In the days following the deadly mushroom lunch, passwords were put in place around hospitals and specialist divisions of Victoria. Police were briefed they knew the storm that was about to descend upon that.
Three people are dead and one man is fighting for his life this morning after a suspected mushroom poison A suspected mushroom poisoning inside where victims are from is a really small town, just five thousand people.
In another day of his testimony, Stephen Eppingstaal took to the stand to talk about dealing with the media a Noki, your phone, diet books, subway footage and Facebook messages. I'm Brook Greenbert Craig, and this is the mushroom cook. It's day twenty two of Aaron Patterson's murder trial, and once again I'm joined by my colleague, court reporter Laura Pistol.
I can't believe we're nearing the end of week five.
Yes, we are. So it was quite a bitsy day in court today. Detective Leading Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall returned to the sten and gave evidence.
His cross examination continued and defense barrister Colin Mandy really took him through a number of topics, some of which we flagged at the top of the episode.
Let's start with the media coverage.
This was a topic Constable epping Stall was asked about very early on today. Mister Mandy asked him whether or not he agreed that there was significant media interest in this case from very early on in the investigation. He agreed, and he explained to the court that he briefed the Victoria Police media unit and holding lines were prepared. He also told the court that passwords were put in place
at the hospitals where the guests were being treated. He said by August five, a week after the lunch, the media were well and truly reporting on this case.
The jury heard that a media release was issued on August six, confirming the homicide squad were investigating three deaths. Constable epping Stall said a press conference was held on all August seven with Detective Inspector Dean Thomas. Mister Mandy then asked him whether the media were camped outside Aaron's property and lean Gatha, including inside her property, and he replied, yes, they did go into her property, but.
That's all that was really said about the media and mister Mandy moved on to a different topic.
Yes, let's talk about the search warrant that was done at Aaron's home on August five. We touched on this in yesterday's episode, So Laura, can you tell us what more we heard about it in court today.
So mister Mandy really used this part of today's cross examination to try to pick holes in the police investigation. The court heard today that Erin was not given any notice of the search warrant. On August five, police arrived at her house, told her what the warrant was in
connection to, and began their search. Mister Mandy asked Constable Eppingstall about Erin's wabouts during the search, and he said for the majority of the time she remained with him unless she needed to go to the bathroom when one of his female colleagues would take over. He told the court that Erin was allowed to retain her phone because she needed to make some arrangements in relation to her children.
He also explained that at one point Erin was given permission to contact a lawyer from a room at the front of her house with the door closed. Mister Mandy asked whether or not this was for a period of fourteen minutes, and Constable Eppingstall replied that it was his recollection that it was about twenty minutes.
He was then specifically asked questions about a Nochi your phone. Constable Eppingstall said he had a conversation with Erin about that device during her record of interview. He confirmed it was not located and therefore not seized.
During this part of the cross examination, Constable Eppingstall was asked about a number of devices and whether or not they were seized. He confirmed again today in that another phone that has been referred to in this case that has been called Phone A, was also never located by police. To refresh our listener's memories, this is the phone that police say Erin used in the lead up to the lunch with a SIM card that she had been using
for a number of years. Constable Eppingstall told the court yesterday that phone record showed that this simcard was taken out of Phone A on August five at one forty five pm, that is the time of the search warrant, and placed into another phone, that being a Nokia. It was at this point that Constable epping stare was taken to a photo that was captured during the search warrant by police. It was a photo of an ottoman in Aaron's house that was covered in charging chords and what
appeared to be devices. Mister Mandy pointed to one of these devices on the ottoman and asked Constable epping Stall, can I suggest that is Phone A in a case? But Constable Eppingstall said he did not agree, saying that if that device was a phone, it would have been seized by police.
And just to summarize what Laura said, Phone A and the Nokia phone were both not located or seized by police.
Mister Mandy had more questions for Constable epping Stall about items not seized from Erin's home. He showed Constable epping Stall a photo, again taken during the search warrant from
the study, which he also called the Lego room. Mister Mandy claimed that two laptops could be seen in that photo, but Constable epping Stall replied, if their laptops, this is the first I'm learning of these items, reiterating to mister Mandy that during the search he was with Erin and was not looking for items himself, leaving that to his colleagues.
