Australian appeals court bars parole for triple-murderer Erin Patterson

An appeals court in Victoria dismissed Erin Patterson's challenge to her convictions and upheld prosecutors' request that she never become eligible for parole. The three-judge panel said the poisoning of four of her estranged husband's relatives with death-cap mushrooms demonstrated “shocking criminality” that made a non-parole period inappropriate. > “This offending was extraordinarily cold and calculated and stands to be denounced in the strongest terms,” Justice Stephen McLeish said on behalf of the 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.”

Patterson, who was sentenced last year to three life terms for murder and 25 years for attempted murder, had previously claimed the mushrooms were added to the meal accidentally. The convictions stem from a July 2023 family lunch in Leongatha where three victims died and a fourth, Ian Wilkinson, survived after weeks in hospital. Prosecutors argued that the premeditated nature of the crime, including false claims about a cancer diagnosis and attempts to conceal evidence, warranted a life-without-parole sentence. Patterson did not attend the hearing, viewing the verdict by video link from the high-security Gordon Unit of Melbourne’s Dame Phyllis Frost Centre.

She may seek a review by Australia’s High Court, which would be her final avenue of appeal.