Appeals court bars Erin Patterson from parole after mushroom poisonings
Victorian judges upheld a challenge to her 33-year sentence, citing the cold and calculated nature of the crimes committed at a 2023 family gathering.
By James Brooks ·
In July 2023, Erin Patterson hosted a family lunch at her rural home in Leongatha, Victoria, where four guests consumed food containing death cap mushrooms. Three of those guests died within days, and the fourth survived after weeks in the hospital.
On Friday, the Victoria state Court of Appeal ordered Patterson to serve life without the possibility of parole. The three-judge panel rejected her 33-year non-parole period, ruling that the specific circumstances of the case made such a timeline inappropriate.
Justice Stephen McLeish, speaking on behalf of the court, described the offending as extraordinarily cold and calculated. He stated that the case involved shocking criminality that warranted the strongest terms of denunciation. The judges also dismissed Patterson's challenge to her underlying convictions.
Patterson was originally sentenced last year to three life sentences for murder and 25 years for attempted murder. Prosecutors argued during an appeal hearing in August that she should never become eligible for release. The court agreed with their assessment of the severity of her actions.
The deaths of her parents-in-law, Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, drew global media attention. Ian Wilkinson, Heather's husband, was the sole survivor of the meal. Patterson was convicted of his attempted murder.
Patterson is currently held in the high-security Gordon Unit of the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre in Melbourne. She opted to watch the verdicts via video link from prison rather than attend the courtroom in person. She retains the option to apply to Australia's High Court for a final review.
