Death cap mushroom killer Erin Patterson to appeal triple murder conviction

More than a year after Erin Patterson was found guilty of murdering her estranged husband’s parents and his aunt with a poisoned beef Wellington, and attempting to kill another family member, an Australian appeals court will hear her bid to overturn her convictions — while state prosecutors seek a harsher sentence.

Three judges in a Victoria court will begin hearing arguments Wednesday for two appeals, one by Patterson and the other by the the state’s director of public prosecutions (DPP), according to a Victoria Supreme Court memo shared Tuesday.

Patterson will appeal her convictions, while the DPP will challenge the punishment imposed as a result, and is expected to argue that her sentence is “manifestly inadequate,” according to a May Reuters report.

Tuesday’s memo says the DPP appeal pertains specifically to the “fixing of a non-parole period or the length of that non-parole period.”

Patterson was sentenced in September on three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder to three concurrent terms of life imprisonment and 33 years without the possibility of parole, alongside a 25-year sentence for the attempted murder conviction.

The 51-year-old is serving one of the longest sentences ​ever given to a woman in Australia.

Patterson maintained her innocence for the duration of her 11-week trial for the murders of her former in-laws Don and Gail Patterson, her estranged husband’s aunt, Heather Wilkinson, and for the attempted murder of Heather’s husband Ian Wilkinson, who survived the 2023 ordeal after spending weeks in hospital.

In appeal documents filed with the court in November, she argued a “fundamental irregularity” occurred ‌while the jury was sequestered, Reuters reported earlier this year.

She also said various pieces of evidence introduced, including cell tower location data and messages from Facebook friends, were either irrelevant or unfairly prejudicial, the U.K. news agency added. Additionally, she said she faced an “unfair and ​oppressive” cross-examination.

The ​jury ⁠of 12 found she lured the victims to lunch at her home in Leongatha, a town of about 6,000 people, some 135 km southeast of ⁠Melbourne, ​and poisoned them with Beef Wellingtons containing ​death cap mushrooms.