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Erin Patterson has failed to overturn her convictions for murdering three relatives and attempting to murder another, and has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. BBC reported the appeal ruling.
Three judges at Victoria’s Court of Appeal dismissed all seven grounds of Patterson’s appeal on Friday. They also agreed with prosecutors that her original sentence was inadequate because it left open the possibility of her release.
The judges described Patterson’s crimes as “extraordinarily cold and calculated” and said they had to be “denounced in the strongest terms”. Justice Peter Kidd, speaking on behalf of the panel, said the case involved such shocking criminality that it was inappropriate to set a non-parole period.
A jury found Patterson guilty of murdering her in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, after she served them individual portions of beef Wellington containing death cap mushrooms in 2023.
She was also convicted of attempting to murder Heather Wilkinson’s husband, Ian, a local pastor who ate the meal at Patterson’s home in rural Victoria. He survived after spending weeks in hospital and continues to have health problems caused by the poisoning.
Patterson’s estranged husband, Simon Patterson, had been due to attend the lunch but cancelled at the last minute. The BBC reported that he partly did so because he believed his wife had repeatedly tried to poison him over several years.
Patterson was sentenced last September. The trial judge set a non-parole period of 33 years, citing the “harsh prison conditions” she was likely to face.
Her legal team launched an appeal and argued seven grounds in August. They said a hotel booking error, which resulted in jurors staying at the same place as prosecutors, a key police witness and members of the media, was “catastrophic” and undermined the integrity of the trial.
The defence also argued that some evidence presented to the jury was irrelevant and prejudicial. This included cell tower data suggesting Patterson had visited areas where death cap mushrooms might grow, and Facebook posts in which she complained about her in-laws.
Her lawyers said the judge had wrongly excluded other evidence that would have shown Patterson, a mother of two, had a long-standing hobby of foraging for mushrooms. They also argued that the prosecution’s five-day cross-examination of her was “unfair and oppressive” and that the Crown’s arguments about motive were inconsistent.
The appeal judges rejected all seven grounds. Patterson has 28 days to decide whether to ask the High Court of Australia to hear a further appeal.
