In a case that gripped audiences far beyond Australia, convicted mushroom murderer Erin Patterson has launched a bid to overturn her convictions, with her lawyers telling an appeal court she suffered a “substantial” miscarriage of justice.
Patterson, 51, was found guilty last year of murdering her husband’s parents and an elderly aunt in 2023 after serving them a beef Wellington lunch laced with lethal death cap mushrooms.
She was also convicted of attempting to murder her husband’s uncle, a local pastor who survived the beef-and-pastry dish after spending weeks in hospital.
A judge sentenced Patterson to life imprisonment, with eligibility for parole after 33 years.
Her legal team is now seeking to quash that conviction, alleging multiple irregularities in the trial and arguing that evidence was misused.
Defence lawyer Veronika Drago told the court that some material admitted by the trial judge — including evidence relating to cell towers and posts about death cap mushroom sightings — was “innocuous” and unreliable.
Requiring Patterson to respond to questioning built on that evidence, Ms Drago argued, “arises to the level of a substantial miscarriage of justice”.
Separately, the defence said evidence concerning mushroom images on a memory card found in Patterson’s home was wrongly excluded.
‘Oppressive’
Patterson followed the appeal hearing from Melbourne’s Supreme Court via live video link from the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, a maximum-security prison in Melbourne’s western suburbs.
She wore a blue prison jumper, according to national broadcaster ABC.
Her other defence lawyer, Richard Edney, told the court Patterson was subjected to “unfair and oppressive” cross-examination during the trial.
Edney also said the trial’s fairness was compromised because jurors stayed in the same hotel as a police witness and members of the prosecution.
He described the situation as a “fundamental failure” in the legal process “in perhaps one of the most high-profile criminal trials this state has ever had”.
At the same time, he acknowledged there was no evidence suggesting jurors communicated with anyone involved.
Prosecutor Brendan Kissane responded that the hotel arrangement occurred by “accident”.
The prosecution also defended its reliance on evidence aimed at showing Patterson could have obtained the deadly mushrooms before the lunch.
‘Inadequate’ sentence
The three judges are also set to hear, on Thursday, a prosecution appeal seeking a tougher sentence.
Prosecutors argue the 33-year non-parole period handed down by the judge was “manifestly inadequate”.
They contend the judge made an error in concluding there was a substantial chance Patterson would spend years in solitary confinement, and that this finding “infected” the parole decision.
A 12-person jury found Patterson guilty in July last year of murdering her husband Simon’s parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and his aunt, Heather Wilkinson, at Patterson’s home in the Victorian farming village of Leongatha.
She was also convicted of attempting to murder Heather’s husband, Ian, a pastor who became gravely ill but later recovered.
