Mushroom killer Erin Patterson to die in prison after appeal spectacularly backfires

October 30, 2026 — 10:28am

Death cap mushroom murderer Erin Patterson will die in prison after an appeal court found her offending so cold, calculated and shocking that she should never have the chance at parole.

Court of Appeal justices Stephen McLeish, Leslie Taylor and Peter Kidd handed down their decision on Friday, throwing out Patterson’s appeal against her conviction and accepting an argument from prosecutors that her sentence had been manifestly inadequate.

Patterson, 51, has been serving life in prison with a non-parole period of 33 years, after being found guilty by a jury last year of the poisoning murders of her in-laws Don and Gail Patterson, Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, and the attempted murder of Heather’s husband, Ian Wilkinson.

Sentencing Justice Christopher Beale, who has now retired, resisted calls at the time to jail Patterson for life with no prospect of parole, finding her case was so infamous she was likely to find custody more onerous than others.

However, the Court of Appeal found Patterson’s persistent murderous intent had protracted the suffering of her victims.

They said Patterson had for nearly three weeks, coldly planned and executed the murders, including extending the invitation to lunch and hiding the truth for nearly a week as her victims lay dying.

“This offending was extraordinarily cold and calculated, and stands to be denounced in the strongest terms,” McLeish said.

“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.”

Patterson was not in court to hear the judgment.

Patterson’s appeal barrister, Richard Edney, had argued there were a number of potential irregularities in his client’s case, including during the jury’s seven-day sequestration at a Gippsland hotel while they were deciding Patterson’s fate.

The court heard jurors stayed in the same Traralgon hotel as members of the prosecution and police involved in the case, which Edney claimed amounted to a catastrophic and fundamental failure to comply with the trial rules.

Edney said the “inexplicable failure” to separate the jury created a potential miscarriage of justice with the media seemingly knowing more about potential interactions between the jury and others at the Latrobe Valley hotel than the prosecution did.

It followed an 11-week trial in Morwell, in Victoria’s east in mid-2025, which heard from more than 50 witnesses.

PATTERSON APPEAL ARGUMENTS

Patterson’s defence team submitted seven reasons the mushroom murderer’s convictions should be overturned:

1. The jury was potentially contaminated by staying in the same hotel as prosecutors and police.
2. Patterson was grilled unfairly by prosecutors during eight days in the witness box.
3. The prosecution told the jury it did not have to prove a motive for the murders but then spent substantial time implying she was angry at the Patterson family over a child support dispute.
4. Large tranches of evidence were wrongly shown to the jury, including mobile phone tower links to two areas in rural Gippsland where deadly mushrooms grew.
5. Photos and videos found on Patterson’s devices that could have backed her claims of being a mushroom forager were not shown to the jury.
6. Evidence from Facebook ‘friends’ was not relevant, or their probative value was outweighed by unfair prejudice.
7. Prosecutors used family text messages to imply a motive for Patterson arranging the lethal lunch when there was no motive established.

Jury keepers reported no contact had occurred with anyone outside the jury pool, the court heard.

This, McLeish said was “significant” because it stood in the face of an argument otherwise based on conjecture.

Edney also argued that Patterson had been unfairly grilled by the prosecutor over eight days in the witness box, that 35 errors occurred in their closing address to the jury and that large amounts of evidence should not have been allowed into the trial.

Director of Public Prosecutions Brendan Kissane, KC, had dismissed the concerns as baseless and not warranting the granting of an appeal.

The trial was told Patterson fed her four guests beef Wellington laced with death cap mushrooms during lunch at the mother-of-two’s Leongatha home in July 2023.

Simon Patterson, the killer’s estranged husband, had also been invited to lunch but cancelled the evening before.

Heather Wilkinson and Gail Patterson died on August 4, 2023, from multiple organ failure, with a diagnosis of amanita mushroom poisoning. Don Patterson died the following night.

Local pastor Ian Wilkinson survived after spending several weeks in an induced coma.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.

From our partners