Now, let's move on to Erin's bank records.
This was a very brief exchange, but mister Mandy quizzed Constable epping Stall about how many months of Erin's bank records police had obtained. The court heard they had obtained records from July one, twenty twenty three, through to August four. Mister Mandy asked Constable Epping's no other periods of time. He replied, no, and I can't explain why we didn't
go back further. Some of her bank records were then shown to the court, specifically in relation to the troops she made to a BP in Coldermeaede and a Doughnut van. Later that same day.
On the topic of records, Constable epping Stall was questioned about the analysis of Aaron's phone records conducted by digital forensics expert doctor Matthew Serell.
I feel like it's been a while since we've spoken about doctor Cerel's evidence, and today we got back into the nitty gritties of it. Earlier in the trial, doctor Soerell told the jury that he was provided years of call charge records from a phone belonging to Erin, as well as about twenty days of what are called event based Monitoring records or EBM. For sure, these EBM records
provide very granular detail, he said. And today Constable epping Stall was asked why police only obtained days of these records to give to doctor Serrell, and in response, Constable epping Stall spoke quite a lot about how costly these records actually are to obtain, and he said to the jury, to get EBMs for a year we would be talking well into six figures. And my boss isn't real keen
when I spend too much money. That comment from him definitely prompted some laughs from the courtroom, and he went on to say that the police have to be really selective and targeted when it comes to these EBM records.
The jury also found out how Constable epping Stall found out about I Naturalist, and this was after a conversation with doctor Tom May when they were just generally speaking about death cap mushrooms. Doctor May went on to tell him that he had actually cited death caps in Outrim in May twenty twenty three, and he posted this sighting to the citizen website I Naturalists.
There have been several clips of CCTV footage tended in this trial and today Constable epping Stall was quizzed about another one.
Yes, he was asked about CCTV footage obtained from a subway store in leen Gatha on the night of that deadly lunch. He told the court on Tuesday, the footage shows Aeron dropping off her son at seven twenty two pm and picking him up eleven minutes later. But in court today three images were shown to the jury. The first one was of Erin's son, the second one was the still of a boy from inside subway, and the
third image was of another photo of Eron's son. Mister Mandy suggested to Constable epping Stool that that boy depicted inside subway in the second photo was not Eron's son. He replied, I believe it to be him, but it's a matter for the jury.
And that was really all that was said about the subway before mister Mandy took Constable epping Stall to another topic.
Yes, more messages were shown to the jury between Aaron and her online friends. The jury heard there were around one hundred and eighty six pages of messages from this group chat that had been extracted by police.
To jog our listener's memories. These are the messages that Erin was having with these online friends that concerned her estranged husband, Simon and his parents Don Gale, in the context of the child support dispute that she was having with him. The jury has previously been shown quite a number of these, but today mister Mandy tended more of those messages. This is what Aaron writes in one exchange. It's her words, it's not her voice. I suspect the best thing I can do is just forget about all
of them and live my life. Simon is probably loving how upset I am about all of this. In response, one of her friends replies, I'm so sorry, Erin. It's so funny hard when you're not believed or understood. I went through similar with my ex in laws. Mister Mandy asked Constable Eppingstall whether he agreed that there was an
enormous amount of context surrounding these messages. Mister Mandy also on to suggest that this was a group chat where a number of the participants were talking in similar ways, venting to each other about their lives, and Constable Eppingstall said that was a fair assessment.
Lastly, the purchasing of diet books were briefly mentioned in court today. Once again we didn't get a whole lot of context about it.
Mister Mandy mentioned today that Erin's weight was recorded when she was admitted to Lea and Gatha Hospital on July thirty one. After that, he told the court that police had obtained Erin's receipts from the online bookstore book Topia. He then asked Constable epping Stare whether he agreed that a large number of the books Erin had purchased related
to diets. He said that was correct. At the end of the day today, Justice Christopher Beale told the jury that there was an issue that needed sorting out before mister Mandy could continue the rest of his cross examination with Constable epping Stall, so it's expected that he will return to the witness box tomorrow.
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