Mushroom killer Erin Patterson loses appeal in Australia, parole chance also removed

Erin Patterson, convicted in Australia's mushroom murder case, has lost her appeal against her convictions. The appeal court not only dismissed the appeal but also ruled that she will never be released from prison.

In Victoria's Court of Appeal on Friday, three judges threw out all of Patterson's appeal grounds. They also agreed with the prosecution that her original sentence was inadequate because it allowed for the possibility of freedom.

Speaking for the panel, Justice Stephen McLeish told the court, 'We have concluded that the case involved such shocking criminality that it is inappropriate to fix a non-parole period.'

The judges described Patterson's crimes as 'extraordinarily cold and calculated' and said they had to be 'denounced in the strongest terms'.

Patterson, 52, was found guilty of murdering three relatives and attempting to kill another when she served them a toxic mushroom-laced meal at her home in 2023.

According to the verdict, she murdered her in-laws Don and Gail Patterson and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson by serving them individual portions of beef Wellington containing death cap mushrooms.

Heather's husband Ian Wilkinson, a local pastor, also ate the toxic lunch. He survived after spending weeks in hospital and has ongoing health issues due to the poisoning. Patterson was also found guilty of his attempted murder.

Patterson's estranged husband Simon was meant to attend the lunch but cancelled at the last minute, in part due to his belief that his wife had repeatedly tried to poison him over several years.

Patterson was sentenced last September to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 33 years, which the trial judge allowed because of the 'harsh prison conditions' she would likely face.

She promptly appealed. In August her legal team argued seven grounds, claiming a hotel booking mishap — which saw the jury stay in the same place as the prosecution, a key police witness and the media — was 'catastrophic' and undermined the integrity of her trial.

They also argued that certain evidence shown to the jury was irrelevant and prejudicial, such as cell tower data suggesting Patterson visited areas where death cap mushrooms might be found and Facebook posts in which she complained about her in-laws. They said the judge wrongly blocked evidence of her long-time hobby of mushroom foraging, that the prosecution's five-day cross-examination was 'unfair and oppressive', and that the Crown was inconsistent in its arguments about motive.

On Friday the appeal judges dismissed all seven grounds, leaving in place a life sentence with no parole.

Patterson now has 28 days to decide whether she will seek to convince the High Court of Australia to hear another appeal in the case.