0:01

From the newsrooms of the Sydney Morning

0:03

Herald and The Age. This is

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the morning edition. I'm Chris Paine,

0:07

filling in for Samantha Salinger. Morris.

0:10

It's Wednesday, April 24th.

0:13

Earlier this week, the woman at the center

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of the Mushroom deaths case attended

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court for the second time.

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Aaron Patterson was arrested and charged

0:22

in November last year with three

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counts of murder and five counts

0:26

of attempted murder in the small town

0:29

Victorian case tracked around

0:31

the world. Legal

0:33

teams are now focusing their efforts

0:35

on the timing and location

0:37

for a committal hearing, which could be

0:39

impacted by a request from Patterson's

0:41

legal team to have the case tested

0:44

in front of her peers in a local

0:46

court. Patterson has already spent

0:48

five months in custody, and

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may spend many more waiting for a

0:52

hearing that could be pushed out to

0:54

2025. Today,

0:57

crime and justice reporter Erin Pearson

0:59

on everything we know so far

1:02

and what we can expect next. So,

1:08

Aaron, it's been months since the alleged

1:10

mushroom cook killer, Aaron Patterson,

1:12

was arrested and later charged

1:14

with three counts of murder and

1:16

five counts of attempted murder.

1:18

Now, Patterson attended court for the second

1:21

time this week. But before we get to

1:23

proceedings, could you just lay out the facts of the

1:25

case? It's been some time since we've spoken about

1:27

this.

1:27

Absolutely. So Mid-last

1:29

year there was a lunch held

1:32

at Erin Patterson's family home.

1:34

She invited members of her

1:36

former extended family. There

1:39

was served a dish that contained

1:42

mushrooms. And the police allege

1:44

those mushrooms of what led to the

1:46

poisoning of those family members. Now

1:48

we know three of those family members died,

1:50

one recovered after a

1:52

significant stint in hospital.

1:55

But we also know from the police

1:57

charges that Patterson is also

1:59

accused of attempting to kill her former husband

2:02

as well. 96

2:04

days after Aaron Patterson hosted the.

2:06

Deadly Beef Wellington lunch, the homicide

2:09

squad made its move, arresting

2:11

nine year old.

2:12

Aaron Patterson as part of their investigation

2:14

into the deaths of three people in.

2:16

What has been a complex and thorough

2:18

investigation by homicide squad detectives

2:21

and one that is not yet over.

2:24

Ian and Heather, some of the

2:26

best people I've ever met. I never did anything

2:28

wrong to be so devastated about

2:30

what's happened.

2:36

Now. Patterson appeared in court in November

2:38

last year, where the court heard that police

2:40

needed extra time to analyze

2:43

evidence seized from her home.

2:45

What type of evidence are we talking

2:47

about there?

2:48

So police had visited her home multiple

2:50

times. Upon her arrest, they

2:52

also searched further, taking in specialist

2:54

search dogs to help them with their investigation.

2:57

There was electronic material seized

3:00

during that search and

3:02

that electronic material. While we don't know the finer details

3:04

of what that is just yet, police had

3:07

required 20 weeks to analyze.

3:09

Looking at the time frame that's been

3:11

spoken about in court, they

3:14

should have had all of that material analyzed,

3:16

compiled whatever they needed

3:19

to form their case and supplied

3:21

to the defense team for

3:23

Miss Patterson at the end of March.

3:25

Which brings us to a court hearing earlier

3:27

this week. We heard about possible dates

3:29

and locations for a committal hearing.

3:32

Now, that's a hearing to decide whether

3:34

Patterson will face trial or not.

3:36

Can you tell me about that?

3:38

Yeah. What we're seeing now is it's been six months

3:40

since Miss Patterson has been

3:43

in custody. So we're looking at that

3:45

time now thinking, you know, when is this committal

3:47

proceeding going to happen? A

3:51

committal is also the first time

3:53

that the defense team

3:55

publicly analyze

3:58

the evidence that's been put before

4:00

the courts in relation to their client.

4:02

It's where we hear from witnesses, we hear

4:04

cross-examination of witnesses, and

4:06

at the end of a committal, a magistrate will

4:09

decide if there is sufficient evidence

4:11

that has been presented that could go to

4:13

a future jury. And if that is the case,

4:15

he will commit and Patterson to stand

4:17

trial. Patterson

4:20

remains in custody, so she was beamed

4:22

in via video link from the Dame Phyllis

4:24

Frost Centre, which is Victoria's women's

4:26

prison. She's being housed there

4:29

in a special section called the Murray

4:31

Unit for Protected prisoners. So

4:33

she appeared from a rather bleak room,

4:35

looked like a grey towel over a

4:37

window and there was a single chair in the background.

