A year after her blockbuster trial, Australia's notorious mushroom murderer is facing court again, in a bid to overturn her conviction. Erin Patterson was jailed for life last September for murdering three relatives and trying to kill another with a toxic mushroom meal she served at her home in Leongatha, Victoria, in 2023. But the 51-year-old says she did not receive a fair trial, citing problems with evidence, the actions of the prosecution, and an unusual mishap with the jury while they deliberated on their verdicts.
At the same time that Erin Patterson's case is heard, prosecutors will also be appealing her sentence. The judge said Patterson could apply for parole after 33 years, but the prosecution says that's "manifestly inadequate" and the triple murderer should never be freed. Patterson killed her in-laws Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, after serving them individual portions of beef Wellington containing death cap mushrooms at her home in rural Victoria in 2023.
Heather's husband, Ian Wilkinson, a local pastor, survived the lunch after weeks in hospital and still has ongoing health issues related to the poisoning. Patterson's estranged husband, Simon Patterson, 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. After the trial, it was revealed that he had become so violently ill after eating several of her meals in the past that he had been in a coma, a large part of his bowel had been surgically removed, and his family were told to say goodbye to him twice as he was not expected to survive his ailments.
Erin Patterson maintained throughout the trial that she never meant to kill her relatives - that it was all a terrible accident, and her lies and attempts to dispose of evidence in the aftermath of the lunch were because she was panicking she would be blamed for the deaths. Patterson won't be attending the appeal in person. She's chosen to appear via video link from Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, the maximum security prison on the outskirts of Melbourne where she's serving her sentence.
Last November, her legal team filed a three-page document outlining the arguments they plan to make in an effort to overturn her conviction. There are seven grounds for this appeal, which will be heard by three judges. Firstly, there are bits of evidence Patterson's lawyers say the jurors should never have seen: for example, mobile phone tracking data that indicated she'd travelled to places where death cap mushrooms were recently spotted.
Her lawyers also argue that evidence from "Facebook friends" should not have been allowed. That included online messages in which she ranted about her in-laws as well as her estranged husband Simon Patterson, at one point calling him a "deadbeat". All that evidence, Patterson's team says, was not relevant and prejudicial, causing a substantial miscarriage of justice.
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