Latest / The Mushroom Trial: Say Grace / Subway CCTV and police expenses
Transcript
- 0:02Speaker 1: Nine podcasts. The lead investigator continues his evidence, questioned on
- 0:07Speaker 1: exactly what security footage from the evening of the fatal
- 0:10Speaker 1: lunch shows. He also tells the jury pulling all of
- 0:14Speaker 1: the accused killer's phone records was too expensive for police.
- 0:19Speaker 2: Victoria's mushroom mystery, the mushroom lunch that claimed three lives
- 0:23Speaker 2: an Australian family's meal is now the center of a
- 0:26Speaker 2: homicide investigation. For bizarre tragedy now grabbing global headlines, Aaron
- 0:31Speaker 2: Patterson's alleged victims died after eating a family lunch she'd
- 0:34Speaker 2: serve them at her home.
- 0:36Speaker 3: I cannot think of another investigation that has generated this
- 0:40Speaker 3: level of media and public interest.
- 0:43Speaker 1: Four of the guests of that lunch were much loved
- 0:45Speaker 1: members of this church. Only one will ever return.
- 0:48Speaker 2: People are feeling very heavy with having lost such wonderful people.
- 0:54Speaker 1: Today, Aaron Pattison remained here inside her home. She's continued
- 0:58Speaker 1: to plead.
- 0:59Speaker 3: Her innocence.
- 1:02Speaker 1: In a court room in Country Victoria. Aaron Patterson is
- 1:05Speaker 1: on trial accused of using deathcap mushrooms to kill. She's
- 1:09Speaker 1: pleaded not guilty to murdering three of her former in
- 1:11Speaker 1: laws and attempting to kill a fourth the town's church pastor.
- 1:15Speaker 1: It's up to the jurors to decide what happened when
- 1:18Speaker 1: Pattison's loved ones sat down to eat now. The lead detective,
- 1:22Speaker 1: Stephen Eppingstall, has been giving evidence over a number of days,
- 1:27Speaker 1: and during his cross examination with Colin Mandy that our
- 1:29Speaker 1: listeners will have heard a little bit about in the
- 1:31Speaker 1: last episode, he's been taken through a number of other
- 1:35Speaker 1: specific topics and really questioned on particular parts of the investigation.
- 1:40Speaker 2: There was a lot of questioning today that went through
- 1:43Speaker 2: multiple topics, but a lot of it was to do
- 1:45Speaker 2: with data, CCTV, mobile phone tower pings, this sort of thing,
- 1:50Speaker 2: and one of the ones that they spend a little
- 1:53Speaker 2: bit of time on today with Colin Mandy asking epping
- 1:56Speaker 2: Stall about why certain mobile phone DOTA log records weren't
- 1:59Speaker 2: gab for the entirety of the investigation or for about
- 2:03Speaker 2: a year period. That was a twelve month period they
- 2:06Speaker 2: were really talking about today and we heard and said
- 2:08Speaker 2: that they focused their investigation on collecting this specific type
- 2:11Speaker 2: of data analysis for dates that were closer to the
- 2:14Speaker 2: lunch and not that twelve month period. And yeah, the
- 2:18Speaker 2: detective was quiz on, well, why is that the case?
- 2:20Speaker 2: Why don't we have more of this? And he explained
- 2:23Speaker 2: that seeking data for that amount of time would be
- 2:25Speaker 2: far too costly. He gave some figures, Penny, saying that
- 2:28Speaker 2: when the technology first came available, it was about seventeen
- 2:32Speaker 2: hundred dollars for two hours of data, and that if
- 2:36Speaker 2: they were to seek a year's worth of mobile phone
- 2:38Speaker 2: location tracking data, it would have probably left the homicide
- 2:41Speaker 2: squad in with a bill that they needed to pay
- 2:45Speaker 2: that would have been in six figures, so very cost prohibitive,
- 2:48Speaker 2: is the way that he explained it. And he said, quote,
- 2:51Speaker 2: my boss isn't really keen on spending that much for getting.
- 2:54Speaker 1: And he mentioned as part of this evidence as he
- 2:56Speaker 1: was going through it that basically, as the lead investigator,
- 2:59Speaker 1: he wants every he wants to throw everything.
- 3:01Speaker 2: At it, said he was greedy Penny, yeah, but.
