Australia: Mushroom case, defence spending, wages up
Australia correspondent Karen Middleton joins Kathryn for an update on the Erin Patterson case - the woman accused of killing three of her in-laws by death cap mushrooms - after she took the witness stand yesterday. PM Anthony Albanese is rebuffing a call from the US to up defence spending, millions of Australians are about to get a pay rise of 3.5% after the Fair Work Commission decided the national minimum wage needed to rise and the social media craze 'Run it Straight' has made it to Australia.
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RNZ News
9 hours ago
- RNZ News
Australian man jailed for sexual abuse that led daughter to develop multiple personalities
The child abuse trial heard from multiple personalities. Photo: ABC News/Sharon Gordon A Newcastle man, whose sexual abuse of his children led to one developing dissociative identity disorder (DID), has been sentenced to 21 years in jail. In December, a Newcastle District Court jury found the man, who can only be named as SN, guilty of the child sexual abuse of siblings, known to the court as LN and AB. During a five-week trial LN, who has been diagnosed with DID, was sworn in as separate identities, known as alters. She gave evidence as a woman in her 30s, a five-year-old child and a 13-year-old girl. She called her identities "system members", created in response to severe, prolonged trauma. The jury accepted LN's DID diagnosis and found SN guilty of 23 charges involving child sexual abuse. LN today condemned her father in a victim impact statement, describing a life of horror and isolation. "The whole scenario seems like the blurb on the back of a book," she said. "It is a book of horror though and not one I would choose to read." LN said each of her "system members" had suffered. "I don't think our experiences can ever be put into words by me for the suffering our system holds in different ways," she said. "I don't feel words can cover the profound and enduring suffering we have been left with." Newcastle District Court heard LN created alters to survive alleged abuse by her father, spanning several years. Photo: ABC News/Michael Parfitt LN today also paid tribute to other alters who did not speak during the trial. "I hope what I say also gives a nod to system members who cannot openly communicate at this time," she said. After giving a victim impact statement today as herself, LN switched to her 13-year-old alter. Her voice changed pitch, she sobbed and paused, her vocabulary filled with attitude and slang. "I used to be happy. I did used to be happy, you know. I am not happy no more. "I can't do it no more, I don't want to be touched no more. "You took away everything that made me happy. "You just keep lying and you don't even say sorry." She ended firmly and abruptly. "I am done … that's all you got." In sentencing, Judge Ian Bourke said the father's behaviour was depraved and not "isolated aberrations". "All of the offences involved a grave breach of trust and authority, given that the offender was their father," the judge said. "It has been said that sex abuse by a father of their own child involves a breach of trust of the highest order. District Court Judge Ian Bourke presided over the trial where the same witness was sworn in under different personalities. Photo: ABC News "All of the offences occurred in a location that was the victim's home, where she was entitled to feel safe. "I have no doubt the offender had actual knowledge his sexual acts with LN were without her consent." Justice Bourke said both children were subjected to intimidation, physical and emotional abuse, and isolation. He also referred to alleged offending in Western Australia and Queensland saying "proceedings are either on foot or maybe commenced" in those states. The case was the first of its kind in Australia. There was a case in 2019 involving a woman given permission to give evidence as different personalities against her father, but no alters were sworn in after her father pleaded guilty mid-trial. That woman delivered victim impact statements as different alters - a different process to giving evidence. During the trial of SN, LN told the court she had at least 22 alternate identities and there could be more. SN has maintained his innocence. Their father will be eligible for release in 2038. - ABC
NZ Herald
10 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Erin Patterson trial: Mushroom cook denies photo shows death caps in dehydrator
Alleged mushroom poisoner Erin Patterson has denied an image of sliced vegetables on a dehydrator tray captures death cap mushrooms she had picked, her trial has been told. Giving evidence from the witness box of an Australian court on Thursday, Patterson was taken to a series of images police located
RNZ News
11 hours ago
- RNZ News
Erin Patterson denies murdering lunch guests in triple-murder mushroom trial
By Larissa Ham & Joseph Dunstan for ABC Erin Patterson has testified that she did not intentionally kill her relatives by putting death cap mushrooms in their meals. Photo: ABC News Accused triple-murderer Erin Patterson has testified that she did not intentionally kill her relatives by putting death cap mushrooms in their meals. Patterson, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and attempted murder, has taken to the stand for the fourth day running in the trial in Morwell, in regional Victoria, Australia. The 50-year-old is accused over the deaths of her estranged husband's parents Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson. Mrs Wilkinson's husband Ian, who also became seriously ill, was the only guest to survive the deadly 2023 lunch. The prosecution has begun cross-examining Erin Patterson in the Latrobe Valley Law Courts after three days of questions from her defence team. Ian and Heather Wilkinson, and Don and Gail Patterson were all hospitalised after the lunch, with only Mr Wilkinson surviving. Photo: ABC / Supplied This morning, Patterson's defence barrister Colin Mandy SC asked his client whether she murdered her relatives. "Did you intend to kill or cause really serious injury to Donald Patterson by serving that meal?" he asked her. "No I didn't," Erin she replied. "Did you intend to harm him in any way?" Mandy said. Patterson replied: "No." The defence barrister asked the same question of the three other guests. Patterson answered no to all questions, her voice progressively breaking as he came to the end of the names. The court was shown a transcript of a police interview with Patterson, in which she claimed she had not dehydrated food before. This morning, she said that was a lie, and admitted to also lying when previously denying she either owned a dehydrator or knew anything about one in the house. "I had disposed of it a few days earlier in the context of thinking that maybe mushrooms that I'd foraged, or the meal I'd prepared, was responsible for making people sick," she told the court. "And then on the Saturday, Detective Eppingstall told me that Gail and Heather had passed away, and, was this stupid kneejerk reaction to just dig deeper and keep lying. "I was just scared, but I shouldn't have done it." Lead prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC began her cross examination of Patterson by asking about her ownership and use of a food dehydrator. Dr Rogers asserted that Patterson had used it to knowingly prepare death cap mushrooms for the lunch. "You knew that they were death cap mushrooms that you'd been dehydrating, correct?" Dr Rogers asked. "No, I didn't know that," Patterson replied. "And you were very keen to dispose of any evidence that might connect you with the possession of death cap mushrooms, correct?" the prosecutor asked. "No, I didn't." The prosecution also put it to Patterson that she had tested how to hide dehydrated mushrooms in food without them being noticed. "Yeah, that's fair," Patterson replied. The trial heard Patterson had been adding powdered mushrooms to foods for her children, which she told the court was only done to boost their vegetable intake. However, she denied she had only ever used the dehydrator on mushrooms, saying she also used it to dehydrate apple, banana and other fruits. The trial continues. - ABC
