Australia’s infamous mushroom killer cook Erin Patterson will never be released from prison, after a ruling from Victoria’s Court of Appeal set aside her non-parole period of 33 years.
The appeal decision was handed down in the Supreme Court in Melbourne this morning. Justice Peter Kidd told the court "the nature of appellant's offences makes the fixing of a non-parole period inappropriate".
Last year Patterson was sentenced to at least 33 years behind bars for murdering three lunch guests and trying to kill a fourth with poisonous mushrooms in 2023.
The victims, her parents-in-law Don and Gail Patterson, along with Gail’s sister, Heather, had been invited to lunch at Patterson’s rural Victoria home, where she served them death cap mushrooms inside a dish of beef wellington.
Heather’s husband Ian was also there, and became critically ill, but survived the poisoning.
The decision to overturn the non-parole period of 33 years followed an appeal by the Prosecution in August, saying she should serve a harsher sentence, due to the number of victims, the premeditation, the continuation of offending by not revealing the poisoning to medical staff treating the victims and a lack of remorse.
A jury has found Victorian woman Erin Patterson guilty of murder, nearly two years after a family lunch ended in tragedy. (Source: 1News)
Separately Patterson had appealed against her conviction, claiming there was a substantial miscarriage of justice during her trial.
Arguments included a mishap which saw the jury staying at the same hotel as prosecutors and a police witness during deliberations and that some evidence was too speculative.
Her appeal was dismissed by Justices Stephen McLeish, Lesley Taylor and Peter Kidd.
The 50-year-old was convicted of killing three lunch guests with a poisoned beef Wellington in 2023. (Source: 1News)
"This offending was extraordinarily cold and calculated," they said.
Patterson did not appear in person, but via video link from prison.
She could take that matter to the High Court and appeal the decision.
She has until the end of November to lodge that appeal.
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