Mushroom killer to be jailed for life after appeals court finds sentence too light

By Hilary Whiteman, CNN

Brisbane, Australia (CNN) — An attempt by murderer Erin Patterson, who killed three people with a meal of toxic mushrooms, to overturn her conviction has failed, with an appeals court finding that her original sentence was too light for her “cold and calculated” crimes.

Patterson, now 52, was found guilty last July after a jury trial that attracted international attention due to the unusual method of murder – death cap mushrooms hidden inside portions of beef wellington at a family lunch in July 2023.

The Australian mother was given three life sentences for the murder of three people, including her estranged husband’s parents, as well as 25 years for the attempted murder of a fourth guest, the local pastor, who recovered after weeks in hospital.

She was sentenced to a non-parole period of 33 years, meaning she would have been in her 80s when freed.

However, three appeals court judges instead found Friday that her crimes – which included an “elaborate series of deceptions” – were so “extraordinarily cold and calculated” that she deserved to be in prison for life.

“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,” said Justice Stephen McLeish.

Patterson’s lawyers had presented seven grounds of appeal in the hope that the mother of two would be granted a retrial. On the first ground, they took issue with the way the jury members were sequestered, which they claimed was “catastrophic” to their case.

During the trial, held in the small Victorian town of Morwell, jury members shared a hotel at various times with prosecutors and witnesses. While there was no evidence that the guests interacted, Patterson’s lawyers said the possibility of interactions “cannot be excluded.”

However, the three appeals court judges found “there was no objective basis for a fair-minded person to reasonably apprehend that the jury might not have discharged its function of rendering a verdict according to law.”

The judges also rejected suggestions that some evidence shouldn’t have been submitted, including cellphone data that put Patterson near the location of death cap mushrooms posted to a citizen scientist website. The judges found the evidence was admissible as part of the prosecution’s “wider circumstantial case.”

A fatal lunch

The case has been dissected at length in books, podcasts, documentaries and feature articles since the first facts emerged in mid-2023, after Patterson invited four people to her home for a special Saturday lunch.

Within hours of the meal, the guests experienced severe stomach pains and within days, three of the four were dead, including her estranged husband’s parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson. Heather’s husband Ian Wilkinson was the sole survivor.

Patterson doesn’t deny cooking the meal that ultimately killed most of her lunch guests, but she claimed she had accidentally laced the meal with death cap mushrooms as she tried to improve its flavor.

However, the jury found she picked the mushrooms for the purposes of murder, drying them in a dehydrator that she dumped a few days after the meal, as her guests lay dying in hospital.

Friday’s ruling means that Patterson will have no prospect of release during her lifetime.

The appeals court found that the murders were “carefully planned and deliberate” and represented “a cruel breach of trust.”

Patterson wasn’t in court to hear the result of her appeal, but appeared via a video link from prison. Reporters inside the court in Melbourne, Australia, said she showed no emotion when the ruling was read.

Outside the court, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that “prosecutors, police investigators and supporters” of Patterson’s ex-husband “grinned broadly.”

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