Beef wellington chef Nagi Maehashi breaks silence on Erin Patterson trial
Australian online culinary figure Nagi Maehashi found herself as one of the countless facets of Erin Patterson's lengthy murder trial when it was revealed the triple murderer used one of Ms Maehashi's recipes as the basis for the fatal beef wellington dish.
'Dear journalists of Australia, please stop calling and emailing and texting and DM'ing me about the Erin Patterson case,' Ms Maehashi posted on Tuesday following the jury's guilty verdicts.
Nagi Maehashi has a large following on her RecipeTin Eats site. Picture: Supplied
Police found this cookbook when they searched Erin Patterson's house. Picture: Supplied
'It is of course upsetting to learn that one of my recipes – possibly the one I've spent more hours perfecting than any other – something I created to bring joy and happiness, is entangled in a tragic situation,' she wrote.
'Other than that I have nothing to say and I won't be talking to anyone. Thank you for respecting my privacy – Nagi.'
Patterson, 50, was on Monday found guilty of the murders of Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, and the attempted murder of Ms Wilkinson's husband, pastor Ian Wilkinson, 71.
During the trial, Patterson told the jury that she made beef wellingtons based on a recipe in Ms Maehashi's cookbook and wanted 'to do something new and special'.
Patterson laced the meal with poisonous mushrooms at her Leongatha home on July 29, 2023.
'Murder is not fun'
Swinburne University PhD candidate Loryn Sykes says the media and public have turned a devastating loss of life into a show for their own amusement.
Ms Sykes is hoping to complete a PhD in true crime podcasting.
'From an avalanche of memes about the case, to journalists hounding the author of the cookbook Patterson based her beef wellington recipe on, there has been no shortage of unhelpful and deeply unserious behaviour online which has been spurred by this case,' she said.
Following the guilty verdicts, the court released images of evidence, including the beef wellington in question and the above cookbook. Picture: Supplied
'The Erin Patterson case had all the hallmarks of a classic true-crime tale – fraught interpersonal family relationships which led to murder, a perpetrator who has been described as 'narcissistic' and 'evil', and an investigation with enough twists and turns to rival any true- crime podcast or series,' Ms Sykes said.
In a media release, Ms Sykes said 'the intense media and public attention on this case was inevitable, but the amount of online discussion and in-person gossiping about the Patterson case reveals how easy it is to turn unthinkable tragedy into an amusing pop-culture moment to chat about'.
'Murder is not fun. Having not just one but several family members ripped away from you by the actions of another is a harrowing experience,' she said.
'The last thing the Patterson and Wilkinson families need is more eyes on them during such a horrifying moment in their lives.'
The families involved in the case now needed privacy and time to heal, she said.
'This pain and grief will be with them for the rest of their lives; the intense international media coverage this case has received will certainly not have helped them grieve,' Ms Sykes said.
