Speaker 1: It's Mother's Day twenty twenty two and Gail Patterson messages
Speaker 1: her daughter in law. They were the sort of messages
Speaker 1: we all send on holidays, greetings and emojis and hugs
Speaker 1: and kisses. Happy Mother's Day, erin make God bless you,
Speaker 1: love Don and Gail.
Speaker 2: Thanks Gail, Happy Mother's Day to the best mum in
Speaker 2: law anyone could ask for. Kiss, kiss, hug, huck. Very
Speaker 2: kind of you XO.
Speaker 3: Today.
Speaker 1: Though these messages were read to the jury in the
Speaker 1: murder trial of Aaron Patterson, it gave the court another
Speaker 1: insight into the relationship between her and the Patterson family.
Speaker 1: I'm Brooke Greebert Craig and this is the Mushroom Court.
Speaker 1: We've just reached the end of week five of Aaron
Speaker 1: Patterson's trial, and as always I'm joined by a court reporter, Laura.
Speaker 3: Plassella Day five of week five.
Speaker 1: Today was a shorter than usual Friday in court, but
Speaker 1: the jury really only heard evidence for thirty minutes today.
Speaker 3: This is probably the shortest day of the trial so
Speaker 3: far in terms of how much evidence the jury has heard.
Speaker 3: They came in today at eleven thirty, Keeping in mind
Speaker 3: that the court usually starts sitting at ten thirty. So
Speaker 3: Justice Beeale apologized when they all took their seats in
Speaker 3: the jury box, and he said there were still some
Speaker 3: matters that needed to be sorted out in the background,
Speaker 3: but he really empathized with them and said, you're probably
Speaker 3: getting frustrated sitting in the jury room wondering when you're
Speaker 3: going to be brought into court. So you really thanked
Speaker 3: them for their patients.
Speaker 1: Today, Detective Leading Senior Constable Steping eppens Stall returned to
Speaker 1: the stand. This was his fourth day of giving evidence.
Speaker 3: That's right, and it was his second day of cross examination.
Speaker 3: Defense Barrister Colin Mandy today brought Constable epping Stall to
Speaker 3: signal messages which he obtained as part of his investigation.
Speaker 3: And like you said at the top of the episode, Brook,
Speaker 3: the messages were really speaking to the relationship in early
Speaker 3: twenty twenty two between Erin and her estranged husband's parents,
Speaker 3: as well as the relationship that they had with Erin's children.
Speaker 3: I think it was for the first time today that
Speaker 3: we actually found out that Erin's children referred to Gaale
Speaker 3: and Don as Nanna and Papa. It has been a while, though,
Speaker 3: since we've spoken about the Patterson family tree. So, just
Speaker 3: as a reminder, Aaron and Simon permanently separated in twenty fifteen,
Speaker 3: but we've heard evidence in this case that they remained
Speaker 3: friends until late twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1: Now let's speak about the messages. You heard one at
Speaker 1: the top of the episode about Mother's Day in May
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two. Here's another exchange from February that year.
Speaker 1: These are their words, but not their voices.
Speaker 4: We can pick more books if he wants. Also, if
Speaker 4: he needs help in any subject I might have some
Speaker 4: competence in, I'm happy to provide it, probably using jitsy.
Speaker 2: I think he would letely love a jitsy session for matts.
Speaker 2: They're working through algebra, and he says it's one topic
Speaker 2: that he finds a little tricky. So he actually mentioned
Speaker 2: last night that he thought a Papa lesson on algebra
Speaker 2: would really help him about now.
Speaker 1: After the tutoring session, there was another exchange between Aaron
Speaker 1: and Don.
Speaker 2: Thank you for the jitsy with him. He said it
Speaker 2: was great and that you're really good at explaining Matt's Papa.
Speaker 4: No worries he is a good student. A class full
Speaker 4: of students by Kim would be fun and rewarding.
Speaker 3: I will just add that Don was a retired school
Speaker 3: teacher and if anyone's wondering, I did have to google
Speaker 3: it myself today. But Jitsy is a video conferencing app
Speaker 3: just like Zoom.
Speaker 1: Great, let's move on. Mister Mandy also asked Constable epping
Speaker 1: Stool about Aaron's phone records. The jury has previously heard
Speaker 1: a SIM card ending an eight three five was taken
Speaker 1: out of a tablet and placed into a phone dubbed
Speaker 1: Phone B. And this all happened on August three, so
Speaker 1: this was five days after the lunch on July twenty nine,
Speaker 1: that's right.
Speaker 3: And this is the phone that Erin handed to police
Speaker 3: on August five when they were executing a search warrant
Speaker 3: at her home. Today, Constable epping Stall was asked some
Speaker 3: questions about the records relating to Phone B. So these
Speaker 3: records showed that the text messages were received on August four,
Speaker 3: so a day after the scene was placed in from
Speaker 3: apps including Australia Post Center, Link, MyGov, Telstra and even
Speaker 3: News Corp Australia, the publisher of this podcast. Constable epping
Speaker 3: Stall agreed with mister Mandy that these text messages were
Speaker 3: consistent with a person changing their phone number and updating
Speaker 3: the apps on their phone. Mister Mandy explained to the
Speaker 3: court that when a person downloads an app, they may
Speaker 3: be texted a security code from that app so they
Speaker 3: can set up their account. Constable epping Stall told the
Speaker 3: court if you he was setting up a new phone,
Speaker 3: that's the type of thing I'd expect. And that was
Speaker 3: all the evidence that Constable epping Stall gave today, but
Speaker 3: he is expected to return to the stand next week
Speaker 3: for further cross examination. I don't think we've used the
Speaker 3: word informant in a few episodes, but that is the
Speaker 3: title that Constable epping Stall has in this case, and
Speaker 3: it pretty much means he's the lead investigator. He was
Speaker 3: tasked with compiling the brief of evidence against erin, a
Speaker 3: process that would have taken a number of months after
Speaker 3: they first executed that search warrant on August five. He's
Speaker 3: been sitting in court behind the prosecution team every single
Speaker 3: day of this trial. So our listeners will remember that
Speaker 3: in this case, Constable epping Stall has been asked about
Speaker 3: everything from Erin's book toopia receipts to footage from a
Speaker 3: Subway store to Erin's Woolworth's transaction history, so there's been
Speaker 3: a whole range of topics.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, Laura. That's all for today. We know
Speaker 1: it was a shorter episode, but as we said, it
Speaker 1: was a shorter day. Stay tuned for our subscriber only
Speaker 1: episode with veteran crime reporter Anthony Dowsley that will be
Speaker 1: dropping on Sunday. This is a Herald Sun production for
Speaker 1: True Crime Australia. It's presented and reported by Brooke Greebert
Speaker 1: Craig and Laura Plussella reporting and presenting for our weekend
Speaker 1: subscriber only shows by Anthony Dowsley. Our executive producer is
Speaker 1: Jordie Atkinson. The Mushroom Cook is produced, written and edited
Speaker 1: by John ty Burton.