- 3:03Speaker 1: He said, you know, you don't always get everything. That
- 3:05Speaker 1: was how he explained it, and then sort of with
- 3:07Speaker 1: that very specific cost as well. But he was asked
- 3:10Speaker 1: a lot about the search of Aaron Patterson's home. Now
- 3:13Speaker 1: the jury has been told there were two searches, one
- 3:16Speaker 1: on the fifth of August twenty twenty three, which is
- 3:19Speaker 1: sort of in the week following the lunch and then
- 3:21Speaker 1: also another search that was on the second of November
- 3:24Speaker 1: twenty twenty three. Now, when he was the detective being
- 3:28Speaker 1: taken through this evidence by Colin Mandy sc he was
- 3:32Speaker 1: spoken to about, well, we know that I believe Colin
- 3:35Speaker 1: Mandy's words were many many electronic devices were seized, but basically,
- 3:39Speaker 1: what about some others that have been shown in some
- 3:42Speaker 1: images that the jury has seen up on the screens
- 3:44Speaker 1: and these images they've been told were taken from these
- 3:47Speaker 1: search videos that were made and still images from that
- 3:51Speaker 1: search on the fifth of August, and the detective confirmed, yes,
- 3:53Speaker 1: he did believe that particularly one of these images had
- 3:56Speaker 1: come from there, and he didn't dispute that in any way.
- 3:58Speaker 1: And he was taken to a particular room in the
- 4:02Speaker 1: house and shown what appeared to be and what Colin
- 4:05Speaker 1: Mandy described as a phone box in a basket of
- 4:08Speaker 1: sort of in an area where we'd seen other electronics
- 4:11Speaker 1: earlier in the house and we'd seen also a sort
- 4:14Speaker 1: of a lot of cords and asked asked about that,
- 4:16Speaker 1: and that's when the detective sort of said, well, we
- 4:18Speaker 1: seized everything we saw our goal was to get every
- 4:22Speaker 1: electronic device we could. But he was then taken into
- 4:26Speaker 1: what was being described as the Lego room, and this
- 4:29Speaker 1: was a room. In the photos we could see it
- 4:31Speaker 1: was shelves sort of built in floor to ceiling, and
- 4:33Speaker 1: there was a lot of different items on those shelves.
- 4:36Speaker 2: They were open shelves, and it was a picture that
- 4:38Speaker 2: the jury hadn't seen before. We know that the search
- 4:41Speaker 2: of the house on both occasions was filmed and then
- 4:44Speaker 2: there was these steal images taken from that and that's
- 4:47Speaker 2: what was shown to the jury. But this was a
- 4:48Speaker 2: new one that was shown to the court today and
- 4:52Speaker 2: the informant was asked to look at what was in
- 4:54Speaker 2: that particularly on a couple of bottom shelves on the
- 4:56Speaker 2: right hand side of the room he was directed to,
- 4:59Speaker 2: and they even zoomed on the image at that time,
- 5:02Speaker 2: and there was two particular shelves where Colin Mandy sc
- 5:06Speaker 2: was suggesting that whether or not the informant agreed that
- 5:10Speaker 2: they could be computers, perhaps these were computers that were
- 5:12Speaker 2: missed or weren't picked up or weren't found during the
- 5:15Speaker 2: search warrants. And we know the search warrants had a
- 5:18Speaker 2: description on them to search for electronic devices, and epping
- 5:21Speaker 2: Stare was looking at them and he spent a bit
- 5:23Speaker 2: of time. He zoomed in himself, Penny, and he was
- 5:26Speaker 2: asked to look at the way he described them was
- 5:28Speaker 2: sort of two boxes, and one of them, he said, yes,
- 5:30Speaker 2: was kind of consistent with what could be a laptop.
- 5:34Speaker 2: But the other one, he said, appeared to have a
- 5:35Speaker 2: microphone over the top, and he really couldn't agree with
- 5:38Speaker 2: the suggestion that Colin Mandy was making that that was
- 5:41Speaker 2: also a laptop.
- 5:42Speaker 1: Let's have a little bit of a listen to what
- 5:43Speaker 1: the detective said as part of his evidence. This is
- 5:46Speaker 1: where he was being asked about one of these particular
- 5:49Speaker 1: dark shapes that we could see in the photo in
- 5:52Speaker 1: that shelf, it's voiced by actors.