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ABC News
34 minutes ago
- ABC News
Neurosurgeon Greg Malham accused of 'sexist' and 'unprofessional' behaviour by colleagues and patients
It started out as one of those odd stories you sometimes see in the rough and tumble of a federal election campaign — a viral video of a man tearing down a female politician's campaign corflute, talking about burying the body under concrete. The vision of a surgeon smashing Kooyong independent Monique Ryan's election sign into a rubbish skip and saying "always gotta bury the body" went viral in a week when multiple women were allegedly murdered by men. But for many of the former colleagues and others who spoke to Four Corners for our investigation into this man, the video was telling — not just about his attitudes about women, but also the position he occupied as a surgeon at the apex of the private hospital world. A surgeon who left behind uncomfortable nurses, crying radiographers, patients who thought him like an egotistical character out of Mad Men, and a devastated, grieving family. Greg Malham was a renowned neurosurgeon at Epworth ― Melbourne's largest private hospital. When the corflute story broke in Melbourne's The Age newspaper, Epworth's CEO, Andrew Stripp, issued an unusually robust statement to staff, saying the hospital was "deeply concerned by the unacceptable behaviour displayed by the surgeon" and he personally found the content of the video "abhorrent". Within weeks, Greg Malham resigned from the hospital. Mr Malham was encouraged to report himself to the medical regulator, AHPRA, which commenced an investigation, but he is still operating. An investigation by Four Corners has discovered a string of people from Mr Malham's past who were not shocked by the video because they had seen what they described as sexist and inappropriate behaviour in the workplace by the neurosurgeon. "I wasn't surprised, because that's how exactly how he would carry on in theatre," said Katie, a former Epworth nurse who worked with Mr Malham in theatre and in the hospital's recovery rooms, who told Four Corners she found his behaviour with women "uncomfortable". Maddison, a former Epworth radiographer who also worked with Mr Malham, said he and other surgeons at the hospital had a "God complex". "They did see themselves as more important and better than anyone in the room," Maddison said. The phrase "God complex" was often volunteered to Four Corners about Mr Malham, whom many of his former colleagues thought was a prime example of the problem with some egotistical surgeons in the private hospital system. Former patient Annie Sargood and her husband Randall Cooke described Mr Malham as "probably the most egotistical person [they had] ever met". "[He was] absolutely, completely arrogant, like a character out of Mad Men," Ms Sargood, who had a spinal fusion operation with Mr Malham, told Four Corners. Mr Cooke said there were "flirtatious innuendos" in the way the surgeon behaved with his wife. "He was so up himself, he was so full of himself," Mr Cooke said. Four Corners has spoken to many staff who worked with him at Epworth and before that, at The Alfred public hospital, who felt uncomfortable about his behaviour. Recovery and theatre nurse Katie, who left Epworth in 2021, remembered often feeling uneasy around him because of the "inappropriate" way he would speak — this was something volunteered by many other nurses Four Corners spoke to. "He'd come into recovery and say, 'hey spunky'," Katie recalled. "[He] could be quite crass with some of the remarks he made, particularly around women. "He would make a lot of the nurses in recovery quite uncomfortable when he came in to hand over his patient." One memory that stood out for her was how, she said, he would "sometimes put his hand on your back and just leave it there that little bit too long". "There was sort of a vibe in the recovery room … 'Oh, here comes Greg. Let's get ready to feel awkward'," Katie said. She said that when she worked in Mr Malham's theatre, he would "really let loose in terms of his inappropriate behaviour". "Comments about women, about their tits ― just really crass, vulgar comments," she said. Maddison is a former Epworth radiographer who left the hospital largely because she could no longer bear working with surgeons in theatre. She said the neurosurgery department where Mr Malham worked was particularly toxic. "Radiographers would be crying because of the way that they'd been spoken to by the [neurosurgeons]," Maddison said. "A big reason for that stress was the stress that was put on us in theatre and just being scared every day." Two weeks before she left Epworth in January 2021, Maddison made a written complaint to human resources at the hospital about Greg Malham's behaviour in theatre. She said the radiography department was understaffed, and radiographers were often stretched so thin they would be late to theatre. On one of the occasions she was sent to Greg Malham's theatre, she said her heart sank because she assumed from previous experience he would get angry. She said he was "standing at the end of the corridor just glaring at me the whole journey up to the theatre". She wrote to HR that when she walked in, "Mr Malham … was yelling 'f***, f***, f***! This is f***ing ridiculous, having 12 people standing around doing nothing while we wait for an X-ray'." She wrote that Mr Malham then "aggressively