‘What morons': Erin Patterson's defence team shows Facebook exchange about Simon's family
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4.41pm
Health, hopes and heart emojis: A glimpse into Erin and her father-in-law's private messages
By Marta Pascual Juanola
The jury has now been shown a series of Signal messages between Don Patterson and Erin Patterson between January 1 and 15, 2022, in which they discussed some of her health issues.
'Sorry to hear about your back problems. Hope and pray it gets better quickly. It was great to chat with the kids this morning,' a message from Don read.
Erin replied to thank him for his message and said she had a terrible day the day before. 'We will keep praying that He keeps you all in good health,' Don replied.
Erin responded that the only pain relief that seemed to work was Nurofen, but she 'stupidly' ran out. She also messaged Don about COVID-19 cases in Leongatha and Korumburra and warned him to be careful when 'out and about'.
'There's so much virus in our community right now,' she said. In another message, Don also messaged to ask Erin about her health. 'From our … chat this morning, it sounds like the kids had a good time. Hope your health is OK and that they get to the bottom of your problem. Love Don and Gail,' a message from Don read.
Erin responded she had had an echocardiogram the day before and that she would keep him updated about the results, to which Don replied with a red heart emoji. 'Oops! You can see we are not too good at IM's [instant messages],' Don wrote.
This concludes the evidence for today. We will be back for more tomorrow.
'Simon is probably loving how upset I am about all this': Erin's Facebook exchange with friends
By Marta Pascual Juanola
Colin Mandy, SC, is continuing to share parts of a Facebook exchange Erin Patterson had with friends.
Mandy has now pointed detective Stephen Eppingstall to another message Erin sent the group that was not included in the exhibit tendered by the prosecution, where she said Simon was probably loving how upset she was about the situation.
'I suspect the best thing I can do about it is forget about all of them and live my life. Simon is probably loving how upset I am about all this,' the message read.
Another user responded: 'You are human and you have every right to be upset and angry. If he is loving that then that makes him even worse. Hopefully he will have to pay up soon.'
'I am so sorry Erin, it's so f***ng hard when you're not believed or listened to or understood. I went though similar with my ex in-laws,' a second user said.
'What morons': Defence shows Facebook exchange about Simon's family
By Marta Pascual Juanola
Before breaking for the afternoon, Colin Mandy, SC, switched his line of questioning to a series of Facebook messages sent from his client Erin Patterson to online friends in early December three years ago.
Mandy showed Stephen Eppingstall (the lead detective in the mushroom lunch case) a series of messages sent by Erin between December 5 and 9, 2022, in which she discussed her ongoing issues with Simon and his family.
The defence barrister has told the court the messages are contained in 186 pages of records, a selection of which has previously been shown to the jury by the prosecution.
He has taken Eppingstall to a message from online friend Jenny Hay in response to a message from Erin about a text she had received from Don in which Hay describes Simon's family as 'morons'.
'What morons. Anyway, you weren't asking them to adjudicate, you just wanted them to hear your story,' the message read.
3.31pm
Detective questioned on Subway CCTV
By Marta Pascual Juanola
Continuing his questioning of the detective, Colin Mandy, SC, has now moved to ask Stephen Eppingstall about CCTV footage that shows a red car pulling up and a teenager getting out of a car to walk into a Subway store in July 2023.
Eppingstall said there were some discrepancies between the timestamp in the footage and the time bank records provided by Simon Patterson, which showed Erin's son had bought food from the sandwich outlet.
'What I want to suggest to you is that, that's not Erin's [son],' Mandy said.
Mandy has now shown the jury an image of Erin's son on July 17, 2023, standing next to Don, followed by a still image for CCTV footage from inside Subway, and another image of Erin's son.
'To me, it looks more like the Subway guy than the first guy,' Eppinstall said about the second image of Erin's son.
'That's a matter for the jury.'
Asked how the discrepancies may have occurred, Eppingstall responded: 'I've got no idea'.
3.21pm
Lego and laptops: Police search photos shown to jury
By Marta Pascual Juanola
Staying on the topic of the search of Erin Patterson's home, defence lawyer Colin Mandy, SC, suggests to Stephen Eppingstall (the lead detective on the mushroom lunch case) that a laptop was among some of the items on the shelves of the room at the time of the warrant.
The jury has been shown images taken by police during their search of Erin's home on August 5.
Among those is a photograph of a computer and Lego room. The photo shows several white shelves covered in Lego figurines and some baskets containing nondescript items.
Eppingstall said he couldn't tell what that item is.
Mandy: These items were not seized by the police?
Eppingstall: If these are laptops, it's the first time I'm hearing about these items.