- 5:54Speaker 4: On the shelf on the right hand side, there was
- 5:57Speaker 4: a keyboard sitting on top of a laptop.
- 5:59Speaker 3: From that photos, I couldn't And in.
- 6:00Speaker 4: The shelf below that you can see the black case
- 6:03Speaker 4: on the left hand side.
- 6:04Speaker 3: Yeah, the black one has a similarity to a laptop,
- 6:07Speaker 3: I'll grant that, But that top right one, I couldn't say, sir,
- 6:10Speaker 3: what that is.
- 6:11Speaker 4: And these items were not seized by police.
- 6:14Speaker 3: Okay, if they're laptops. This is the first I'm learning
- 6:16Speaker 3: of these items.
- 6:17Speaker 4: Okay, all right, thank you. There are other items as
- 6:21Speaker 4: well in the premises that weren't seized. For instance, in
- 6:24Speaker 4: the pantry there was a USB storage device. You recall that.
- 6:28Speaker 3: I wasn't searching, sir, I was with miss Patterson.
- 6:31Speaker 1: Now, as part of what the detective was also taken
- 6:34Speaker 1: through by the defense, he was asked about the seizing
- 6:37Speaker 1: of phones from the Pattersons. So the court was told
- 6:41Speaker 1: as part of this through what Colin Mandy was speaking about,
- 6:44Speaker 1: that there were three phones that were handed over by
- 6:47Speaker 1: Simon Patterson, Aaron Patterson's a strange husband, those being his
- 6:51Speaker 1: parents done and Gail's devices, and then also his own
- 6:54Speaker 1: mobile phone. Now, he confirmed in his evidence, the detective
- 6:58Speaker 1: that he'd initially got these phones on the sixth of
- 7:00Speaker 1: August when he spoke with Simon Patterson. But he clarified
- 7:05Speaker 1: as part of his evidence that while he had this
- 7:07Speaker 1: phone from Simon Patterson on the sixth, that he had
- 7:10Speaker 1: taken it back to the office and he hadn't actually
- 7:12Speaker 1: been able to download that particular phone at the time.
- 7:15Speaker 1: So because particularly Simon's parents had passed away on what
- 7:18Speaker 1: was going on at the time he gave that phone
- 7:20Speaker 1: back to him, and then it was on the twelfth
- 7:22Speaker 1: of September that it was returned to him via Simon
- 7:25Speaker 1: Patterson and passed on to specialist investigators to download that data. Now,
- 7:30Speaker 1: as part of this, Colin Mandy sc sort of pressed
- 7:32Speaker 1: him on this in a few different ways, and it
- 7:35Speaker 1: was then that Justice Biale actually sort of hopped in
- 7:38Speaker 1: and clarified what was being said by the informant or
- 7:41Speaker 1: the lead detective, and Stephen Eppingstall gave evidence that yes,
- 7:45Speaker 1: he had been told by Simon Patterson that he'd essentially
- 7:48Speaker 1: changed phones, he'd got a new handset, but that his
- 7:51Speaker 1: understanding was that the phone that he received back on
- 7:53Speaker 1: the twelfth that was then downloaded, that that phone wasn't
- 7:56Speaker 1: actually a different one to the one he was given
- 7:58Speaker 1: on the sixth, just that they'd had I had this
- 8:00Speaker 1: discussion about him getting a new handset, and that he
- 8:03Speaker 1: also spoke briefly about Donald Pattison's phone too, and he
- 8:06Speaker 1: said he didn't uncover much on that particular phone. It
- 8:09Speaker 1: was fairly empty and there was a bit of reaction
- 8:11Speaker 1: to that in the court.
- 8:12Speaker 2: There is a lot of laughter in the courtroom at
- 8:14Speaker 2: that time. I was sitting in the back row and
- 8:17Speaker 2: had a pretty good view of everybody that was in
- 8:19Speaker 2: there today, and from all of the jury members, from
- 8:24Speaker 2: all of the family members, from the Pattisons and Wilkinson's,
- 8:27Speaker 2: they were all having a bit of a chuckle as
- 8:29Speaker 2: that was mentioned. The suggestion made that Don really didn't
- 8:33Speaker 2: use his phone that much. Even looking at the judge,
- 8:35Speaker 2: there was a bit of a smile on his face.