un-scrubbed and stormed past me". "I felt uncomfortable, intimidated, scared, stressed and embarrassed," Maddison, who was worried she would make a mistake in the theatre, wrote. "I completed the imaging and left the theatre and burst into tears." Epworth's chief executive, Professor Andrew Stripp, who was not at the hospital at the time of these allegations, cannot speak about Greg Malham for legal reasons. But he does have a message for surgeons in his hospital more generally, saying they should be "mindful of the environment you are working in, be mindful of your team". "If people have felt uncomfortable about raising concerns or addressing issues, I'm very sorry to hear that," Professor Stripp told Four Corners. "It's essential that we create an environment at Epworth HealthCare where people can come to work, feel confident that they can deliver the care that they trained [for], that they aspired to do, and feel safe in doing so. "And when that's not living up to expectations, that they can take action, that they can be heard, and that those issues that are raised will be taken seriously, the concerns will be respected, and they will feel safe in doing so." The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) has strict guidelines for its fellows that go beyond their technical skills in the operating theatre. The College's Surgical Competence and Performance Framework says it is "poor behaviour" for surgeons to "repeatedly display a negative attitude towards junior medical staff, nurses and other health care professionals". It also says it is poor behaviour if a surgeon "berates and humiliates others" or "makes unwelcome comments on the appearance on the appearance of others". The College put out a statement condemning Mr Malham's behaviour in the corflute video after it received multiple complaints. RACS president, Professor Owen Ung, agreed with Four Corners that his behaviour in the video may also breach other competency guidelines, including those that said it was poor behaviour if a surgeon "lacks awareness that certain behaviours are disrespectful towards others" and "participates in or makes derogatory jokes." "We made it clear that we denounce any of that sort of behaviour," Professor Ung said. "Surgeons are held to high standards, as they should do in the community, and we take it very, very seriously. Neurosurgeon Ruth Mitchell, who worked at The Alfred with Greg Malham, preferred not to say what her thoughts were about him, but she did comment more generally about what she saw as a very sexist surgical culture in the field of neurosurgery. Of the roughly 300 neurosurgeons in Australia, only 16 per cent are women. "What I worry about is like a generation of female surgical trainees … who've had to do the emotional labour of tone policing or, you know, behaviour managing, managing up their seniors who really aren't behaving professionally," Dr Mitchell said. "The impact that has on the rest of your learning. You're meant to be learning how to operate. You're meant to be learning how to manage complex conditions." All of the 25 neurosurgeons at Epworth are men. When Andrew Stripp was asked if this was acceptable in 2025, his response was a very curt "No". "We'd like to see that improved," Professor Stripp said. "It is not OK," said Dr Mitchell. Yumiko Kadota is now a cosmetic physician, but she did several rounds of training in neurosurgery and left surgical training because of the toxic, male-dominated culture. She posted on Instagram about the corflute video being reminiscent of the "toxic dude-bro culture" she had witnessed in her training and was flooded with responses from "disgusted" women, including some who had worked with Greg Malham. "And the stories are sad, but not at all surprising to me just because I have seen similar behaviours in the past," Dr Kadota said. "It's a typical locker room chat where you can get away with saying misogynistic things to the other lads in the locker room and get away with it because there's no one holding you accountable. "And when you work in a male-dominated speciality like neurosurgery, there aren't that many people around who put you in your place." Warning: The following sections contain references to suicide. There was an incident that current and former Epworth staff repeatedly raised in relation to Dr Malham: his relationship with a 34-year-old nurse at the hospital who suicided in September 2014. The nurse's name was Laura Heffernan, and in her suicide note, she blamed Mr Malham for her decision to take her life. The note formed part of a coronial brief that has not been made public until now — the entire brief was released to Four Corners because the Victorian State Coroner accepted it was in the public interest. Apologising to her parents, Laura wrote in the note that she loved Greg with all her heart and could not "believe it was all lies and fake". Laura had been contacted by Mr Malham's ex-wife to say that he had been sleeping with both of them and lying to them. "I feel disgusting & used & humiliated & ashamed," Laura wrote. "I don't think the pain of how someone could be so hurtful & f***ed up & totally made me think they loved me & wanted a life with me will ever go away. It just hurts so much." Laura was very popular at the hospital, and Epworth nurses who worked with her felt uncomfortable about the power dynamic between the star neurosurgeon and the much younger nurse. Some told Four Corners that