that just said verdict.
40:29And my heart was racing. My stomach dropped. Just the volume of people that were gathering
40:45and just bolting towards this courthouse.
40:48A few moments ago, we just received an email from the Supreme Court media team confirming
40:53confirming that the jury have reached their verdicts.
40:56And after a week of deliberation...
40:58Hours and hours of work.
41:00And we're waiting for the verdict.
41:05You walk single file silently into this courtroom and sit and wait.
41:13Justice Christopher Beale says jurors, do you have a verdict?
41:18And the foreperson says yes.
41:20I just remember looking at their faces and seeing that they were really feeling the gravity of this moment.
41:27They just looked like they'd just gotten through hell on earth.
41:33And then all of a sudden we learn guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty.
41:41And there was no reaction from Erin Patterson. She didn't bow her head.
41:45There was no sign of tears, no sign of emotion. She just sat there staring right ahead.
41:54Outside the courtroom is mayhem.
41:57Breaking news coming from Morwell.
42:00The verdict is in and the jury has found...
42:03Erin Patterson guilty.
42:04On all charges.
42:05Look at the amount of media attention right here. We are surrounded.
42:08This is a result that many people across the world would have predicted.
42:13Erin Patterson has been found guilty on all charges.
42:18Hello.
42:20How are you feeling?
42:21I'm saddened.
42:23Did you think Erin was capable of something like this?
42:26She's a triple murderer.
42:27See how they did later behind.
42:28Are you expecting your friend to be found?
42:29Ali, she said she didn't see you soon. Were you hoping to see her?
42:32Was she positive that she was Wolfrey?
42:34What do you think she would want to say to the family?
42:36I could just get to my car, guys. I'm doing really good now.
42:40Come on, guys. Enough here.
42:42Is there anything you'd like to say today?
42:46Are you expecting to appeal, Mr. Maggi?
42:49Have you been in contact with your family yet?
42:51Yeah.
42:55I think it's very important that we remember that we've had three people.
42:59Three people have died and we've had a person that nearly died and was seriously injured.
43:05National and local media, I'm out of breath because we have been following the people as they leave the courtroom.
43:09Should we head?
43:11Yeah.
43:13I've been doing this marathon thing and it's finally come to a conclusion somewhat.
43:16And now I'm being asked to drive an hour away and try to get a hold of and try to talk to the people that have been hurt by it the most.
43:26The Patterson and Wilkinson families.
43:29I want to go in the off chance. They want to talk.
43:32But I'm fully prepared for them not to.
43:35And I'm not going to press it.
43:43Bro.
43:44It's surreal.
43:45It's surreal.
43:47Absolutely surreal.
43:51But when Ali Rose walked out, feasibly distraught because, you know, the person she's been supporting for this long has just been found guilty of three counts of murder and one of attempted murder.
44:06You know, she's completely swarmed by this media pack and they've all got their mics. She can hardly walk through them. Like, whether you're on one side or the other. Like, it was the same for Jess, who's been supporting the family. Like, it's been brutal two years.
44:24But it did certainly make me think a lot about how we cover crime and about the way the media can feed on a story and then also become part of a story and what impact that can have on the victims of crime.
44:39That included me, that included you, that included every podcast, every social media account. We should have kind of been able to step back as part of it, saying, what am I doing here? What am I doing as part of this that is contributing to further harm to these families?
44:57Hey, Jess, how's it going? Good, how are you going? Yeah, good. How are you feeling after it all? Must be...
45:06Yeah, look, it's a very strange feeling. I have lots to do at the moment, as you'd imagine.
45:14Yes, yeah, yeah. I was going to say I felt like I could vomit earlier today. I just wanted to touch base and just make sure I just want to know where the lines are.
45:24I don't want to cross any red lines. I don't want to upset anyone. I just want to understand a little bit what the go is. Is there going to be any statements or anything like that at this stage or...?
45:34No, no statements at this point in time from the Patterson family, and I don't see that changing.
45:41There were so many clear examples of the lines being crossed. And the justification for it was, you know, the public interest. But I think, in reality, the justification for it was the public appetite.
46:00There was no
46:22People will just move forward and that will be the end, you know.
46:42Life goes on and you try and put it behind you, but you can't put it behind you.
46:47I mean, the communities, you know, are very resilient.
46:52In another phase you just say, shit happens, and that's what happens.
46:56OK, we'll work our way through it.
47:00We don't have a choice. There's no choice. You get on with life.
47:06Probably the thing that this tragedy has highlighted is what a solid community we have here.
47:15What is the first time here in Victoria, a television crew being allowed in court for sentencing.
47:22This will be broadcast live.
47:25Erin Patterson, after a long trial, during which you gave evidence that the poisoning of your four lunch guests on the 29th of July was an accident,
47:36the jury found you guilty of three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.
47:42In other words, the jury necessarily found that you deliberately served poison meals to Gail and Don Patterson and Heather and Ian Wilkinson,
47:52and that you did so intending to kill them.
47:55Only Ian Wilkinson survived.
47:57Good morning. I'll not be taking any questions or making any further comments apart from this statement.
48:15My purpose here today is to give some well-earned thanks.
48:22Firstly, to Victoria Police, in particular the Homicide Squad and the team led by Detective Stephen Eppingstall.
48:34I'd like to extend gratitude to the team from the Office of Public Prosecutions led by Senior Counsel Nanette Rogers.
48:47The victim impact statements reveal the immense and ongoing anguish suffered by your many victims, direct and indirect.
48:57Four generations of the extended Patterson and Wilkinson families have been traumatised by your crimes.
49:03Ian Wilkinson's sister, Dorothy Dicker, questions, quote,
49:08how anyone could sit there and watch those four kind and caring people eat that meal.
49:14Your failure to exhibit any remorse pours salt into all the victim's wounds.
49:21I will conclude my account of key aspects of the victim impact statements
49:28with what Don and Gail's son Matthew had to say about your betrayal of trust.
49:32Quote,
49:34Erin was embraced as part of the Patterson family.
49:37She was welcomed and treated with genuine love and respect in a way she did not appear to experience
49:43from her own family.
49:46Her actions represent a profound and devastating portrayal of the trust and love extended to her.
49:53Please stand.
49:56For the attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson, I sentence you to 25 years imprisonment.
50:06For the murder of Heather Wilkinson, I sentence you to life imprisonment.
50:11For the murder of Gail Patterson, I sentence you to life imprisonment.
50:16For the murder of Don Patterson, I sentence you to life imprisonment.
50:21All sentences are to be served concurrently.
50:24The total effective sentence is life imprisonment.
50:29And I fix a non-parole period of 33 years.
50:34Would you please remove Ms. Patterson?
50:38We're thankful that when things go wrong there are good people and services and systems available
50:57to help us recover.
50:59I'd like to encourage all those involved to keep turning up and serving others.
51:07Our lives and the life of our community depends on the kindness of others.
51:13I'd like to encourage everybody to be kind to each other.
51:18I thank the people of the Leangatha and Currumburra communities in particular.
51:29Your thoughtfulness and care has been a great encouragement to us.
51:35That's all I wish to say for now.
51:38Please respect our privacy as we continue to grieve and heal.
51:44Thank you for listening.
51:46I hope you all have a great day.
51:50Thank you very much.
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