Here’s a recap of what the jury heard today
The trial has been adjourned for the day. Here is a recap of what the jury heard on day 22 of Patterson’s trial:
The defence showed the court a more detailed record of Facebook group messages between Patterson and her online friends from December 2022. In one message, Jenny Hay, who previously testified in the trial, messaged the group: “What morons!”. She was responding to Patterson saying her in-laws told her they would not adjudicate a dispute between her and husband Simon. Patterson’s lawyer, Colin Mandy SC, said the wider context of the messages showed the group members were venting about issues in their lives.
The defence told the court the child seen in CCTV footage from Subway in Leongatha hours after the lunch was not Patterson’s son. Det Leading Sen Const Stephen Eppingstall, the officer in charge of the investigation, rejected this, saying he believed it was Patterson’s son and that it was a “matter for the jury”.
Mandy questioned Eppingstall about devices police did not seize from Patterson’s home. Eppingstall rejected a suggestion by Mandy that a photo showed a Samsung mobile, dubbed “Phone A”, that police said was never located. He said if the device was a phone it would have been seized by police.
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Court adjourns for the day
Justice Christopher Beale has told the jury the court will adjourn slightly earlier today.
The trial is expected to resume from 10.30am tomorrow.
Jury shown messages between Erin and Don Patterson
Mandy then shows the court messages between Patterson and her father-in-law, Don.
The messages are between 1 January 2022 to 15 January 2022, the court hears.
The first message from Don is on 1 January 2022:
Sorry to hear about your back problems. Hope and pray it gets better quickly.
It was great to chat to the kids this morning …
Patterson replies on the same day:
Hi Don. Thanks for your empathy and care about my back. Yes, I had a terrible day yesterday and the night before …
In another message, Patterson messages Don about Covid on 7 January 2022, the court hears.
26 active cases in Korumburra and 51 in Leongatha. please be careful when out and about because there’s so much virus in our community right now.
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Mandy asks if the context of the messages demonstrate that the group members were venting about issues in their lives.
Eppingstall says:
That’s fair to say.
Defence lawyer tells court Facebook group chats shown to jury did not include context
Mandy shows the court Facebook messages from a group chat with Patterson and her online friends from December 2022.
The prosecution previously showed the messages to the jury. Mandy says the messages shown to the court earlier in the trial did not include the context of the discussion with Patterson’s friends.
One message shows a response to Patterson allegedly saying her in-laws could not “adjudicate” her dispute with Simon.
Jenny Hay, who previously testified in the trial, replies: “What morons!”
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Defence lawyer says boy seen on Subway CCTV is not Patterson’s son
Mandy turns to CCTV footage of Patterson dropping her son at Subway in Leongatha on the evening of the lunch. The footage was played earlier in the trial.
Mandy says this is not Patterson’s son who is seen in the footage. He shows the jury a photo of Patterson’s son, who cannot be named for legal reasons. Patterson’s son is with his grandfather, Don, in the photo.
He then shows a still from the CCTV image which he says is not Patterson’s son.
“That is not [Patterson’s son],” Mandy says.
Eppingstall says he believes it is Patterson’s son and says it is a “matter for the jury”.
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Detective disputes defence assertion ‘Phone A’ visible in photo from Patterson’s home
Mandy says there were some devices police did not seize during the search of Patterson’s Leongatha house.
Eppingstall on Wednesday said there were three phones that police believed Patterson used – two Samsungs and a Nokia. He said that one of the Samsungs, referred to as “Phone A”, had never been recovered.
Eppingstall says a Nokia phone, used in the days after the search, was not seized by police.
Mandy shows Eppingstall a photo from the search which shows a corner lounge in Patterson’s home.
He says a black object is the mobile phone, dubbed “Phone A”, that Eppingstall said police never located.
Eppingstall says he does not accept this. He says if it were a phone, “I think we would have found it”.
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Patterson was ‘always accompanied’ during police search of her home, court hears
Mandy turns to question Eppingstall about the search police conducted of Patterson’s Leongatha home on 5 August 2023.
Eppingstall agrees Patterson was not warned about the visit.
He says he was the officer with Patterson for the majority of the search. Eppingstall says when he needed to step away, another officer would be with Patterson.
Eppingstall says Patterson was “always accompanied” but was able to walk around during the search. He says Patterson retained a mobile phone with her during the search and had arrangements to make for her children.
Patterson was left alone in a room to call a lawyer, the court hears.
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Jury returns from lunch break
The jury has returned to the courtroom in Morwell.
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The court has adjourned for a lunch break.
The trial will resume from 2.15pm.
iNaturalist webpage shown to jury in screenshots may have changed since 2022, court hears
Mandy takes Eppingstall to a screenshot from December 2024 of the iNaturalist website that was shown to the jury on Wednesday.
Under questioning by Mandy, Eppingstall agrees the website would have looked different in 2022.
The court previously heard Eppingstall took screenshots of the webpages which originated from URLs from May 2022 found on a computer seized from Patterson’s house.
