Mushroom detective ‘star’ of police probe as Erin Patterson’s interview played for jury

Detective Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall outside the court in Morwell on Tuesday. Picture: NewsWire / Diego Fedele

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Words and still pictures on the printed page have impact.

The mushrooms murder jury on Tuesday saw once again, however, the unique power of the moving image as its members were shown the video of the formal police interview with Erin Patterson on August 5, 2023.

There were three people in the police interview room but only two mattered – Patterson as the suspect and a smiling detective called Stephen Eppingstall.

Eppingstall might one day be known as the mushroom detective.

Patterson, 50, of Leongatha, has appeared in the Morwell court every one of the 20 days it has heard public evidence; Detective Senior Constable Eppingstall has been in the court every day, too, sitting just behind the prosecution as the case’s informant rather than in the dock as the accused.

In Eppingstall, the jury has been looking at a tall bloke with tightly cropped hair who answered a lot of questions from the prosecutor, Jane Warren, with the response “Yes, ma’am”.

Even when the judge wanted him to stick to generic language, Eppingstall struggled.

“It’s just a habit, sir, your honour,” he said.

Eppingstall was at the accused’s house when it was searched and police allegedly found an instruction manual to a food dehydrator but not the implement itself.

During the search of Patterson’s house, the court was told that Eppingstall was there with her children as well and the family dog, when, for several hours, detectives trawled through the rooms for potential evidence, gathering Patterson’s mobile phone in the first of the video shown to the jury on Tuesday.

It was a short video exchange the jury was shown, with Patterson handing her phone and co-operating with Detective Sergeant Luke Farrell.

It was one of several electronic devices taken by police during the search, that also included a computer and a tablet.

Erin Patterson. Picture: Jason Edwards

The court was also shown images of inside Patterson’s pantry and dishwasher.

On a bench rested a RecipeTin Eats Dinner cookbook, where the jury heard the recipe for beef Wellington was on page 252, for a single log of pastry and meat.

The book had been “spattered”, the court was told, with a piece of tissue used to bookmark one page, but not the section showing how to make a beef Wellington.

The jury was then shown the police interview, where Patterson was told that “We are trying to understand what had made them so ill’’, a reference to her guests who allegedly died from death cap mushroom poisoning.

Patterson has pleaded not guilty to all charges and has consistently denied any wrongdoing.

During the record of interview, Patterson seemed composed and co-operative, telling the two detectives she had had a big clean-out of her pantry and that she had not foraged for mushrooms.

“Never,’’ she said of foraging.

She also shook her head when asked whether she had dehydrated food.

The court has previously heard evidence to the contrary.

Patterson repeated in the interview her comments where she claimed deep affection for the in-laws who died after eating her beef Wellington made with death cap mushrooms, which the court has previously heard was a mistake on Patterson’s behalf.

“I want them to stay in my kids’ lives,’’ she told Eppingstall in the record of interview.

“I love them.’’

Patterson also said when she attended Leongatha hospital, she had been only suffering gastroenteritis, with evidence suggesting she had endured “explosive” diarrhoea on July 29 and July 30, 2023.

Of the hospital visit, she said: “I’m not urgent, obviously.’’

Eppingstall’s evidence will continue on Wednesday and he is expected to be the last prosecution witness after a trial in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley that is into its fifth week.

The trial has previously heard evidence that Patterson is a good mother, had lent hundreds of thousands of dollars to her estranged husband’s relatives to buy houses and had volunteered at the Korumburra Baptist Church.

The case is continuing before judge Christopher Beale.