Erin Patterson trial as it happened: Alleged mushroom cook’s phone records too expensive for police

• Erin Patterson’s defence lawyer Colin Mandy, SC, continued his cross-examination of Detective Leading Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall. The detective was asked about the search warrant police executed at Patterson’s home in Leongatha on August 5, 2023.
• Eppingstall was shown a series of messages sent by Erin between December 5 and 9, 2022, where she discussed her ongoing issues with Simon and his family. Eppingstall was shown a message from online friend Jenny Hay in response to a message from Erin about a text she had received from Don where 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.
• Mandy shows Eppingstall another message Erin sent the group where she said Simon was likely loving how upset she was about the situation.
• The jury was shown a series of Signal messages between Don Patterson and Erin between January 1 and 15, 2022, where they discussed some of her ongoing health issues.
• Eppingstall also told the court why police did not obtain more of Erin Patterson’s phone records, saying seeking the data would be too costly.

The lead detective in the mushroom lunch case has explained why police did not obtain more of accused killer cook Erin Patterson’s phone records, saying seeking the data would be too costly.

On Thursday, defence barrister Colin Mandy, SC, quizzed Detective Leading Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall about why mobile phone data log records weren’t gathered for the entire investigation period – about a year – and instead focused on 27 dates closer to the lunch that left three people dead.

Detective Acting Sergeant Stephen Eppingstall.Credit: Jason South

He said police were charged as much as $1700 for two hours of data, so seeking a year’s worth of mobile phone location tracking would have left the homicide squad with a six-figure bill.

“It’s very cost-prohibitive,” he said.

“My boss isn’t real keen on spending that much money,” he said.

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.

Gail and Don Patterson.

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.

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.

Erin and Simon Patterson.Credit: Suplied

“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.

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.

Gail and Don Patterson

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.

Erin Patterson.Credit: Jason South

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”.

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.

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.

Stephen Eppingstall.Credit: Jason South

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.

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.

Detective Acting Sergeant Stephen Eppingstall.Credit: Jason South

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.

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.

Erin Patterson and Simon Patterson.

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.