- 8:37Speaker 2: It was one of those softer moments during this trial.
- 8:40Speaker 1: And the jury's also been shown some CCTV. Now they've
- 8:44Speaker 1: been shown this a number of times throughout the detective's evidence,
- 8:47Speaker 1: and this is CCTV that they've been told came from
- 8:50Speaker 1: near a subway store in Lee and Gatha, and it
- 8:53Speaker 1: showed a red car and a couple of other things.
- 8:55Speaker 1: But when the detective was taken back to this by
- 8:59Speaker 1: the defense, there's asked some really quite specific questions regarding
- 9:03Speaker 1: that particular video.
- 9:04Speaker 2: Yeah, he was challenged on who it was that the
- 9:08Speaker 2: prosecution alleged got out of that car and walked into
- 9:11Speaker 2: the subway's store making a purchase. As the person they
- 9:15Speaker 2: allege was Aaron Patterson drove away for eleven minutes in
- 9:17Speaker 2: that vehicle, which they've been unable to ascertain details about
- 9:21Speaker 2: before returning. So the prosecution cases and Stephen eppings Stall
- 9:25Speaker 2: maintained that Aaron Patterson had dropped her son off at
- 9:29Speaker 2: that subway store. He'd walked in the dark through some
- 9:32Speaker 2: sort of dimly lit concrete walkway into the store, and
- 9:36Speaker 2: then she'd come back and picked him back up. But
- 9:38Speaker 2: Colin Mandy suggested today Penny, was this really the accused
- 9:43Speaker 2: woman's son or was this a different boy? And they
- 9:46Speaker 2: used photographs that had been taken of the accused of
- 9:51Speaker 2: the accused woman's son during his video evidence and during
- 9:54Speaker 2: an earlier exhibit we heard a rocket video he'd been
- 9:58Speaker 2: doing with his grandfather Don that we're using that to
- 10:01Speaker 2: try and compare. The defense was to Stephen Eppingstall, is
- 10:06Speaker 2: this really him or is this somebody else's.
- 10:08Speaker 1: Let's hear a little bit about what Stephen Eppingstall said
- 10:10Speaker 1: in his evidence.
- 10:12Speaker 4: Can I suggest that this is a still from the
- 10:14Speaker 4: CCTV footage inside the subway?
- 10:17Speaker 3: Yep?
- 10:17Speaker 4: And that is not the sun.
- 10:20Speaker 3: I believe it to be him, but it's obviously a
- 10:22Speaker 3: matter for the jury.
- 10:23Speaker 4: All Right, Well, let's just compare that image then with well,
- 10:28Speaker 4: so we all know that you agree that the first
- 10:30Speaker 4: photo is the sun. Yes, yes, we'll just show you
- 10:35Speaker 4: a still from the video interview now that we know
- 10:38Speaker 4: to be him. Yes, two weeks later on the sixteenth
- 10:40Speaker 4: of August.
- 10:41Speaker 3: Yeah, the two and a half. Yes, yes, sir, yep.
- 10:45Speaker 4: And do you agree with me that that's not the
- 10:47Speaker 4: same person as is depicted in the subway footage.
- 10:50Speaker 3: Oh, to me, he looks more like the subway guy
- 10:52Speaker 3: than that first photo, sir.
- 10:53Speaker 4: Yes, Well, that might be right, but it's still not
- 10:56Speaker 4: the same person.
- 10:57Speaker 3: Okay, And again that's a matter for the jury, sir.
- 11:00Speaker 4: I'm not suggesting that there wasn't a visit to Subway.
- 11:02Speaker 3: No, I understand that. Yeah, I understand.
- 11:04Speaker 4: That we're saying the path I've got the wrong one,
- 11:07Speaker 4: is what you're saying.
- 11:08Speaker 3: Yes, I don't think so, But that's a matter for you, sir.