Mr Malham was inappropriately persistent in his attentions. "We found out that Laura was with Greg, and honestly, it was a little bit of a shock given his reputation," Katie said. "She was quiet, you know, quite dainty and just a nice sort of girl. And he was this outspoken, powerful, sort of obnoxious man." Katie remembered how, before they started dating, he would check the roster to see what time Laura was starting and finishing and leave chocolates for her, which none of the other surgeons would do. Another former Epworth nurse, Ruth, who was close friends with Laura and was a key coronial witness because she was one of the last people at the hospital to speak to her alive, said that in the early stages, Laura found Mr Malham's attentions "quite claustrophobic". "She was really professional and really good at what she did, and I think she probably felt that that, at times, was a bit intense," said Ruth, who left the hospital in 2015. "I think a lot of us were thinking, 'why is she with him?'" Katie remembered. Ruth, Katie and the other nurses noticed a sudden change in Laura after the relationship with the powerful neurosurgeon abruptly ended — Ruth remembers hugging her and recoiling because she was so thin. "And following that time, she just became really depressed," Katie said. "She'd lost a lot of weight. She pretty much looked as if she'd lost the will to live." The coronial brief shows Laura discovered Greg Malham cheated on her with the second of his now four wives and lied to both of them for months. She sent her girlfriends a distressed email: "I wanted you girls to know how f***ed up Greg is … I spoke to his ex-wife today … She knew that we were both being totally duped. Greg's told me lie after lie and is unable to give the truth when face to face … She thinks he has Narcissistic Personality Disorder … I'm so ashamed, embarrassed and humiliated … He is such a bad person. How can you think you can know someone when they can be that evil?" A supportive doctor offered to accompany Laura to complain to Epworth management about Greg Malham, but Laura told the doctor words to the effect of "no, he's too powerful". In September 2014, eight months after she started dating Greg Malham, Laura pulled up next to a park near her home in Thornbury in Melbourne's inner north and killed herself. "The last text she sent to me was just hugs and kisses," a tearful Ruth said. "As time went on, I was just angry, I suppose, that he could treat someone as lovely as Laura the way he treated her." Laura's mother, Christine Heffernan, said she did not understand why her daughter loved Greg Malham so much, but that Laura had blamed her decision to kill herself on him. "So, to me, to this day, it's just a waste of a beautiful life," Ms Heffernan said. Greg Malham never contacted the Heffernan family after Laura's death. He never responded to investigating police, despite repeated requests and the fact that he was not under suspicion. "People were angry, really angry at him," Ruth said. Katie was one of the nurses who refused to work with Greg Malham after Laura's death, and she remembered how one nurse left Epworth because of it. "One of the nurses sort of spoke up for Laura, and there were some interviews with her, with management, and soon after, she had left," Katie said. "Her concerns were Laura's mental health was deteriorating as a result of being with Greg, and she felt like there were some people that needed to be more accountable for that. There should have been a bit more of an intervention before she died. Many people told Four Corners that these types of surgeons brought in so much money for hospitals that management was loath to intervene when there were red flags about their behaviour. "They're the top of the food chain," said Ruth. "They are seen as almost untouchable. "I think in that culture, it's expected that you are going to get treated not well at times — you know, yelled at, you know, spoken down to." Professor Stripp can't address Greg Malham's treatment of Laura for legal reasons, but he had a personal message to any man in a position of power at the hospital who behaves inappropriately. "I think it important to understand such behaviour is unacceptable at Epworth Healthcare and will become known and we will address it," Professor Stripp said, agreeing that this meant "zero tolerance". The staff who worked with Greg Malham over many years are speaking out because they say change is desperately needed. "The system's so broken," Maddison said. Greg Malham did not respond to any of Four Corners' detailed questions, but in a preliminary call, he said the corflute video was intended as a joke amongst a small group of friends and that his fondness for mobster movies had been misinterpreted. Mr Malham pointed to his long and successful career at Epworth. Despite the scandal following the corflute video and his departure from Epworth, Mr Malham is now operating at Melbourne's Warringal Private Hospital, whose code of conduct says it has zero tolerance for inappropriate behaviour. Warringal's owner, Ramsay Health Care, said in a statement to Four Corners that Greg Malham has "temporary credentialling" and his application for full credentialling was "currently progressing". It said all practitioners seeking to work there must agree to uphold its code of conduct and values. Watch Four Corners' full investigation, God Complex, tonight from 8.30pm on ABC TV and ABC iview.
