A case that captivated audiences far beyond Australia returns to court this week, as convicted poisoner Erin Patterson prepares to challenge the verdict that sent her to prison for life.
The 51-year-old is due to launch an appeal on Wednesday against her conviction for the 2023 murders of her husband’s parents and an elderly aunt, after a jury found she served them a beef Wellington lunch containing deadly death cap mushrooms.
Patterson was also convicted of attempting to murder her husband’s uncle, a small-town pastor who survived the beef-and-pastry meal but spent weeks in hospital.
A judge sentenced her to life in prison, with eligibility for parole after 33 years.
Erin Patterson leaves the Supreme Court of Victoria in Melbourne after being sentenced
Over the next two days, a panel of three judges at the Court of Appeal in Melbourne will consider two separate appeals: Patterson’s bid to overturn her conviction and a prosecution push for a tougher sentence.
Patterson has requested to follow the hearing via live video link from the maximum-security Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, a prison in Melbourne’s western suburbs.
In her appeal, Patterson argues there were multiple instances of what she calls a “substantial miscarriage of justice”, alleging the trial judge made mistakes in ruling on what the jury could and could not hear.
Her lawyer said some evidence allowed at trial — including material linked to Facebook messages, cell towers and posts about death cap mushroom sightings — was either irrelevant or carried an unfair risk of prejudicing her case.
At the same time, he argued in a submission filed in November last year that other evidence, involving mushroom images found on a memory card at Patterson’s home, should not have been excluded.
The appeal also alleges a “fundamental irregularity” occurred while the jury was sequestered, which her lawyer claims “fatally undermined the integrity of the verdicts”, without providing further detail.
Police say ‘important’ to remember victims as Patterson sentenced
Patterson’s solicitor has also accused prosecutors of conducting what he described as an “unfair and oppressive” cross-examination during the trial.
Before the judges hear the appeal arguments in full, they must first decide whether Patterson’s grounds are sufficient to grant her leave to challenge the conviction.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, have filed their own appeal, contending the 33-year non-parole period set by the sentencing judge was “manifestly inadequate”.
The prosecution argues the judge wrongly concluded there was a substantial chance Patterson would spend years in solitary confinement, and that this finding “infected” the sentencing 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, after the lunch at her home in the Victorian farming village of Leongatha.
The same jury also convicted her of attempting to murder Heather’s husband, Ian, the pastor who became critically ill but later recovered.