- 11:12Speaker 1: Just to come back to that, the jury has been
- 11:13Speaker 1: told that this particular CCTV came from the night of
- 11:18Speaker 1: the twenty ninth of July, that that on that night,
- 11:20Speaker 1: there's been other evidence given that Aaron Patterson had been
- 11:23Speaker 1: dropping this boy's friend off to his home, and that
- 11:27Speaker 1: then the prosecution had alleged they'd gone to Subway and
- 11:30Speaker 1: as part of this sort of lead into trying to
- 11:33Speaker 1: work out who was the boy being shown in the
- 11:36Speaker 1: footage in these very close up screen grabs from the
- 11:39Speaker 1: footage that were being zoomed in, and that you could
- 11:41Speaker 1: hear the detective just speaking about. Then in that voiced
- 11:43Speaker 1: evidence he spoke to the defense about when they asked, well,
- 11:48Speaker 1: how did you you know confirm this? He says Simon
- 11:51Speaker 1: Patterson had told him that there had been a subway
- 11:55Speaker 1: dinner that night for his son, and he said that
- 11:58Speaker 1: it was then when they went to look for this
- 12:00Speaker 1: CCTV to try and find the right time code because
- 12:03Speaker 1: CCTV sometimes is out with the times, that he actually
- 12:08Speaker 1: asked Simon Patterson to go through the son's bank account
- 12:10Speaker 1: looking for a transaction and that it was a transaction
- 12:13Speaker 1: from that bank account for about seven twenty five PM
- 12:17Speaker 1: that he relied on to then try and find this CCTV.
- 12:20Speaker 1: And as you just heard, then he certainly maintains that
- 12:22Speaker 1: this was Aaron Patterson's son in the particular vision. But
- 12:25Speaker 1: when he was questioned by the defense, Colin Mandy mentioned, well,
- 12:29Speaker 1: how did you know basically that the bank records had
- 12:32Speaker 1: the correct time on that too, So there was a
- 12:33Speaker 1: bit of back and forth around a few elements of
- 12:36Speaker 1: this CCTV.
- 12:37Speaker 2: Yeah, and when Eppingstaal was asked, how do you explain
- 12:39Speaker 2: these discrepancies that may have occurred, he said, I've got
- 12:42Speaker 2: no idea, and then they moved on quickly to another topic.
- 12:44Speaker 2: As we said, there was quite a few today, but
- 12:46Speaker 2: that was one of the ones that he was really
- 12:48Speaker 2: pressed quite heavily on of his memory of it. And
- 12:51Speaker 2: when the different photographs of who the prosecution say Zick's
- 12:54Speaker 2: son was shown on the screen, you could see a
- 12:56Speaker 2: lot of members of the jury staring at the big screen.
- 12:58Speaker 2: You could also see many members of the public in
- 13:01Speaker 2: the courtroom sort of turning and looking at one another.
- 13:03Speaker 2: And we know it was a really really packed courtroom
- 13:06Speaker 2: again today. There was about six members of the homicide
- 13:09Speaker 2: squad attended today alongside Eppingstall who was sitting in the
- 13:12Speaker 2: public gallery. There was a number of press and there
- 13:14Speaker 2: was also a lot of members of the public as well.
- 13:17Speaker 1: Yeah, and one of the other things that was mentioned
- 13:20Speaker 1: regarding Aaron Patterson's children in some of the things that
- 13:23Speaker 1: the cross examination has focused on was sort of the
- 13:27Speaker 1: memories of the children and the evidence that they'd given
- 13:29Speaker 1: in these pre recorded videos that the jury was played
- 13:32Speaker 1: earlier in the trial. Now, Colin Mandy took the detective
- 13:36Speaker 1: today to those two videos and in it he was
- 13:40Speaker 1: asking about, you know, the sun had given evidence in
- 13:43Speaker 1: that video that they'd stopped at an outback jack donut
- 13:46Speaker 1: stop at Cooi Rup in Gippsland sort of as part
- 13:49Speaker 1: of their trip on the way back from Taiab. Now
- 13:53Speaker 1: it was mentioned that yes, that seemed to be correct
- 13:56Speaker 1: and that seemed to be consistent with what the jury
- 13:58Speaker 1: has then been shown in bang records. But then there
- 14:01Speaker 1: was a question from the defense regarding a stop at
- 14:04Speaker 1: the Caldermeaede service station the BP that the jury has
- 14:08Speaker 1: been shown CCTV of and a receipt in regards to
- 14:11Speaker 1: the transaction made there and what was ordered with a
- 14:14Speaker 1: ham sandwich, a sweet chili chicken wrap and a packet
- 14:17Speaker 1: of gum shown as part of the evidence of this
- 14:20Speaker 1: detective on a receipt that the prosecution alleged was what
- 14:24Speaker 1: Aaron Patterson had purchased in the CCTV that has been
- 14:28Speaker 1: shown to the court of a woman entering that service
- 14:30Speaker 1: station on that day. But it was mentioned by the
- 14:33Speaker 1: defense basically that this wasn't mentioned by the child when
- 14:37Speaker 1: he gave his evidence when it was pre recorded and
- 14:40Speaker 1: then played to the court.