4:40

She appeared quite emotionless, but

4:42

seemed to follow the proceedings the whole way through.

4:45

She was in a blue jumper at glasses,

4:47

hair pulled back tight into a bun.

4:50

And could you just talk us through a little bit

4:52

about the argument that Patersons

4:54

legal team made with regards to

4:56

where they wanted this hearing

4:59

to take place?

5:00

So the judicial system usually likes

5:03

to see committal proceedings run

5:05

within six months of a person being

5:07

charged with a criminal offence.

5:09

At the end of the day, everybody is and

5:11

should be presumed innocent and

5:14

therefore nobody should be languishing

5:16

in prison unnecessarily. While

5:18

proceedings are dragging on. Now

5:21

there's really a couple of options that can happen,

5:23

typically with a complex

5:26

and long committal, which we're looking at about 3 or

5:28

4 weeks. Those hearings will

5:30

run in Melbourne, where there's more staff,

5:32

there's more courtrooms available in regional

5:34

areas that can be quite difficult, very

5:37

in-demand regional areas. They're not staffed

5:39

as well, and it's very difficult to

5:41

pencil in a room, a courtroom for an entire

5:43

month and have no other cases in there. So

5:46

what was discussed is whether or not the case

5:48

will get moved to Melbourne, or

5:51

if it will stay at the Latrobe Valley Courthouse.

5:54

What that means, though, is because

5:56

it's a regional court that's booked out for

5:58

months in advance. The magistrate

6:00

raised the issue that it's unlikely a committal

6:02

could be held until 2025.

6:05

That could mean that Patterson would be in custody

6:07

for sort of 14 months or

6:09

more before committal even happens. And

6:12

then what would have to follow is more court proceedings

6:14

a possible trial, quite a

6:16

lengthy delay. So so concerns

6:18

were raised about that. The prosecution were very supportive

6:21

of the case being moved to Melbourne, but

6:23

Patterson's defence team said

6:25

they'd been instructed by her that she

6:27

wanted the hearing to happen in her local community.

6:30

She wanted that evidence tested publicly

6:32

in front of a local community. And,

6:34

um, you know, there is a presumption

6:36

in the judicial system that that is what

6:38

happens.

6:39

So why exactly is it that Patterson's

6:41

team is arguing so adamantly

6:44

to have this case tested in regional

6:46

Victoria?

6:47

Yeah. Well, there is a presumption that

6:49

charges are heard and ventilated

6:51

in the local community where those offences

6:53

are said to have occurred. It's really

6:55

important, I guess, on a bigger scale

6:58

for local communities to also stay

7:00

engaged with the judicial system, develop

7:02

trust and understanding of the judicial system

7:05

when everything is centralised into

7:07

Melbourne, which might be convenient

7:09

for for many reasons, but

7:11

you lose that connection to the local

7:13

community. We've also got in cases

7:16

like this, if we've got a committal running for

7:19

3 or 4 weeks, there could be dozens

7:21

of witnesses, many of which will

7:23

live locally in the lengthy Gippsland

7:25

area. So having them travel as

7:27

well, considerable distance

7:29

in into Melbourne to give evidence is also a really

7:31

big consideration.

7:33

Okay, so it looks like there

7:35

could be some more delays potentially

7:37

extending into 2025

7:39

and beyond. What's likely to happen

7:41

or what could we expect in the next few months?

7:43

What are the next steps here?

7:45

So we are scheduled to go back to court

7:47

next month, where the

7:49

magistrate will decide officially whether

7:52

or not it's going to stay in Morwell

7:54

or move to Melbourne, which is about 150km

7:57

away, and he will set down a

7:59

date for that committal. So

8:02

in the next couple of weeks, there'll be a

8:05

lot of looking at diaries and trying

8:07

to move things around, figure out who's available

8:09

and get staff in Morwell, which

8:11

can be quite difficult. But

8:14

our judicial system says it's really important

8:16

that cases are heard where offences

8:18

are alleged to have been committed. So

8:20

it's not unusual for them to be moved, but it's

8:22

certainly the preference usually of

8:25

lawyers for it to stay there.

8:27

Erin, thank you so much for coming on, and we'll definitely

8:30

check in with you again as we move through this

8:32

process.

8:33

Thanks, Chris.

8:40

Today's episode of The Morning Edition

8:42

was produced by Julia Cattle.

8:45

The Morning Edition is a production of The

8:47

Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.

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