Erin Patterson, who is accused of murdering three relatives by serving them a beef Wellington meal that contained death cap mushrooms, is giving evidence. Follow our live updates from the trial.
www.smh.com.au
10.51am
Lead homicide detective returns to witness box
By
Victoria Police’s Detective Leading Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall will return to the witness box this morning to continue his evidence for a fifth day.
Eppingstall, the lead homicide detective in the case, has been in the witness box since last Tuesday afternoon.
View attachment 590748
Detective Leading Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall outside court.Credit: Jason South
11.08am
‘No one’s been telling me anything’: Lead detective recalls visit to Erin’s home after lunch
By
Erin Patterson’s defence lawyer Colin Mandy, SC, is continuing his cross-examination of Detective Leading Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall.
There are several members of the Wilkinson and Patterson families present in court today, including lunch survivor Ian Wilkinson and Don Patterson’s brother, Colin Patterson, among others.
To begin, Mandy takes Eppingstall to four images of dinner plates taken at Erin’s Leongatha home during the police search on August 5, 2023.
The first image shown to the court shows a black plate above the dishwasher on the counter, next to another white plate. The second shows several dishes stacked in the dishwasher, including a black and red plate, a white dish and a colourful plate with kindergarten-type scribbles.
The other two images shown to the jury are of an open drawer with a stack of black side plates, and a colourful, striped plate.
Eppingstall agreed that upon arriving at Patterson’s home, he indicated to her that two people had passed away, to which she responded: “No one’s been telling me anything that’s been going on, and it’s been really hard.”
11.17am
Homicide detective recalls second search of Erin Patterson’s home
By
Stephen Eppingstall, the lead detective in the mushroom case, is now giving evidence about the second search warrant executed at Erin’s home on November 2, 2023.
Erin Patterson’s defence lawyer Colin Mandy, SC, has taken the homicide detective to a series of images taken during the search.
The first two images shown to the jury are of an Acer laptop, keyboard and mouse atop a wooden dining room table with tan/grey upholstered seats. The third image is of a Lenovo Thinkpad computer.
Mandy has taken Eppingstall to an image of the same computer and Lego room that police searched on August 5, 2023, and pointed out two items that were present on a shelf in images of the initial police search in August are no longer there.
“I am putting to the witness that the item that was depicted underneath a keyboard is no longer there,” Mandy said.
“It’s clear that shelf has been rearranged,” Eppingstall responded.
The jury has been shown another photograph of the shelf, showing a mouse and keyboard.
Mandy pointed to a small black case on the shelf, which he suggests could have been a mobile phone case on a windowsill in an image taken during the first police search on August 5, 2023.
Eppingstall confirmed at the time of the second search, Erin was using another phone, an Oppo handset, that was seized by police.
Asked by Patterson’s lawyer whether police would have checked what SIM card was in the device at the time, Eppingstall said officers “would have”.
“From memory I don’t think it was the 783 number,” he said.
Mandy has taken Eppingstall to the diagram again, this time zooming into a SIM card connected to Erin’s son and ran the jury through a series of factory resets between February and August 2023.
11.30am
Day 24 of the mushroom murder trial in Morwell in pictures
By
Jason South, award-winning photographer for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, is in Morwell covering the trial.
Here are some of the photos he took earlier this morning outside court.
View attachment 590751
Erin Patterson’s legal team arrive at courtCredit: Jason South
