Erin Patterson loses appeal, receives life sentence without parole

An Australian appeals court on Friday rejected Erin Patterson’s bid to overturn her convictions for murdering three relatives of her estranged husband with a meal containing death cap mushrooms. The Supreme Court of Victoria also increased her sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole, replacing a life term that had included a 33-year non-parole period.

Patterson was convicted last year of murdering her parents-in-law, Gail and Donald Patterson, and Gail Patterson’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, after serving them beef Wellington at her home. She was also convicted of attempting to murder Heather Wilkinson’s husband, Ian Wilkinson, who survived.

A three-judge panel found insufficient grounds to order a new trial or overturn the convictions. Patterson’s lawyers had argued that some evidence should have been excluded, that her cross-examination was unfair and that arrangements placing jurors in the same hotel as other people connected with the case had compromised the trial.

Justice Stephen McLeish, speaking for the panel, described the crimes as “extraordinarily cold and calculated” and said their “shocking criminality” made it inappropriate to set a non-parole period.

Patterson has maintained that the poisonings were accidental and denied wrongdoing. She may seek permission to appeal the convictions and sentence to Australia’s High Court, her final avenue of appeal.