Victoria's Court of Appeal on Friday dismissed Erin Patterson's challenge to her convictions for murdering three relatives with a poisoned lunch and ordered that she spend the rest of her life in prison without parole.1,3,5
A three-judge panel rejected all seven grounds of her appeal and agreed with prosecutors that the 33-year non-parole period imposed last September was inadequate because it left open the possibility of release. The ruling makes Patterson, 52, only the second woman in Australia to be imprisoned for life without the possibility of parole.1,3,5
Patterson was found guilty last year of murdering her parents-in-law Don and Gail Patterson and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson, and of attempting to murder Heather's husband Ian Wilkinson, after serving them individual portions of beef Wellington containing death cap mushrooms at her rural home in Leongatha in July 2023. ABC News described the penalty as three life sentences for murder and 25 years for attempted murder with a 33-year non-parole period, while other accounts described it as a life sentence with a 33-year non-parole period.1,3,5
"This offending was extraordinarily cold and calculated and stands to be denounced in the strongest terms," Justice Stephen McLeish said on behalf of all three judges. "In all the circumstances after anxious consideration, we have concluded that the case involved such shocking criminality that it is inappropriate to fix a nonparole period," he added.5
Prosecutors had argued at an appeal hearing in August that she should never become eligible for parole and that the minimum period did not reflect the "calculated criminality" of the case. The trial judge had allowed parole eligibility after 33 years because of the "harsh prison conditions" she would likely face, and ABC News reported she would have been 82 when she could have been considered for release.1,5
Patterson's lawyers had argued seven grounds, including that placing the jury in the same hotel as the prosecution, a key police witness and the media was "catastrophic" and undermined the trial, that cell-tower data suggesting visits to areas where death cap mushrooms might be found and Facebook posts complaining about her in-laws were irrelevant and prejudicial, that evidence of her mushroom-foraging hobby was wrongly excluded, and that a five-day cross-examination was "unfair and oppressive" and the Crown's account of motive was inconsistent. The judges found these grounds insufficient and dismissed them.1,3
McLeish said Patterson's intent to murder all four guests was sustained for almost three weeks from when she invited them to lunch. He said her crimes involved an "elaborate series of deceptions" including falsely claiming a cancer diagnosis to explain the absence of her two children, destroying evidence, denying foraging for mushrooms and repeatedly making false claims about where the mushrooms had come from. Ian Wilkinson testified that Patterson had told guests she wanted their advice about what to tell the children about her diagnosis. "The offending was carefully planned and deliberate. It represented a cruel breach of trust," he said.3,5
Ian Wilkinson, described as a local pastor, survived after spending weeks in hospital and has ongoing health issues from the poisoning, and Patterson was convicted of his attempted murder. Simon Patterson, Patterson's estranged husband, was invited but declined the day before; he testified at a pretrial hearing that he declined out of fear, and evidence released after the conviction detailed his suspicion that his wife had previously attempted to kill him. Patterson has said the addition of death cap mushrooms was accidental and has denied wrongdoing.1,3,5
Because of her notoriety Patterson is held in the high-security Gordon Unit of Melbourne's Dame Phyllis Frost Centre women's prison, for prisoners assessed as being at high risk from other inmates. In sentencing her in September 2025, trial judge Christopher Bale said there was a "substantial chance" that she could be held in "solitary confinement for years to come." Patterson is only the second woman in Australia to be imprisoned for life without possibility of parole after meatworker Katherine Knight, sentenced in New South Wales in 2001 for the murder a year earlier of her partner John Price, whom she had stabbed at least 37 times.3,5
The deaths within days of the lunch attracted what ABC News described as an extraordinary level of global media attention, and the case has inspired podcasts, books and screen adaptations. Emmy-nominated actor Melanie Lynskey announced this week she will star as Patterson and serve as executive producer in a six-episode series for Paramount+ dramatizing the 97 days from the fatal lunch until Patterson's arrest.5
Patterson opted not to attend court and watched the verdicts by video link from prison. She can apply to Australia's High Court to overturn the verdicts on her sentence and convictions, her last appeal option, and BBC News reported she has 28 days to decide whether to seek to convince that court to hear the case.1,3,5
