Australian appeals court orders life-long imprisonment for mushroom-poisoning murderer
Victoria's Court of Appeal upheld a 33-year non-parole sentence for Erin Patterson, ruling that the calculated murder of four relatives with death-cap mushrooms warrants a lifetime prison term.
An appeals court in Victoria dismissed Erin Patterson's challenge to her convictions and upheld prosecutors' request that her 33-year non-parole period be removed, meaning she will remain in prison for life. The judges said the case involved "shocking criminality" and described the offence as "extraordinarily cold and calculated".
Patterson was convicted of murdering three of her estranged husband's relatives and attempting to murder a fourth after lacing a family meal with death-cap mushrooms at her home in Leongatha in July 2023. She received three life sentences for murder and a 25-year term for attempted murder.
"This offending was extraordinarily cold and calculated and stands to be denounced in the strongest terms," Justice Stephen McLeish said on behalf of the 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 non-parole period," McLeish added.
The court noted Patterson's elaborate deceptions, including false claims of a cancer diagnosis and denial of foraging for the mushrooms, as well as her destruction of evidence. She did not attend the hearing, viewing the proceedings via video link from the high-security Gordon Unit of Melbourne's Dame Phyllis Frost Centre.
Patterson may seek a final appeal to Australia's High Court, which would be her last remaining option.