3.16pm
What police seized from Erin Patterson's home
By Marta Pascual Juanola
After a break for lunch, Erin Patterson's lawyer, Colin Mandy SC, has restarted his cross-examination of the lead detective on the mushroom case – Stephen Eppingstall.
He is asking him about the search warrant police executed at Patterson's home in Leongatha on August 5, 2023.
Eppingstall said Erin was allowed to walk around the house under the supervision of an officer and was permitted to use her phone to make arrangements for her children.
'We allowed her to retain her phone, she had arrangements to make in regards to her children,' he said.
Eppingstall said Erin was also allowed to call a lawyer on her own in a TV room for a period of about 20 to 25 minutes. The jury heard the phone call lasted for about 14 minutes.
Eppingstall said police seized several electronic devices from the house, but did not take phone A into their possession. Phone B, he said, was kept in his locker in the police building.
Asked by Mandy where there were electronic devices that had not been seized at the time, Eppingstall said police seized 'everything that we saw'.
'The goal was to take any electronic devices that we saw,' Eppingstall said.
Police returned to search Erin's house for a second time on November 2, 2023.
1.01pm
Defence lawyer continues questioning
By Marta Pascual Juanola
Erin Patterson's lawyer continues questioning the lead homicide detective on the mushroom case.
Colin Mandy, SC, has now taken Stephen Eppingstall to a screenshot of the iNaturalist website that he took as part of his investigations for the case in December 2024.
Eppingstall agrees the website would have looked differently in 2022 to what it did when he took a screenshot in 2024, and could not answer whether developers would have changed the layout and format.
Mandy: Other than the fact that's a page with the same URL, you don't have any evidence as to what the landing page of that URL was in May 2022 or if it was this landing page in 2022, whether any of the details contained on it were the same.
Eppingstall: No.
Mandy: And you would expect the number of observations would have been different?
Eppingstall: Yes.
Mandy: And the placement of the little squares would have been different.
Eppingstall: Yes, sir.
12.38pm
Detective quizzed on Simon's phone data
By Marta Pascual Juanola and Erin Pearson
Erin Patterson's lawyer Colin Mandy, SC, is now continuing his questioning of the lead homicide detective on the mushroom case.
He asks Stephen Eppingstall about the phones he acquired and searched during his investigation.
The detective confirmed he had met with Simon Patterson on August 6, 2023, who had provided Don and Gail's mobile phones as well as his own mobile phone.
Eppingstall explained he was unable to download the contents of Simon's mobile phone on the day, so he handed the phone back to Simon, who returned on September 12, 2023, to have the phone downloaded. ″He indicated that he recently changed his handset,' Eppingstall said.
Eppingstall said he was not aware of when he had changed handsets.
The jury has been shown a police form relating to the download that shows police had conducted a 'full file system' extraction 'by consent' around 10am and around 106 GB of data extracted.
Eppingstall said he had only asked for messages and obtained 70 pages worth of messages extracted from the mobile phone.
'It wasn't a lot of data,' Eppingstall said.
The jury heard there were multiple Signal groups that Erin and Simon used to communicate, including one that included the broader Patterson family.
Members from the Patterson family laughed and smiled in court when Eppingstall said a search of Don Patterson's phone didn't uncover much. 'It was fairly empty, I dont think he used the phone much, that's my recollection. sir,' the witness said.
12.20pm
Diet books and media interest: Detective questioned by Patterson's defence lawyer
By Marta Pascual Juanola and Erin Pearson
After a brief morning break, Erin Patterson's defence lawyer Colin Mandy, SC, continues his cross-examination of Eppingstall.
Erin Patterson, 50, is dressed in a paisley print shirt today. More than a dozen members of the Patterson and Wilkinson family are seated across two rows, sitting shoulder to shoulder with members of the homicide squad, some of whom worked on this case.
Mandy starts by asking Eppingstall about Erin's purchases on the online site Booktopia. Eppingstall says that receipts showed a large number of the books she had purchased related to diets.
Mandy then asks Eppinstall about the way Victoria Police handled the media interest in the case.
Eppingstall agrees he was aware from early on that there was a significant interest in the case. The jury heard that by August 1, 2023, Victoria Police had provided holding lines for the media. 'They are the short blurbs that go to out to media to let them know the basic details of an incident,' Eppingstall said.
By August 4, 2023, Eppingstall was updating the media unit on the progress of the investigation.
Reporting by the media started the following day, August 5, 2023, the court heard.
The jury heard that Victoria Police put out a media release the following day, August 6, 2023, that confirmed to the media that the homicide squad was involved in investigating the deaths.
The following day, there was a press conference involving Victoria Police's Dean Thomas. By that time, the court heard that the media was already camped out at Erin's address, including inside her property.
11.41am
Day 22 in photos
By Jason South
Award-winning photographer Jason South is in Morwell.
Here are some of the photos he took this morning:
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