Erin Patterson appealed her triple-murder convictions Wednesday in a two-day hearing before Victoria’s Court of Appeal.
Patterson, 51, watched by video link from prison as three judges began reviewing her convictions on three counts of murder and one of attempted murder. The former Leongatha woman was sentenced in September to life with a 33-year non-parole period for poisoning four of her estranged husband’s relatives with death cap mushrooms in July 2023. Prosecutors are simultaneously appealing the leniency of that sentence and will argue Thursday that she should never be eligible for parole.
Defense lawyer Richard Edney opened Wednesday with a sequestration challenge, telling the court that jury members had been housed in the same hotel as a police witness and prosecution team members during the trial. “This was a very serious breach of sequestration,” Edney told the court. Prosecutor Brendan Kissane pushed back immediately, saying there was no evidence to support that ground and adding, “There was no actual contact between any juror and any other person.”
Another defense lawyer, Veronika Drago, attacked cellphone evidence that had placed Patterson near areas where death cap mushrooms grew. A telecommunications expert had testified at trial that Patterson’s phone connected to towers near the towns of Loch and Outtrim. Drago said the evidence only showed Patterson’s phone had possibly been in the area, and told the court, “That in and of itself, in our submission, illustrates just how dangerous and unfair that evidence was.”
Prosecutor Jeremy McWilliams countered that the same evidence showed Patterson had deliberately sourced the mushrooms shortly before hosting the fatal lunch. The defense team also argued that prosecutor Nanette Rogers’ five-day cross-examination of Patterson had been “unfair and oppressive,” and that trial judge Christopher Bale had caused “unfair prejudice” by allowing evidence from Patterson’s Facebook “friends” into the trial.
Defense lawyer Paul Vargo raised a separate concern about the prosecution’s shifting theory of motive. Vargo argued a miscarriage of justice occurred when prosecutors opened by saying there was no evidence of a motive, then closed by suggesting Patterson’s animosity toward her husband’s parents and the broader Patterson family was the driving force. Questioned by Justice Lesley Taylor, Vargo clarified she was not accusing prosecutors of deliberate professional misconduct. “It is certainly not a direct allegation or suggestion of that, but what is clear in our submission from the reading of all of the material is that where things started and where it finished by the end of the prosecution case were different,” Vargo said.
In the viral moment that made global headlines, Patterson served beef Wellington pastries laced with death cap mushrooms to her estranged husband’s parents Don Patterson, 70, and Gail Patterson, 70, plus Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, and Heather’s husband Ian Wilkinson at her rural home in Leongatha on July 29, 2023. Simon Patterson, Erin’s estranged husband, had been invited but did not attend. Don, Gail, and Heather died; Ian Wilkinson survived after weeks in hospital. Patterson maintained at trial that the poisoning was accidental, claiming she had unknowingly used toxic mushrooms.
If Patterson’s appeal succeeds, the Court of Appeal judges could overturn her convictions and order a retrial. The hearing continues Thursday in Melbourne with prosecutors arguing for life without parole.