It's mid morning and Detective Leading Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall and his colleagues are at a house that sits on a gravel road in the country town of lean Gatha. They're here because it's Aaron Patterson's home and they have a warrant to search it. While they're on site, Aaron hends them a phone that they sees, but according to the prosecution, there was another phone that police were never able to find. How that phone fits into their case
is what the jury heard today in court. I'm Brook Greenbert Craig, and this is the Mushroom Cook. It's day twenty one of Aaron Patterson's murder trial and I'm here again with my colleague, court reporter Laura PUSSELLA good to be here. As you remember, yesterday Constable Eppingstall took to the stand and today he continued his evidence. He answered questions on many different topics. So let's start with the
most detailed, which is about two of Aaron's phones. They have been called Phone A and Phone B in court today.
That's right, and I almost feel like I need to
start this out with a disclaimer. This will be some really dense evidence and it might be confusing for some of our listeners, but we're going to try our hardest to break it down, just like it was broken down in court today by Constable epping Stall to quickly give a summary of Phone A and Phone B. The jury were told in the prosecution opening that Phone A was never recovered by police, but Phone B was seized during a search warrant executed at Aaron's house on August five,
a week after the lunch. But for now we'll just start with Phone A. The court has heard that a lot of phone records have been analyzed in this case, and Constable epping Stall said today that four and a half years of these records showed that Erin used a SIM card ending in the digits seven eight to three for a long time. He said, she used this SIM card to communicate with people in her life, including her
children and her extranged husband Simon. These records were shown to the jury today and the prosecution team almost had to scroll through them because there were so many of them. Constable epping Stall told the court that the record showed that this simcard was placed into Phone A on February twelve,
twenty twenty three. If we fast forward he said, this simcard remained in that phone until August five, and to remind our listeners, this is the date of the first search warrant which you heard about in the top of the episode. When asked today about these records and what they showed, Constable epping Stall said that on August five, around one forty five pm, you could see the SIM card change from Phone A into a completely different phone,
that being a Nokia. Yesterday he told the court that during the search warrant, Miss Patterson was allowed to use a phone in a room on her own without any observation.
So Phone B is the Nokia then.
No, so the Nokia is actually a third phone. It hasn't been given a name, so we're just going to call it the Nokia. Every time we're referring to Phone A or Phone B. Will use those terms just like
they've used in court. Sounds good, so Constable Eppingstaal told the court that now the simcard ending in seven eighty three that was being regularly used by Erin was now in this Nokia, and he said that according to the records, there was ongoing usage of this simcard right up until August fourteen, which is when the records they had obtained had ended, but he said that months later, on November two, another search warrant was executed at Aaron's house, and this
time they were looking for Phone A. He was asked by Crown Prosecutor Jane Warren whether Phone A was ever found. He said, it's never been located by police.
Okay, So what you're saying, Laura, is that the record show Phone A was used by Erin in twenty twenty three to communicate with other people and it was never found by police.
That's right.
Okay, Now let's move on to Phone B. What can you tell me about that.
Constable epping Stall confirmed that Phone B was the phone that Erin handed to police on August five during the search warrant. We touched on this in yesterday's episode because a video was played to the jury of that exchange between Erin and Detective Sergeant Luke Farrell she handed the phone to him towards the end of the search warrant. Constable Eppingstall was then asked questions about the checks he completed on this phone once it was in his custody.
He said that the phone had a SIM card inside ending an eight three five. This being a different simcard from what we've mentioned earlier. He said the SIM card had only been connected from July eleven that year and had been used in a tablet up until August three. He then referred back to the records and he said that the SIM card was taken out of the tab
and placed into phone B on August three. And just because we are referring to a lot of dates, August three is five days after the lunch and two days before the search warrant.
Our listeners may remember that Digital forensic Officer Sharman fox Henry from Victoria Police said Phone B was factory reset several times in twenty twenty three.
Yes, we have touched upon this topic in two episodes, and we came back to it again today. Mister fox Henry was asked about a report last week relating to these factory resets, and he said the report showed that Phone B was factory reset four times on February twelve, August two, August five, and August six.
Let's move on to more of his evidence. The jury heard about Aaron's alleged medical appointments.
They did and to take a step back, Constable epping Stall explained to the jury how he obtained Erin's Medicare records and was able to use them to determine where and when she went to the doctor. After that process, he said he secured warrants to obtain Erin's medical records from three gps in Lee and Gathakaren, Burrough and Mount Waverley.
Now the jury was showing entries from Gail Patterson's diary, weren't they.
Yes, And this was happening at the same time that Constable eppings Store was being asked about the medical records. And it will soon be made clear why that was the case. In Gayle's diary, she wrote on June twenty eighth, twenty twenty three, Erin dash Saint Vincent's arm lump, Saint Vincent's being a reference to a hospital in Melbourne. The jury were then shown messages between Gail and Erin from a day later, on June twenty nine. These are their words, but not their voices.
Hi, Gail, Sorry, I had taken to see a movie last night. We saw The Little Mermaid. The appointment went okay, thanks for asking. I had a needle biopsy taken of the lump and I'm returning for an MRI next week and we'll know more about the results of those two things.
