Patterson Loses Appeal, Sentence Toughened
Victoria’s Court of Appeal has dismissed Erin Patterson’s challenge to her murder convictions and upheld a prosecution appeal against her sentence, removing any possibility of parole and making it likely she will die in prison.
The judges rejected the two grounds on which Patterson had been given leave to appeal. She had originally put forward seven. The first concerned a mistake that left the jury staying in the same hotel as a police witness, and the judges said there was no reason to think the jury had not carried out its sworn duty. The second concerned expert evidence drawn from her mobile phone data, which prosecutors used to show she had visited areas named in online posts as death cap mushroom sites. The court ruled it admissible as part of the wider circumstantial case.
Patterson was sentenced on 8 September 2025 to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 33 years, for murdering Don and Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson and attempting to murder Ian Wilkinson. She would have been 83 when eligible for parole. The Crown appealed against the non-parole period, and the court upheld that appeal and removed it, resentencing her to life without parole.
Justice Stephen McLeish said the crimes involved “shocking criminality” and deserved to be “denounced in the strongest terms.” He described the offending as carefully planned and deliberate, involving an “elaborate series of deceptions,” and “extraordinarily cold and calculating.” Her intent to kill all four victims, he said, was sustained for nearly three weeks, from the lunch invitation through the serving of the poisoned meal and the victims’ protracted suffering and deaths, so parole was inappropriate.
Patterson watched by video link from the maximum-security wing of the Dame Phyllis Frost women’s prison. She sat back in her seat and appeared to stare blankly as the decision was read. She has maintained her innocence throughout. It is unclear whether her lawyers will seek to appeal to the High Court, and few legal options remain.
