Erin Patterson has lost her bid to overturn her convictions for three mushroom murders and will now die in prison.
The 51-year-old Australian woman, already serving life with a 33-year non-parole term, saw that sentence scrapped entirely on Friday when Victoria’s Court of Appeal ruled she should never be released. Three judges agreed with prosecutors that her original punishment was too lenient because it left open the possibility of future freedom.
Justice Stephen McLeish delivered the stinging assessment of Patterson’s crimes, saying her “offending was extraordinarily cold and calculated and stands to be denounced in the strongest terms,” He continued: “The applicant’s murderous intent dated back to the invitations to lunch, it persisted through the lunch that the poison was administered.”
The judges concluded that the case “involved such calculated criminality that it is inappropriate to fix a non-parole period.” Patterson, watching by video feed, showed no emotion as the ruling came down, according to observers in court.
The failed appeal and upgraded sentence make Patterson one of the only women in Australian history to receive life without parole. Her lawyer Richard Edney had flagged plans to challenge the conviction shortly after her original sentencing in September last year.
Patterson’s legal team raised multiple grounds for appeal when the hearing began in August, focusing partly on procedural complaints. They argued that a hotel booking mix-up had placed the jury in the same accommodation as prosecutors, a key police witness and media covering the trial.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, had cross-appealed on sentence severity. They successfully argued that Justice Christopher Beale’s original term failed to match the gravity of crimes he had himself called “senseless.”
The deadly lunch at the heart of the case took place in July 2023 at Patterson’s rural Victorian home. She had invited her former in-laws Gail Patterson, 70, and Don Patterson, 70, along with Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, and Heather’s husband Ian Wilkinson. Her estranged husband Simon Patterson was meant to attend but cancelled at the last minute.
Patterson served beef Wellington in individual portions. The jury heard she ate from a different coloured plate than her guests. An investigation of her internet history revealed she had searched for death cap mushrooms before preparing the meal.
Gail Patterson, Don Patterson and Heather Wilkinson all died. Ian Wilkinson survived after weeks in hospital and a liver transplant. Patterson maintained throughout her trial that the deaths were a “terrible accident,” but the jury deliberated for six days before finding her guilty of three murders and one attempted murder.
Patterson now faces a 28-day window to decide whether to seek leave to appeal to the High Court of Australia, her final remaining option.