Eppingstall agrees there is no evidence the landing page shown in the screenshot was the same in 2022.
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Detective asked about conversation with fungi expert
Eppingstall recalls the conversation with mycologist Dr Thomas May who said he had posted the sighting of death cap mushrooms on the citizen science website iNaturalist.
Eppingstall says May told him he had posted about spotting the fungi in Outtrim.
Eppingstall says he then identified that Christine McKenzie, a retired pharmacist, had made a post about death cap mushrooms. He then asked her to make a formal statement.
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Eppingstall cross-examined about phone records
Mandy asks Eppingstall about the call charge records, previously shown to the jury, and if the time reflected for a changed IMEI number [International Mobile Equipment Identity, used to identify phone handsets] is accurate.
Eppingstall says he believed the time on the record is accurate. He agrees telecommunications expert Dr Matthew Sorell, who gave evidence earlier in the trial, was not asked about this.
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Detective asked about travel times between Leongatha and locations where death cap mushrooms sighted
Mandy says Eppingstall gave evidence about travel distances and times between Leongatha and Outtrim, and Leongatha and Loch.
The court previously heard that sightings of death cap mushrooms in Outtrim and Loch had been posted on the citizen science website iNaturalist in the months before the lunch.
Mandy asks if travel time can vary depending on the route. Eppingstall agrees.
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Eppingstall tells court about data retrieved from phones
Mandy shows the court a report of downloads extracted from Simon’s phone. Mandy says the only thing extracted from the phone was messages.
“That’s all I asked for,” says Eppingstall.
The report was about 70 pages and contained 280 messages between Erin and Simon Patterson, Mandy says.
Eppingstall says he was also aware of messages on the app Signal that Erin and Simon used.
Mandy then turns to Gail and Don’s phones.
Eppingstall says he believed police got a “full extraction” from Gail’s phone.
He says Don’s phone was “fairly empty”, adding:
I don’t think he used his phone much.
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Simon Patterson provided Gail’s, Don’s and his own phones to police, court hears
Eppingstall says Patterson’s estranged husband, Simon, provided Gail and Don’s mobile phones to police on 6 August 2023. Simon also provided his own mobile phone on the same day.
Mandy asks:
Did he tell you at any stage that he had changed his phone?
Eppingstall says Simon mentioned he had changed his handset. Eppingstall says Simon provided his handset to police again on 12 September 2023.
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Eppingstall asked about bank records
Mandy asks Eppingstall about Patterson’s Bendigo Bank records he obtained during the investigation.
He confirms no bank records were obtained for the time period prior to 1 July 2023.
He says he does not recall seeing records from other banks.
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Mandy asks Eppingstall about online bookstore purchases
Mandy asks if Eppingstall obtained a “large number of receipts” from Booktopia as part of the investigation.
Eppingstall agrees he did find a large number of books related to diets.
Mandy turns to the “significant media interest” in the case. He says from 1 August 2023, the police media unit were “briefed and holding lines were prepared”.
Eppingstall says holding lines are “short blurbs that go out to [the] media” to let the public know basic details of an incident. He says:
It’s a very generic statement.
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The jurors have entered the courtroom in Morwell.
Patterson’s lawyer, Colin Mandy SC, is continuing to cross-examine Detective Leading Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall, the officer in charge of the investigation into the lethal lunch.
We’re waiting for the jury to enter the courtroom in Morwell.
Here’s a report from our justice and courts reporter, Nino Bucci, on what the jury heard on Wednesday:
What the jury heard on day 21 of trial
We’re waiting for today’s proceedings to get underway.
Here’s a recap of what the jury heard on Wednesday:
Electronic records taken from a computer seized by police from Erin Patterson’s house indicated it had been used to visit webpages listing sightings of death cap mushrooms, the court heard.
Jurors were shown Patterson’s Woolworths purchase history which included two items of 500g sliced mushrooms purchased on 23 July 2023 in Leongatha.
The jury was shown text messages between Patterson and her mother-in-law, Gail Patterson, where the pair discussed medical appointments for the accused including a needle biopsy on 28 June 2023. Detective Leading Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall said obtained medical records found no appointment matching this.
Eppingstall said no cancer diagnosis for Patterson was found on the Victorian cancer registry database.
Police never located a phone connected to Patterson that the prosecution labelled “Phone A”, the court heard.
Welcome
Welcome to day 22 of Erin Patterson’s triple murder trial.
We’re expecting today’s evidence to begin shortly once the jurors enter the courtroom.
Patterson, 50, faces three charges of murder and one charge of attempted murder relating to a beef wellington lunch she served at her house in Leongatha, in regional Victoria, on 29 July 2023.
She is accused of murdering her in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, and her estranged husband’s aunt, Heather Wilkinson. The attempted murder charge relates to Heather’s husband, Ian.
She has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The prosecution alleges Patterson deliberately poisoned her lunch guests with “murderous intent”, but her lawyers say the poisoning was a tragic accident.
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