The Trial: Australia

In this episode, Wayne is delving into the surge of violence in Melbourne as part of the ongoing tobacco wars. Targeted attacks, drive-bys, firebombings, even the death of innocent civilians caught in the middle; and the violence is showing no signs of stopping. Joining Wayne is Ryan Naumenko, a former crook turned independent journalist who has made a career exposing the truth of the crimina...

On September 27, four-year-old Gus Lamont disappeared without a trace from a remote sheep station in South Australia. Despite the largest search operation in the state's history, there’s still no sign of him.  In this episode, Wayne is joined by Daily Mail senior reporter Karleigh Smith, who’s been on the ground covering the case. Together, they cut through the swirling rumours, debunk the AI...

In this episode of The Trial Australia , Caroline is returning to join Wayne for a dive deep into the latest bombshell developments in the Erin Patterson case. The Victorian DPP is now appealing Patterson's sentence, calling the 33 year non-parole period for three murders and one attempted murder "manifestly inadequate." Wayne and Caroline unpack the implications and examine why this sentence is n...

In 2021, Tom Phillips disappeared into the bush with his three children. They remained hidden for years, and despite a mammoth police hunt, headline news, and even an $80,000 reward, their whereabouts remained unknown. But that suddenly changed when a police encounter with Phillips quickly escalated into a shootout, and the fugitive father was shot dead. However, the story doesn’t end there, as qu...

In this episode, Wayne Flower is looking at the heartbreaking and tragic house fire that claimed the lives of two children and injured a third- and the mother of all three who now faces charges of negligent manslaughter. Shania Lee’s lawyer says that there was no way, and no evidence, that she could have known what was going to happen that night. But the police hold a more distressing belief, alle...

In the first of our weekly episodes, Wayne Flower looks at the gripping and ongoing manhunt for Dezi Freeman, a sovereign citizen fugitive accused of killing two Victorian police officers. With Australia’s largest tactical police operation underway, Paul Cale, known as the country’s toughest soldier, joins the podcast to analyse the manhunt. He explains why Freeman may have remained undetected, wh...

In this emergency episode Caroline and Wayne have the moment Erin Patterson was sentenced to life in prison. She will serve at least 33 years for the murders of Don and Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson, and the attempted murder of Heather’s husband Ian. For the first time ever in Melbourne’s Supreme Court, the judge was broadcast live as he told her she had shown no pity for her victims. He al...

In this special extra episode Caroline and Wayne have the words from the victims of Erin Patterson as they addressed a court in Melbourne today. Erin Patterson sat in the dock listening intently as members of the families told her she had taken the lives of people who only did good in the world, and they asked over and over again how she could have gone through with her “cold and calculated” plan...

In this special episode Caroline and Wayne have more shocking allegations made against Erin Patterson in court. These were kept from the jury during the trial and until today we weren't allowed to reveal them to you either. But we can now explain the details of four attempts she made to poison and kill her husband, Simon - months before she murdered his parents with death cap mushrooms. Hosted on...

In this final episode of this series - for now - Caroline and Wayne interview one of the key witnesses in the case. Dr Chris Webster suspected Erin Patterson of doing something “macabre” within minutes of seeing her at the hospital and he said as two of the people she poisoned were lying in beds feet away from her she didn’t even go to see them. His evidence was crucial in helping to convict her o...

In this episode Caroline and Wayne have exclusive CCTV footage of Erin Patterson visiting a tip - within half an hour of her lunch guests leaving her house. The video has never been seen before and this tip visit was never disclosed to the jury. So what exactly was she getting rid of? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s the day after the jury returned their guilty verdicts for Erin Patterson. She is now one of the world’s most notorious killers and today we wanted to try to analyse what makes someone so seemingly ordinary become a mass killer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Erin Patterson is a mass murderer. The jury in Victoria, Australia have today found her guilty of murdering her in-laws by poisoning them with deadly death cap mushrooms. The jury agreed that she lured them to her house by lying about having cancer, before she fed them a deadly meal. Then as they got sicker and sicker, she played lego and she went to Subway. In today’s episode Caroline and Wayne h...

In this episode Caroline and Wayne have the moment the jury started their deliberations. After giving them their final instructions, the judge, Mr Justice Beale, balotted the jury down from 14 to 12 and told them to start considering their verdicts. We also explain why the jury will not be allowed to go home now until they have decided on those verdicts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for...

In this episode Caroline and Wayne have more of the words from the judge as he continues to sum the case up to the jury. He told them that just because Erin Patterson is a liar does not mean she is guilty of murder. On Monday he will hand the case over to them as they start to deliberate on their verdicts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Caroline and Wayne, for the first time, have the words of the judge as he tells the jury the fate of Erin Patterson will be in their hands. He has told them not to be swayed by prejudice or by sympathy and not to be influenced by the views of their family and friends. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Caroline and Wayne having the final words from Erin Patterson. Her defence barrister told the jury the prosecution had failed to reach the “high bar” to prove their case beyond reasonable doubt with “illogical” arguments. He said Erin Patterson’s lies may have been morally wrong but they did not make her guilty of triple murder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more infor...

In this episode Caroline and Wayne hear that Erin Patterson told “lots of lies” because she had a lot on the line including the possibility of losing her children. But those lies did not make her guilty of triple murder, according to her defence barrister. Plus we hear for the first time that she may have become sick before her lunch guests because she’s been tasting the mushroom mixture as she wa...

In this episode Caroline and Wayne hear there is no motive in this case. That Erin Patterson loved her in-laws and had no reason to kill them. In fact she “needed them in her life”. But we also hear accusations that she was duplicitous, of pretending to care about them but then mocking them online. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Caroline and Wayne have the closing speech from the Prosecutor. Dr Nanette Rogers said Erin Patterson had planned the lunch in great detail setting her “trail” of lies weeks before. She also said those lies were exposed because she hadn’t succeeded in killing one of her lunch guests who then gave evidence against her. Dr Rogers also said Erin Patterson had tried to cover her tracks...

In today’s episode Caroline and Wayne have the final moments of the case against Erin Patterson. All the evidence has now been heard and in the coming days the case will finally be summed up before the jury start to consider their verdicts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Caroline and Wayne hear Erin Patterson deny covering her tracks when she realised the doctors suspected death cap mushrooms were to blame for poisoning Don, Gail, Ian and Heather. She also said she did not serve her own meal on a different coloured plate to her guests as an extra “precaution”.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Caroline and Wayne hear Erin Patterson deny covering her tracks when she realised the doctors suspected death cap mushrooms were to blame for poisoning Don, Gail, Ian and Heather. She also said she did not serve her own meal on a different coloured plate to her guests as an extra “precaution”.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this special episode Caroline and Wayne pull all the strands together - what we know so far about what the prosecution say happened to cause the deaths of Don, Gail and Heather, and which of the allegations Erin Patterson has refuted after a week in the witness box. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Caroline and Wayne have the moment Erin Patterson denied being two-faced and that she only pretended to love her in-laws. She also denied luring them to the lunch to make sure her husband Simon also came - so she could feed him poisoned beef wellington. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.