Stephen Eppingstall, the lead detective in the mushroom case, is now giving evidence about the second search warrant executed at Erin Patterson’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 with Erin’s son and ran the jury through a series of factory resets between February and August 2023.
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