Mushroom murderer Erin Patterson will spend the rest of her life in prison after Victoria’s Court of Appeal rejected her bid to overturn her convictions and removed her non-parole period.
Patterson, 51, appeared by video link from Dame Phyllis Frost prison on Friday as the court dismissed her appeal against the murders of her in-laws Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson.
She was also convicted of attempting to murder Heather’s husband, Ian Wilkinson, who was the only survivor of the 2023 poisoning.
Patterson had invited the group to lunch at her home in Leongatha, where she served beef Wellington containing deadly death cap mushrooms.
Her legal team argued the convictions should be overturned on several grounds, including that the jury was sequestered in the same hotel as members of the prosecution and the lead investigator.
They also argued Patterson had faced an unduly intense cross-examination and should have been allowed to submit a photograph of wild mushrooms taken in 2020 as evidence.
However, Justice Stephen McLeish said the court had dismissed her appeal entirely. Patterson showed no emotion as the decision was delivered.
The court also considered a separate appeal by prosecutors seeking to remove Patterson’s 33-year non-parole period, which had been imposed by the original trial judge, Christopher Beale.
The prosecution’s appeal was successful, meaning Patterson will not be eligible for parole.
Justice McLeish pointed to the planning involved in the murders and Patterson’s “elaborate series of deceptions”. He said her actions involved “such shocking criminality” that allowing the possibility of parole was inappropriate.
Patterson will have until November 27 to apply for leave to appeal to the High Court, her final legal avenue to challenge the convictions.
Outside court, prosecutor Brendan Kissane acknowledged that “the application was successful” but did not make further comments.
At her trial, Patterson maintained the poisonings were accidental and resulted from her foraging for wild mushrooms.
The court heard she had invited her estranged husband Simon’s parents and the Wilkinsons to lunch, where she claimed she had been diagnosed with cancer and asked for advice about telling her children.
Simon had also been invited but did not attend.
At the original sentencing, Beale described the murders as an “enormous betrayal of trust”.
“Your victims were all your relatives by marriage. More than that, they had all been good to you and your children over many years, as you acknowledged in your testimony,” he said at the time.
“Not only did you cut short three lives and cause lasting damage to Ian Wilkinson’s health, thereby devastating the extended Patterson and Wilkinson families, you inflicted untold suffering on your own children whom you robbed of their beloved grandparents.“
Beale concluded that Patterson’s crimes fell into the “very worst category” of murder.
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