ABC News
34 minutes ago
- ABC News
Illicit tobacco is 'out in the open' but what is the best way to deal with it?
Jon Jon Jensen says tobacconists selling black market cigarettes are easy to find. The 58-year-old from country Victoria has been smoking for about 45 years and turned to under-the-counter cigarettes six years ago. "I just found they are so readily available, I can get them almost anywhere," says. He is one of the many Australians buying illicit tobacco — a trade that has been expanding over recent years. In 2023, it was estimated that illegal tobacco consumption may account for close to 30 per cent of the total tobacco market in Australia, although these estimates by the legal tobacco industry are disputed. And despite sectors of government agreeing Australia has a problem with the illegal trade, there's mixed messaging about how to tackle the problem. Unlike a pack of legal cigarettes, which costs about $40 for 20, Mr Jensen buys a box of 100 cigarettes once a week, which he says costs him $30. "Everyone I know who smokes is buying illicit tobacco, because of the price," he says. The difference in price between the products is because of the tax excise that is added to legal cigarettes, which can be up to 70 per cent of the total retail price. University of Sydney public health professor Becky Freeman says, despite having some of the lowest smoking rates our country has seen, we are seeing illegal tobacconists "popping up everywhere" because "cigarettes are so incredibly profitable". The current revenue for the government from tobacco excise sits at about $7.4 billion — a drop from $12.6 billion in 2022-2023 and $16.3 billion in 2019-2020. During a press conference last month, federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers said there were two reasons for the decline. "The good reason is fewer people smoking, the bad reason is we know that we've got a challenge when it comes to illegal tobacco," he says. While he has ruled out lowering the tax excise on cigarettes, which will rise again in September, NSW Premier Chris Minns has a different view. "[The cost is] pushing regular law-abiding citizens into an illicit black market, where they are forced to buy cigarettes for $20 or $17, compared to $60 or $80," he said during Parliament in June. He also argued the government did not have enough resources to crack down on the illicit trade as it currently stands. "At the end of the day, we have to make a decision about what the best use of police resources are or health resources are," he said. Professor Freeman worries if the government was to lower the tobacco excise, it would be sending the wrong message. "The only thing you would be doing is rewarding the very retailers who had flouted the law by allowing them to legally sell cheap cigarettes," she says. She argues that, if the government was to lower the tax excise, it would essentially have to remove it altogether to "compete with the illicit market". "My concern with getting rid of the tobacco tax essentially is we would make smoking more appealing to more people and we'd be undermining all the public health gains we have made," she says. There are more effective ways Ms Freeman says the government can use to target the illegal trade. "If we really want to tackle the illicit market, to me it's about managing the supply of products … cigarettes are sold everywhere in any kind of retailer you can imagine. "If you want to be able to enforce illicit tobacco, the number one thing you should be doing is reducing the number of outlets that sell it." But Fei Gao from the University of Sydney Business School believes that while a range of steps are necessary to tackle the black market, one of them is lowering the excise. "When something is so expensive from the legal market, the illicit market will grow," Dr Gao says. She says lowering the excise is an "important step because if that gap can't be closed, any effort the government takes or makes will be wasted". But she says determining the amount will require collaboration. "During all these years, we haven't done any policy review on tobacco excise, so I think we need to gather a bunch of experts, such as tax experts [and] economists," she says. "We need to sit together, talk about this topic and we need to price in all relevant factors such as the growing illicit tobacco market, the replacements