Life in prison remains for Australian mushroom murderer Erin Patterson as court rejects appeal

Appeal dismissed by judges

Her lawyers argued that some evidence should have been excluded, that her cross-examination was unfair, and that the jury’s hotel arrangements compromised the result. The judges concluded that these arguments did not provide sufficient grounds for an appeal.

Deaths at a family lunch

Patterson, then 51, was convicted of murdering her mother-in-law and father-in-law, Gail and Donald Patterson, and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson. The three became ill after she served them beef wellington containing death cap mushrooms. The judge also referred to what he called an “elaborate series of deceptions.” This included a false cancer diagnosis, which Patterson used to explain why her two children were not at the lunch.

Sentence and denial

Patterson received a life sentence with a 33-year non-parole period, one of the longest terms ever given to a woman in Australia. She has always denied wrongdoing and said the deaths were accidental.

The report describes her as only the second woman in Australia imprisoned for life without the possibility of parole. It identifies the first as Katherine Knight, sentenced in New South Wales in 2001 for killing her partner, John Price, the previous year.