- 14:41Speaker 2: It wasn't part of his memory. Is the way that
- 14:43Speaker 2: the jury was told that when he gave his video
- 14:46Speaker 2: recorded evidence, that he only recalled that there was one
- 14:49Speaker 2: stop on the way back, and that was at the
- 14:51Speaker 2: stop where they stopped at the Doughnut Fan And there
- 14:53Speaker 2: wasn't a memory in his video recording of them stopping
- 14:57Speaker 2: at the BP at Colder Meade.
- 14:59Speaker 1: And the detective read with that as well, we'll be
- 15:01Speaker 1: back with more evidence after this. The defense, continuing with
- 15:06Speaker 1: the cross examination, also asked about again bank records, phone records,
- 15:12Speaker 1: phone numbers, things like that, and what was put to
- 15:14Speaker 1: the detective was that on the fourth of August, when
- 15:18Speaker 1: the homicide squad already had carriage of this investigation, and
- 15:20Speaker 1: before the search of Aaron Patterson's home on the fifth,
- 15:23Speaker 1: which later that day there was this record of interview
- 15:26Speaker 1: that's been played to the jury, that there had been
- 15:29Speaker 1: an email sent that this detective was aware of regarding
- 15:33Speaker 1: Aaron Patterson's different bank records, And the defense pressed the
- 15:37Speaker 1: detective on whether or not they looked at the bank
- 15:40Speaker 1: records all the way back to April of twenty twenty three,
- 15:43Speaker 1: and he said that they hadn't. Here's a little bit
- 15:46Speaker 1: of the detective's evidence while he was being questioned by
- 15:48Speaker 1: Colin Mandy from the defense. It's voiced by actors, and
- 15:52Speaker 1: it also includes, as well as the bank records, questions
- 15:55Speaker 1: around particular phone numbers.
- 15:58Speaker 4: You knew that Aaron Patterson was utilizing the phone number
- 16:02Speaker 4: ending in seven eighty three prior to the execution of
- 16:06Speaker 4: the search warrant.
- 16:06Speaker 3: Yes, that is correct.
- 16:08Speaker 4: And you knew that she'd been in the Mount Waverley
- 16:10Speaker 4: area in April of twenty twenty three, Yes, sir. And
- 16:13Speaker 4: you didn't ask her about that the last of those
- 16:15Speaker 4: things in the record of the interview. Yeah, the Mount
- 16:18Speaker 4: Waverley the fact that she'd been spending time there in
- 16:20Speaker 4: April of twenty twenty three.
- 16:22Speaker 3: No.
- 16:22Speaker 4: No, And you didn't ask her about the fact of
- 16:25Speaker 4: the seven eight three mobile number in the record of
- 16:27Speaker 4: the interview. No.
- 16:28Speaker 3: I asked her for her phone number in the record
- 16:30Speaker 3: of interview, and I didn't realize that she hadn't given
- 16:32Speaker 3: me that number. I just wrote it down and just
- 16:35Speaker 3: moved past it.
- 16:36Speaker 4: Okay, but she gave you the phone number of the phone.
- 16:38Speaker 3: That she she gave me an eight three five number.
- 16:40Speaker 4: Sir, Did she surrender to the police earlier?
- 16:42Speaker 3: Yeah? Correct, Yeah, I just wrote it down and didn't
- 16:45Speaker 3: give it any more thought until later on.