such as vapes [and] the ever-changing smoking rate." This month, NSW and Victoria were the last two states to introduce tobacco licensing laws, which mean businesses in NSW have until the start of October to apply for a licence that allows them to sell cigarettes. For Victoria, it's February next year. But Professor Freeman says legislation has to go further. "Immediately shut down shops that you find selling, to issue massive fines not only to the business owner but to the landlord who owns that property and leases out that building," she says. "And then finally you should be using this licensing scheme to reduce the number of outlets." Mr Jensen says he went from smoking up to 90 cigarettes a day, down to less than 20. He wants to quit, but says the nicotine replacements are "too expensive". "I just wish the excise they do collect on cigarettes would be subsidising nicotine replacement therapy because this nicotine replacement therapy is expensive. "I don't particularly want to give up nicotine, I'd love to give up the cigarettes, but I can't afford the nicotine replacement therapy that goes with it." Mr Jensen says a box of 20 inhalers costs about $40. He says his cheapest option is turning to the black market. Federal Health Minister Mark Butler didn't answer questions from the ABC about whether he'd consider subsidising the cost of nicotine replacement therapy. The Albanese government introduced the Illicit Tobacco and E-Cigarette Commissioner (ITEC) role on July 1, 2024 to "coordinate national efforts to combat the threat of illicit tobacco and e-cigarettes to the Australian community". In a statement to the ABC, the ITEC said: 'Criminal networks don't stop at borders, and neither should the response. The ITEC continues to work with all levels of government to coordinate national policies, and support enforcement efforts across jurisdictions to drive these illicit actors out of business." As for Mr Jensen, he says he'll continue to smoke illicit tobacco until the price of inhalers drops. "If they're serious about getting us to quit smoking, make quit-smoking products cheaper."
The Australian
4 hours ago
- The Australian
Paul Hatton says wife Julie took her own life at Darreen Station; no inquest
A millionaire grazier says there is no mystery to his wife's death from a gunshot wound to the forehead, and the tragic case from almost half a century ago should never have been reopened. Paul Hatton said his first wife, Julie, had severe postnatal depression and shot herself with a rifle in despair at Queensland's Darreen Station in 1978. 'I was months, years, getting over this,' Mr Hatton said, making his first public comments on the death after a coroner formally ruled out an inquest. 'I went through hell. You wouldn't wish what happened to me on anybody.' Former Labor attorney-general Shannon Fentiman ordered a coronial investigation in April 2023 at the request of Natalie Hatton, the daughter of Julie and Mr Hatton, who was a 10-week-old baby when her mother died. Coroner Donald MacKenzie has now told Ms Hatton that a thorough police reinvestigation found no evidence to suggest the death of her 22-year-old mother was suspicious. An inquest was not in the public interest, the coroner ruled, with some records and evidence that could have shed light on the tragedy no longer available. The gun was recorded as being a Winchester .22 rifle but could not be found. Police advised the coroner that a lack of information about the gun and ammunition, and about the exact height and arm span of the deceased, meant it was not possible to do a viable re-enactment. Ms Hatton is appealing to the state coroner to overrule the refusal to hold an inquest. She has cited ongoing concerns about issues including a lack of evidence of powder or burn marks around the gunshot wound that she believes would have been expected from a shot at point-blank range. Darreen Station, near Eidsvold, remains in the hands of the Hatton family. Mr Hatton and second wife Ingrid have spent years restoring a century-old homestead there. 'Ask the attorney-general, 'what evidence did they have to open this inquiry?',' he said. 'This is an absolute tragedy turned on its head. My wife (Julie) was in a very, very bad way. She was diagnosed with … postnatal depression. She couldn't even mix the (baby) formula. That's how bad she was. But you don't realise what's going to happen.' Born and raised on the Gold Coast, the only daughter of bookmaker Kevin Clifford and wife Lillias, Julie married Mr Hatton when she was 19. Mr Hatton says she asked how to use a gun, and he showed her. 