Australian court orders Erin Patterson never to be released from prison for mushroom poisonings
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MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — An Australian appeals court on Friday ordered Erin Patterson to never be released from prison because of the “shocking criminality” involved in poisoning four of her estranged husband’s relatives with death cap mushrooms.
The three judges of the Victoria state Court of Appeal upheld prosecutors’ challenge to the leniency of her 33-year non-parole sentence.
“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 as it is inappropriate to fix a non-parole period,” McLeish added.
The judges also dismissed Patterson’s challenge to her convictions that stemmed from a family meal she hosted at her rural home in Leongatha in July 2023.
She can apply to Australia’s High Court to overturn the verdicts on her sentence and her convictions. The High Court is her last appeal option.
Erin Patterson insisted she added death cap mushrooms to the meals accidentally
Prosecutors argued at an appeal hearing in August that she should never become eligible for parole.
She was sentenced last year to three life sentences for murder and 25 years for attempted murder.
The deaths of Patterson’s parents-in-law Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, within days of having lunch immediately attracted an extraordinary level of global media attention.
The tragedies have also inspired podcasts, books and screen adaptations.
Heather’s husband Ian Wilkinson survived the lunch after spending weeks in hospital. Erin Patterson was convicted of his attempted murder.
Because of her notoriety, Patterson is held in the high-security Gordon Unit of Melbourne’s Dame Phyllis Frost Centre women’s prison. The unit is for prisoners assessed as being at high risk from other inmates.
Patterson opted not to attend court and watched the verdicts by video link from prison.