That's the test of patience, isn't it, Praying you'll know God's peace. We're just ready to relax after an enjoyable time with Ethan and Alice. Nice to have the fire warming us in this cold weather XO.
After the text messages were shown to the jury, Constable Epping's stare was asked whether or not he found any evidence in Aaron's medical records that indicated she did have a needle biopsy on June twenty eighth. He said he could not find any evidence of that.
The messages also continued on July.
Six, Hi, Erin, how did you get on yesterday with your medical tests? Love Don and Gail?
And then the next day Erin replied.
Thanks for your message, Don and Gail. There's a bit to digest with everything that's come out of it all. I might talk more about it with you both when I see you in person, Love Erin.
Constable epping Stall was again asked whether he had found any evidence of these medical appointments in Erin's records. He again said he had not, but the court her that Erin did attend a medical appointment in late June for ribsonness and twice in July to update a prescription now constable.
Epping Stall was also asked questions about Aaron's medical history by defense barrister Colin Mandy.
Sc that's right. Under cross examination, the defense tended more medical records relating to Erin from twenty twenty one. In particular, in one of the records from October, a doctor writes Aarin worries about ovary cancer. Has been googling her symptoms, thinks her symptoms may be suggestive of ovary cancer. This record states that an MRI and an ultrasound were booked
for the following month in November. Mister Mandy also showed the jury another medical record which outlined Erin's family history, and it stated that her paternal aunt and maternal aunt had overy cancer. It has been a while since we've spoken about cancer. But the prosecution has alleged that Erin falsely claimed she had cancer to ensure and to explain why her children were not present at the lunch on
July twenty nine. But the defense has suggested that Erin only told the lunch guests she had a suspected diagnosis of cancer. The defense did concede, though in its opening address, that Erin has not been diagnosed with cancer.
Now. Citizen website I Naturalist also got brought up again today in court. Just to remind listeners, the jury has previously heard evidence from doctor Tom May and Christine McKenzie about them citing Deathcap mushrooms and logging this on the website Our.
Naturalists came up today in Constable epping Stalls evidence in chief when he was asked about the cooler Master computer that was seized from Aaron's house. The court heard that three web pages relating to Our Naturalist were visited by a browser on that computer on May twenty eighth, twenty
twenty two. Just making a point that this was one year before the lunch, Constable epping Stall said that as part of his investigation, he searched for these web pages using the URLs that had been extracted from the device. The jury heard that one of these web pages related to a suburban siding of Deathcap mushrooms in Melbourne Southeast. This post was made on Our Naturalist on May eighteen, twenty twenty two, and as a completely separate post from
those you mentioned earlier. Brook by doctor May and miss Mackenzie. A screenshot of this web page taken by Constable Eppingstall was shown to the jury today.
We also heard quite a bit about the food that Aaron had previously purchased. The jury was shown a woolworst transaction history. They were also shown a BP receipt and a PUB receipt and I may.
Just touch on this pub receipt first because it relates to the topic we were just talking about. The jury heard that on the same day a browser on the cooler Master computer visited the I Naturalist website. It also visited a website for the cur and Borough Middle Pub only a few minutes later. The jury was shown this receipt that you mentioned Brook. The order was placed on May twenty eighth, twenty twenty two, at seven to twenty
five pm. On the receipt was Erin's name and her phone number, and at risk of making our listeners hungry, this contained two chicken palmers, a kids burger, a kid's fish and a coconot sugar and the court heard that the computer records showed that this meal had been ordered only a few minutes after the visit to the I Naturalist website.
As I mentioned before, the jury were also shown a receipt for the BP in coldamine that we had previously spoken about in another episode. On that receipt it showed three separate food items including tea and tea multicolor blister which is a gum, a ham and cheese tomato sandwich, and a sweet chili chicken wrap. And just to remind the listeners again, this was the day that Aaron drove her son to a flying lesson.
And to round it out, I'll talk about Erin's Woolworths transaction history, which Constable epping Stall told the court today was recorded through Erin's Everyday Rewards account. Her transaction history from July twenty three to July twenty eight, so about the week before the lunch was shown to the jury with the items that related to the beef Wellington meal
highlighted in yellow. Six days before the lunch, on July twenty three, the record showed that Erin purchased one kilo of sliced mushrooms, two packets of pastry, and some shalots. Two days before the lunch, so this is on July twoe, she bought two more packets of pastry, four beef I fillts and seven hundred and fifty grams of sliced mushrooms.
And then finally, the day before the lunch, she bought another two packets of pastry, one point five kilos of potato mash, green beans, and one more beef I fill it.
When this transaction history was being shown to the jury on the screens, Constable epping Store was asked by Miss Warren what the last column meant, and it was a column relating to the price of each product, but he said that he wasn't quite sure what it was, and at that moment a juror actually piped up and said, I do, just as Christopher Beale quickly turned to the jury and said, well, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for that,
but keep your comments for the jury room. After that, Miss Warren did confirm that it was indeed the column relating to the price.
There has been some moments of laughter during his evidence and he will return to the stand tomorrow to continue his cross examination. To stay updated on this case, go to the mush roomcook dot com dot a U for more