'In those days, you never locked the guns up because of snakes and crows and all that sort of thing,' he said. 'You can blame us. Maybe we should have put the gun (away). We didn't think. You don't think of those bloody things.' Until the age of 10, Ms Hatton believed her stepmother, Ingrid, was her biological mother. Mr Hatton said his parents and other elders in the family had stopped him telling his daughter sooner about her birth mother. 'I wanted to tell her from day one but nobody would let me. They all made me wait until she grew up, to make it easy on her. That's what they thought. All her life, we tried to protect her, tried to let her grow up without hurting her. All it's done is come back and bite us.' After the shooting Mr Hatton went without eating, he said, to the point his sister warned his health was in danger. 'It's the worst thing I've ever seen. I nearly took my own life,' he said. Julie 'was a lovely person' who could ride a horse, was very active and loved the property, he said. 'She didn't want to go into this state of mind. Today, they would have more help for her. They understand it today. In my day, they didn't understand it, that was the problem.' As a result of the renewed questions about his wife's death, he demonstrated to his family and police how it was possible for a person to take their own life using a similar rifle. 'It's as easy as falling off a log. I've handled guns all my life. I didn't realise how easy it was,' he said. Since the case was reopened, Ms Hatton has launched a separate civil claim seeking a declaration she is entitled to possession with her father and stepmother of one of the family properties, Delubra. As of 2019, the Hatton family ran about 20,000 head of cattle across 10 properties spanning more than 40,000 hectares. 'If I had no money, mate, this wouldn't even be happening,' Mr Hatton said, adding that he had the support of the rest of the family. Ms Hatton said her civil case was 'totally different' to her questions about her mother's death. She has been supported in her call for an inquest by a policeman who attended the death scene. When he was a young constable, John Raatz wrote in a 1978 police report that 'it would appear that the deceased was in depressed state of mind'. Now 79, Mr Raatz says a sergeant he went to the property with on the day Julie Hatton died decided not to call in detectives. 'I wanted him to follow up and get the CI (criminal investigation) branch out there. He just said, 'no way anyone's going to come here' and 'I'm handling the case' and 'no suspicious circumstances',' Mr Raatz said. 'He was out there for half an hour. Hopped in the ambulance with the now deceased, and didn't do anything. Why wouldn't there be an inquest into the … full circumstances as to what happened?' Mr Hatton angrily rejected the comments, saying they were in direct conflict with what a young policeman told him the day after the shooting. 'Is this the same copper that said to me … 'you're lucky you're still here, that you haven't been taken out, you and your baby'?,' Mr Hatton said. On the day of the shooting Mr Hatton was out riding a lawnmower. He says it's possible his wife, in a disturbed state of mind, also fired at him. 'When I was mowing, something went past my head, and it's come back a couple of times in my life. We'll never know,' he said. David Murray National Crime Correspondent David Murray is The Australian's National Crime Correspondent. He was previously Crime Editor at The Courier-Mail and prior to that was News Corp's London-based Europe Correspondent. He is behind investigative podcasts The Lighthouse and Searching for Rachel Antonio and is the author of The Murder of Allison Baden-Clay. Nation Sarah Hanson-Young has left the door open to the Greens using its numbers in the Senate to block Labor's agenda to push for stronger action, declaring voters handed the minor party the sole balance of power to act as a 'backstop'. Nation What does it take to be a Labor giant-killer and take out an opposition leader, Greens firebrands or long-serving incumbent MP? For the class of 2025 it meant hard work, grit and months on the hustings.
