A barrister’s long run home as the mushroom murder trial ends its fifth week in country Victoria

The mushroom murder trial ends its fifth week on Friday, with Erin Patterson’s silk questioning the lead detective.

Defence team: Bill Doogue, left, and Colin Mandy leave court in Morwell, Victoria. Picture: David Crosling/NewsWire

Colin Mandy is a middle-aged, fit-looking bloke who looks as though he might have one more marathon in his legs.

It’s a good thing because as Erin Patterson’s Senior Counsel, he has entered what most people in the triple murder trial are hoping is the beginning of the end as the case inevitably starts the slow grind towards verdict day, whenever that might be.

Mandy on Thursday pushed the mushroom detective, otherwise known as police informant Stephen Eppingstall, on some of the questions that have dominated the case.

Patterson’s computers, her phones, her whereabouts on the night of the beef Wellington lunch, what she did when police conducted the first big search of her house.

A long criminal trial like this – it’s well into the fifth week – leads to a slow but steady humanisation of the courtroom as groups of ­opposing and agnostic interests are locked in the process of pursuing the truth.

As much as Patterson is at the centre of the trial, Mandy has been a consistent, persistent voice from the bar table, pressing his points in front of a jury that sits 5m away.

Mostly serious, but sometimes seeing the humour in his own plight as a defence barrister, Mandy has been the loudest voice possible for Patterson, who sat in the witness stand in a dark paisley shirt, the teardrop shaped motif sometimes matching her emotions.

On Thursday, Mandy danced around Eppingstall, who spent the best part of a full day in the witness stand, just as he was around for the long haul the day before.

Mandy arrives at the Latrobe Valley Court in Morwell. Picture: NewsWire / Diego Fedele

Mandy started the day quizzing Detective Senior Constable Eppingstall on Patterson’s Booktopia purchases mostly relating to diets, media interest in the story and Patterson’s Bendigo Bank account, which was searched from July 1, 2023, to August 4, 2023.

Eppingstall told the jury that when it came to resourcing investigations, key spending decisions were made at the commander level of Victoria Police, or at least with their consultation. “I’m greedy. I’m the informant, I want everything,’’ he told the court, adding that his bosses weren’t too keen when he overspends.

As is the way of these things, Eppingstall was quizzed about potential shortcomings in the police investigation, including whether a missing phone was actually there during the first proper search, possibly on a window ledge at ­Patterson’s house.

Then there were two laptops that Mandy questioned whether they had been left behind in one of Patterson’s rooms, where what looked like Lego sets could be seen in a photo shown to the jury.

Eppingstall doubted that the allegedly missing handset could be seen in plain site in one of the photographs shown to the jury.

“If that was a phone, I think we would have seized it,’’ he said.

In another photo, this time of a small basket, the detective was asked whether a box for a phone might be inside.

“It does, sir,’’ Eppingstall responded. “We seized everything that we saw. That’s my understanding, sir.”

The court was shown a picture of a room taken while police searched Patterson’s Leongatha home on August 5, 2023, including images of what may or may not have been laptops

“If they’re laptops this is the first I’m learning of these items,” Eppingstall told the court. 

Mandy also alleged that there had been a USB stick missed from the pantry.

“I wasn’t searching, sir, I was with Ms Patterson,’’ he replied.

Mandy also raised the question of whether police had wrongly identified Patterson’s son when footage was showed of a youth at the Subway outlet in Leongatha.

Police alleged this youth was Patterson’s eldest child, a claim questioned by Mandy.

Patterson has pleaded not guilty to all charges and the case is continuing.