- 16:47Speaker 1: Now, the jury was also shown again a number of
- 16:50Speaker 1: Facebook messages and a number of signal messages or text
- 16:54Speaker 1: messages that will go through in a moment as part
- 16:56Speaker 1: of the cross examination of the detective. Some of the
- 16:58Speaker 1: Facebook messages that were they were part of an exhibit
- 17:01Speaker 1: that has already been shown to the jury what's been
- 17:03Speaker 1: called the online Friends' Facebook chat with a number of
- 17:07Speaker 1: different women as well as who the defense said today
- 17:10Speaker 1: was Aaron Patterson also sending these sort of replies to
- 17:13Speaker 1: these messages. But today what was shown was a number
- 17:16Speaker 1: of other pages between essentially the messages that have already
- 17:20Speaker 1: been shown to the jury. And it was mentioned by
- 17:22Speaker 1: Colin man dysc that there was around one hundred and
- 17:25Speaker 1: eighty six pages of these messages that spanned this time
- 17:29Speaker 1: frame that the other messages sort of have come from
- 17:31Speaker 1: that the jury's already seen.
- 17:32Speaker 2: And yeah, he said there was context. He wanted to
- 17:34Speaker 2: He was saying to the informant that, yes, you've selected
- 17:37Speaker 2: a few of these messages and you've told these to
- 17:39Speaker 2: the jury, you've read these to the juries part of
- 17:41Speaker 2: the prosecution case. But I want you jury explained to
- 17:45Speaker 2: you that there's more context here, and I want to
- 17:46Speaker 2: put to you, as the lead investigator, that you haven't
- 17:49Speaker 2: included all of the messages in the evidence that the
- 17:51Speaker 2: jury's heard thus far. And here there's other women one
- 17:54Speaker 2: name redacted, one was another woman who have replied, and
- 17:58Speaker 2: then a lot of Eron's messages then follow those.
- 18:00Speaker 1: Replies, and as we said, some of those are messages
- 18:02Speaker 1: that the jury has already seen and you may have
- 18:05Speaker 1: heard in our previous episodes where this was sort of
- 18:08Speaker 1: first covered with the prosecution, But those messages were all
- 18:11Speaker 1: sort of centering around how Erin was feeling and sort
- 18:17Speaker 1: of coping at the time with Simon and with his family,
- 18:21Speaker 1: especially regarding issues around the children and financial issues. And
- 18:25Speaker 1: what was read to the jury today by Colin Mandy
- 18:28Speaker 1: while he was doing this cross examination with the detective
- 18:30Speaker 1: was a number of these different messages and we'll let
- 18:33Speaker 1: you hear a little bit of that now.
- 18:34Speaker 4: It's voiced by actors. Now, I'm not going to go
- 18:36Speaker 4: through every one of these messages unless someone wants me to,
- 18:40Speaker 4: but I am going to give you some examples of
- 18:41Speaker 4: the context. So the first message that's extracted by the
- 18:45Speaker 4: prosecution is the third one on that page. So Simon's
- 18:49Speaker 4: dad contacted me this morning, et cetera, et cetera, Yes, sir,
- 18:52Speaker 4: And then the following messages have been left out by
- 18:54Speaker 4: the prosecution's exhibit, which is the discussion that flows from
- 18:58Speaker 4: these propositions. A friend says, what morons at the time
- 19:03Speaker 4: ten twenty three thirty six? Is that right? Yes, sir,
- 19:05Speaker 4: Scroll down a bit, and then the same woman says
- 19:09Speaker 4: shortly after that, anyway, you weren't asking them to adjudicate.
- 19:14Speaker 4: You just wanted them to hear your story. And then
- 19:16Speaker 4: she says something else that I won't read out.
- 19:18Speaker 3: Yep.
- 19:19Speaker 4: Then comes Erin's response, which is I said to him
- 19:22Speaker 4: about fifty times yesterday that I didn't want them to adjudicate.
- 19:26Speaker 4: Nobody bloody listens to me. At least I know they're
- 19:29Speaker 4: a lost cause. Yes, So, just using that as an example,
- 19:33Speaker 4: the adjudicating proposition is part of the context of the conversation.
- 19:37Speaker 4: Do you accept that so the word the use of adjudicate.
- 19:40Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, yes.
- 19:43Speaker 4: Then someone asks a question, so you haven't heard from Simon,
- 19:48Speaker 4: inviting a response yes, And then there is a response yes,
- 19:52Speaker 4: all right. If we go down now page three, someone
- 19:57Speaker 4: says it's pathetic, Yes, sir. Someone says, even if he
- 20:01Speaker 4: doesn't want to talk about your marriage, they could at
- 20:04Speaker 4: least demand to know how he's financially supporting the kids. Yes,
- 20:08Speaker 4: And then comes the response which is in that context,
- 20:11Speaker 4: yes sir, yes, thank you. I should make clear your honor,
- 20:14Speaker 4: that we have redacted names from this document where it's
- 20:16Speaker 4: not miss Patterson, because sometimes the content of what's being
- 20:19Speaker 4: said is sensitive, so we have redacted personal information in
- 20:23Speaker 4: that way.
