Mushroom trial live: sim card placed into different phone while police searched Erin Patterson’s home, court hears | Victoria

The court has adjourned for a lunch break.

The trial will resume at 2.15pm.

Eppingstall tells the court that police have never located Patterson’s “Phone A”.

Eppingstall says police also found a second mobile phone number attached to Patterson’s name. It ended in the digits “783”.

Police found phone records dating back to 2019 for the phone, the court hears. The prosecution calls this “Phone A”.

The jury is then shown call charge records, which Eppingstall says show the sim card is switched from “Phone A” into a different phone.

He says this was a Nokia mobile phone.

The records show it occurred at 1.45pm on 5 August 2023. Eppingstall says this was while police were searching Patterson’s house in Leongatha.

Eppingstall says the sim card was placed in a Samsung Galaxy A23 mobile phone.

This is the same mobile phone that the court previously heard had several factory resets performed on it, the jury is told.

Eppingstall says Patterson provided a Samsung Galaxy A23 to police after officers conducted a search of her Leongatha home on 5 August 2023.

He says the sim card in the phone was connected to a number ending in the digits “835”.

Eppingstall says searches on a database revealed the number was connected from 11 July 2023 – less than three weeks prior to the lunch.

He says the sim card was used in a tablet device until 3 August 2023 before it was put in a mobile phone and handed to police.

The jurors are then shown several Facebook messages sent by Patterson to her online friends.

17 December 2022 Patterson sends a Facebook message:

My phone screen is broken and it won’t respond to any commands or anything. Everything is on my phone, all my passwords are in my passwords vault and I was trying to log into it on my laptop and it was sending an authorisation email to my emails which I couldn’t access because I didn’t have my password which was inside my password vault.

On the same day Patterson messages:

Anyway I’ve been googling everything trying to get into my phone and emails and just couldn’t but then something suggested I could do a hard reboot of my phone and restart it in safe mode…”

On 19 December 2022, Patterson messages her online friends to say she has bought a Samsung Galaxy A23 mobile phone.

The cheapest I could get while not being an absolute piece of shit phone …

The court hears that on 11 May 2022 the mobile seized from Patterson’s house connected to the Poowong Bay station between 17.25 to 6.29pm.

On the same day, Patterson messaged Simon at 5.49pm, the court hears.

The message reads:

Cool thanks. [our daughter] had a collision with another kid on the bbball court. Went down flat and hurt her knee. She came off crying and had a cuddle then ran back out two mins later. She’s a tough nut.

Simon replies at 10.02pm:

That’s cool. She is a tough nut and keen to play come hell or high water.

Erin replies at 10.04pm:

She’s good at dribbling while running down the court.

Simon replies on 17 March 10.24pm:

Yeah I dunno. Sounds like this guy (I think it’s a guy) can positively effect joints. I suspect it’s worth a try. May ease pain even if it doesn’t heal him, anyway.

Erin later messages Simon:

Hey I really hope you can come see [our son] play bball this season even if you have to miss a Bible study. He’s playing really well … I was super proud of how far he has come.

More messages between defendant and ex-partner shown

The jury is then shown a message sent by Erin to Simon on 17 March at 8.09pm :

I’m feeling very unhappy about [our son’s] hip. He came from school saying it was hurting quite a bit this week, and not just doing sport but whenever he stands up from a sitting position, and right now during basketball he says it is hurting quite a bit. The bloody orthopedic surgeon can’t see him again until April 27th. That just doesn’t feel good enough.”

Simon replies the same day at 10.02pm:

It’s 6 weeks away, eh. Not sure what to do about that. Maybe try to attack it another way before then? Dave at work mentioned some kind of masseuse he has used who helped him a lot …”

More phone records shown to jury

The jury is shown a table listing connections from Patterson’s phone to the Poowong Central base station.

On Wednesday 9 March 2022 a connection commenced at 5.31pm and ceased at 6.27pm, the court hears.

On Thursday 10 March, a connection commenced at 7.42pm and ceased at 8.33pm, the table shows.

The jury is then shown messages from the app Signal extracted from a mobile phone seized from Patterson’s home. The messages are between Patterson and her estranged husband, Simon.

One message is sent from Simon to Erin on 10 March 2022 at 5.12pm:

Hey I think [our son] has bbball tonight. Are you geared up for it?

Erin replies at 5.15pm the same day:

Yesh, although idk if I have bball shorts for him. I’ll check.

At 5.17pm Erin writes:

yeah we have shorts and his game is 7.40.

Jurors are then shown an extraction report from Gail Patterson’s mobile phone, which contains text message sent and received.

A text message sent by Gail to Erin on 28 June 2023 is shown:

Hi Erin, Just wondering how you got on at your appointment today? Love Gail and Don.

Eppingstall says Patterson’s Medicare records showed she had no medical appointments that day.

In a message shown to the court, Erin replied at 11.52am on 29 June.

Hi Gail. Sorry I had taken [Patterson’s daughter] to see a movie last night. We saw the Little Mermaid. The appointment went ok. Thanks for asking. I had a needle biopsy taken of the lump and I’m returning for an MRI next week …

Eppingstall says police identified no record of Patterson having a needle biopsy for her arm or being scheduled for an MRI appointment.

Gail later replied: “That’s a test of patience isn’t it!? Praying you’ll know God’s peace …”