The butcher, the fashion choice and the old job: The real red flags in Erin Patterson's claims
There were expert witnesses aplenty, but perhaps they missed a trick by not calling a fashion guru. Patterson repeatedly testified that she suffered 'explosive diarrhoea,' yet she was filmed wearing white pants at the time.
White pants for a misbehaving bottom are a red flag.
Patterson was asked a million questions, but there were a couple I would have liked to have heard her answer. The beef Wellington recipe called for one large eye fillet. Patterson explained that she shopped at the Leongatha Woolworths, which only had pre-cut steaks, so she bought five double packs, making six individual Wellingtons and freezing the remaining two.
Right across the road from Woolworths in McNamara Place is Leongatha Fresh Meat and Fish Supplies, where one of the friendly staff could have cut an eye fillet to size.
A butcher there said she was not a regular customer, although she did visit once after the fatal lunch. 'She bought some loin chops.'
Before marrying and moving to Leongatha, she was an air traffic controller. Applicants are told they need the following attributes: 'Good spatial awareness and strong mathematical skills, excellent communication skills, the ability to work well under pressure and make quick, accurate decisions, the capability to plan ahead, as well as adapt to changing situations, enjoying taking charge and being accountable for your actions and decisions.'
Patterson said her decisions to lie and destroy evidence were based on panic and the belief she would wrongly be blamed for the deaths. So she could help land a Jumbo with a dead engine in the fog, but couldn't tell the truth to the cops.
The jury was infected with colds – some wore masks – and at times struggled with the daily grind.
Little wonder. The generally accepted psychological rule is that the average adult can concentrate for 10 to 15 minutes at a time, not 10 to 15 weeks. Professional speakers, comics, university lecturers and Bourke Street buskers know to deliver their best bits early.
In December 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's war declaration of 'a date which will live in infamy' took four minutes.
Winston Churchill's first address to the House of Commons as prime minister, 'I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat', took five minutes.
The Gettysburg Address lasted two minutes and was 10 sentences long.
Julius Caesar was even more succinct when describing a Roman war victory. 'Veni, vidi, vici' – I came, I saw, I conquered.
Clearly, he was not a lawyer, as many (who are paid by the hour) have a different view. Put a witness in the box and ask them the same question as many times as possible, until they falter.
Fatigue them until they make a mistake. Prosecutors are pythons that slowly squeeze their prey into submission.
Or the legal version of Muhammad Ali's rope-a-dope: letting your opponent punch themselves out before attacking.
In every court case, there are mysteries; with this one, it begins with location. Why was the case shifted to Morwell, a town 150 kilometres from Melbourne, to a court that had only six media seats and required lawyers, police and witnesses to complete the 300-kilometre round trip multiple times, eating into the sitting times, with the trial regularly ending early on a Friday to allow staff to return to the city?
Morwell is the sister city to Japan's Takasago, remains an important part of the power grid and has reared many favourite sons, including world champion boxer Rocky Mattioli and Hawthorn cult figure Changkuoth 'CJ' Jiath.
(An interesting, if irrelevant fact: Former Hawthorn star Jarryd Roughhead was at the Leongatha tip the same day Patterson dumped her dehydrator there.)
But the citizens of Morwell are not renowned for their knowledge of the production of beef Wellingtons nor the rules of jurisprudence. With such a small population, it would be easier to identify the jurors who have disappeared from their jobs for 10 weeks.
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If we work on the fact that 12 legal staff, four police, 30 witnesses and 50 media attended the trial from Melbourne (one crew even built a stage), it works out that they have travelled 211,000 kilometres to and from the Gippsland town by road or rail, accruing about $6697.32 in toll fees. It is the equivalent of travelling from the North to South Pole more than 10 times.
With about 70 interested parties staying in Morwell five nights a week, it would have been a mini winter boom for hospitality, flushing more than $10 million into the economy. If everyone chose the pub dinner option, it would add up to 3500 roasts of the day, fisherman's baskets, chicken schnitzels and mushroom risottos.
If everyone had a local pale ale or two glasses of wine with their meal, that would total 1487 litres of beer and 2133 bottles of wine.
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