- 20:23Speaker 1: Now, some of these messages also weren't read out. They
- 20:26Speaker 1: were you could see them on the screen, and the
- 20:28Speaker 1: jury has a copy of the messages on their iPads
- 20:30Speaker 1: as well. But some of them, particularly when Colin Mandy
- 20:33Speaker 1: sort of got to them, he said, oh, I won't
- 20:34Speaker 1: read that one out, And one of them was so
- 20:37Speaker 1: Simon is meant to pray for his children because he's
- 20:39Speaker 1: a shit dad. It makes no sense that was sent
- 20:42Speaker 1: by someone said to be a friend of Aaron Patterson
- 20:45Speaker 1: in that particular group chat. So it was something that
- 20:48Speaker 1: Colin Mandy put to the informant that these discussions around
- 20:52Speaker 1: different personal issues, but also discussions around pets, around celebrities,
- 20:57Speaker 1: around deaths that have been reported in the news.
- 21:00Speaker 2: Yeah, the death of Kirsty Ally was one that was mentioned. Penny.
- 21:03Speaker 1: It was put by the defense to the informant that
- 21:06Speaker 1: were these sort of random conversations around different topics but
- 21:09Speaker 1: also supporting around their own issues in their own lives.
- 21:13Speaker 1: Was that sort of what this chat was formed around?
- 21:15Speaker 1: And he agreed that yes, there were a lot of
- 21:16Speaker 1: these kind of topics covered. But then we're also shown
- 21:19Speaker 1: some more of these signal messages, which of signal is
- 21:22Speaker 1: something that's been mentioned a number of times throughout the trial,
- 21:25Speaker 1: but they're essentially text messages.
- 21:27Speaker 2: That's right. It was Don Patterson and Aaron Patterson's text
- 21:30Speaker 2: messages that were spoken about today. Now, these were sent
- 21:33Speaker 2: between the first and the fifteenth of January in twenty
- 21:35Speaker 2: twenty two, and it was here the jury were told
- 21:38Speaker 2: that they the pair discuss some of the accused woman's
- 21:41Speaker 2: ongoing health issues, and this included a saw back and
- 21:44Speaker 2: Don Patterson messaging the accused saying I hope and pray
- 21:47Speaker 2: that it gets better quickly, and you know, it's been
- 21:49Speaker 2: great to chat to the kids this morning. There was
- 21:52Speaker 2: replies that went back and forth where Aaron Patterson was
- 21:55Speaker 2: talking about the fact that she'd had a terrible day
- 21:58Speaker 2: and Donald continued to say, we'll keep praying for you,
- 22:00Speaker 2: or keep praying that he keeps you in good health.
- 22:03Speaker 2: Aaron then went on to respond that she tried pain
- 22:05Speaker 2: relief and eurofin and stupidly that had run out. And
- 22:10Speaker 2: then there was more messages about what was going on
- 22:12Speaker 2: in the global health pandemic at the time COVID nineteen.
- 22:16Speaker 2: We know that that also hit Lee and Gatha and
- 22:18Speaker 2: Karen Burrow because Aaron Patterson was explaining to Donald that
- 22:21Speaker 2: she knew that there was a number of cases in
- 22:23Speaker 2: that local community at a time.
- 22:24Speaker 1: And sort of saying be careful when you go out
- 22:27Speaker 1: and just to ensure that they sort of avoided those
- 22:30Speaker 1: COVID outbreaks. Will bring you more updates from the court
- 22:33Speaker 1: as the evidence is presented to the jury. Thank you
- 22:37Speaker 1: for listening to this episode of Say Grace. Please press
- 22:40Speaker 1: the follow button in your app to get our next
- 22:42Speaker 1: episodes as soon as we publish.
- 22:44Speaker 2: For more reporting, on the case. Check out the Age
- 22:46Speaker 2: of nine News in your browser or app store.
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- 22:56Speaker 1: me Penelope.
- 22:57Speaker 2: Lesh and me Aaron Pearson.
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