Defence casts doubts over police investigation into Erin Patterson's deadly mushroom lunch

Australia Broadcast Center

5 days ago

Defence lawyers for accused killer Erin Patterson have cast doubt over the police investigation into the deadly mushroom lunch.
Ms Patterson, 50, has been charged with murder and attempted murder after three relatives died and one fell seriously ill after eating a beef Wellington containing poisonous death cap mushrooms in July 2023.
The trial of Erin Patterson, who stands accused of using a poisoned meal to murder three relatives, continues.
Follow the updates in our live blog.
To stay up to date with this story, subscribe to ABC News.
Ms Patterson has pleaded not guilty and argues what happened was a tragic accident.
On Thursday, Detective Leading Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall returned to the stand to continue his cross-examination by defence lawyer Colin Mandy SC.
During his cross-examination, Mr Mandy suggested to the detective that police may not have seized several electronic devices from Ms Patterson's home during a search they conducted in August 2023.
The jury were shown several photographs taken during the August 5 police search of Ms Patterson's home, one of which showed a black object sitting on a windowsill.
Mr Mandy suggested to Leading Senior Constable Eppingstall that the black object was a Nokia phone that Ms Patterson told police she owned as a spare in case hers broke, which has never been recovered.
"I don't think that's consistent with a phone," Leading Senior Constable Eppingstall responded.
Another photograph showed a plastic storage basket with an object in it which LSC Eppingstall agreed looked to be a phone box.
A third photo of the same room showed white shelving with a desk in the middle of the room and items in small plastic baskets.
On the shelves were black objects, which Mr Mandy suggested were laptops.
"If those are laptops, this is the first time I'm learning of these items," Leading Senior Constable Eppingstall said.
Leading Senior Constable Eppingstall told the court Ms Patterson was allowed to retain her phone during the police search to make arrangements for her children and to make a phone call to a lawyer, which she did in private.
The defence also cast doubt over CCTV footage from a Subway restaurant that was previously shown to the jury.
Earlier, the prosecution argued the vision showed Ms Patterson dropping her son off to buy a meal before returning to pick him up.
Mr Mandy said it was not Ms Patterson in the footage and put to Leading Senior Constable Eppingstall that police only came to that conclusion because the vehicle was consistent with the accused's car and a teenager had gotten out of the car — a statement he agreed with.
The jury was then shown a still from inside the Subway of a teenager that Mr Mandy suggested was not Ms Patterson's son, but Leading Senior Constable Eppingstall disagreed.
"I believe that to be [Ms Patterson's son] but that's a matter for the jury," he said.
Earlier, Mr Mandy took the jury back to Ms Patterson's bank statements obtained by police during their investigation.
The statements were from July 1 to August 4, 2023.
"I can't explain why we didn't go back further," Leading Senior Constable Eppingstall said when asked about the records by Mr Mandy.
A few transactions were highlighted to the jury that suggest some flaws in both of Erin's children's recollection of events during their interview with police.
In that interview, her son had said they only made one stop during a trip to Tyabb the day after the deadly lunch, but transactions highlighted by the defence show there was a second stop at a BP station.
When asked about phone towers, Leading Senior Constable Eppingstall said he was "not interested" in exploring "line of sight" at that stage of the investigation, despite one of the experts in the investigation suggested it.
"Line of site doesn't guarantee connection," he told the court.
"We weren't sure if that had been tested or not in court and we didn't think it was necessary on this occasion to try and assess that."
The trial continues.