Life means 'life' for Leongatha mushroom murderer Erin Patterson

Court throws away the key in Erin Patterson case

ERIN Patterson will spend the rest of her life in prison after the Court of Appeal upheld the appeal of the Director of Public Prosecutions and removed the non-parole period of 33 years applied by the trial judge Justice Christopher Beale.

In handing down the court’s judgement, on behalf of his colleagues Justice Leslie Taylor and Justice Peter Kidd, Justice Stephen McLeish said the sentence needed to reflect the aggregating circumstances of the crime.

These included the demonstrated intent of Erin Patterson to kill her victims, from upwards of four weeks out from the fateful lunch of beef wellington at her home on Saturday, July 29, 2023.

And the “cruel level” of deception practiced by Ms Patterson about the source of the mushrooms in the meal even while her victims were suffering terribly in hospital.

For these and other reasons given by the judge in a 15-minute address before a packed courtroom, it was “inappropriate” of the trial judge to fixed a non-parole period.

He also ruled that all seven grounds of Erin Patterson’s appeal, including claims jurors could have interacted with members of the prosecution and the media at the Traralgon hotel where they were staying during the jury deliberations, were unsuccessful.

"We must place a value on every life," said Justice McLeish.

Barring an appeal to the High Court, which must be lodged by November 27, 2026, the impact of the decision today is that the life sentences she received for the murders of Don and Gail Patterson and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson will mean “life”.

Erin Patterson will never be released. She will die in jail.

Her extraordinary gamble, by taking her case to the Court of Appeal, and likely triggering an appeal by the DPP against the non-parole period of 33 years, has backfired in spectacular fashion, damning her to a term of imprisonment for her natural life.

Erin looks at the sky

Erin Patterson did not attend court.

Before the judges arrived on the bench, the triple murderer was flashed up on the screen inside Court 1 at the Supreme Court complex, seen gazing out of a large picture widow, looking at the sky from inside the Dame Phyllis Frost Prison on Melbourne’s north-western outskirts.

She had her dark hair tied back, large glasses on her nose, wearing a prison blue windcheater.

Ms Patterson was asked by the court clerk if she could hear the audio, to which there was a nod of the head but no audible response.

Family members of the victims filed into court ahead of strong media contingent.

Erin Patterson stood and turned towards the court when the three judges entered but maintained a neutral expression throughout even while Justice McLeish gave the reasons for dismissing her appeal and removed her prospects of parole.

Timeline of murder

• Friday, April 28, 2023

Erin Paterson’s mobile phone pings on a communication tower near the Loch Recreation Reserve where 10 days earlier former poisons expert Christine McKenzie made a credible sighting of death cap mushrooms. Ms Patterson purchased a new Sunbeam food dehydrator from Hartley Wells in Leongatha that same day.

• Sunday, July 16, 2023

Erin Patterson surprises her in-laws Don and Gail Patterson and Ian and Heather Wilkinson at church with an invitation to lunch in two weeks’ time. She also asks her estranged husband Simon claiming she wants to discuss some important medical news, but he ultimately declines on the evening before the lunch date.

• Saturday, July 29, 2023

Erin Patterson welcomes her in-laws; Don and Gail Patterson, and Heather and Ian Wilkinson to lunch at her Gibson Street home in Leongatha and watches as they eat their deadly meal of beef Wellington, laced with enough death-cap mushrooms, in each individual pastry package, to kill them.

• Monday, July 31, 2023

Erin Patterson attends Leongatha hospital complaining of gastro-like symptoms where nurses observe she wasn’t as sick as her lunch guests. Here she is first made aware that authorities are on to the existence of death cap mushrooms in the meal she served her guests.

• Friday, August 4, 2023

Erin Patterson’s home raided by police, she hands over the “dummy phone” and lies to police during an interview at Wonthaggi later about ever foraging for wild mushrooms or owning a food dehydrator. Police had already recovered the dehydrator from the Koonwarra tip as well as a receipt and CCTV footage of Erin Patterson dumping what will later be called “the murder weapon”. By that time two of her lunch guests, sisters Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson have already died in horrendous circumstances.

• Monday, August 7, 2023

Homicide Inspector Dean Thomas fronts the media revealing police have interviewed a 48-year-old “suspect” in relation to the poisoning death of three people and the hospitalisation of a fourth, displaying symptoms consistent with death cap mushroom poisoning. Public interest in the mushroom case expands worldwide.

• Friday, August 11, 2023

Erin Patterson issues a statement to police and the ABC, “wanting to clear up the record because I have become extremely stressed and overwhelmed by the deaths of my loved one”, claiming she had no reason “to hurt these people whom I loved”.

• Thursday, November 2, 2023

Erin Patterson arrested and charged at Wonthaggi Police Station with three counts of murder and five of attempted murder, but four of the attempted murder charges, relating to allegations of historic efforts to poison her husband Simon Patterson, are later dropped after a failed Court of Appeal application.

• Tuesday, May 7, 2024

Erin Patterson formally pleads “not guilty” to all charges in the Latrobe Valley Magistrates’ Court and elects for her case to be fast-tracked to the Victorian Supreme Court.

• Wednesday, August 21, 2024

Pre-trial hearing commence in the Supreme Court in Melbourne running through to February 13, 2025. Much of the detail of what transpired in those sessions remained supressed until after the verdict was delivered in the trial proper.

• Tuesday, April 29, 2025

Erin Patterson’s trial starts in the Supreme Court sitting at the Latrobe Valley Law Courts in Morwell, with her estranged husband Simon Patterson among the first to appear as a witness. It continues for 40 days, through until Monday, June 30 when the jury retires to consider its verdict.

• Monday, July 7, 2025

Erin Patterson is found guilty of all charges, three or murder where Gail and Don Patterson and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson are the victims and one of attempted murder against Heather’s husband of 44 years, Ian Wilkinson, the only guest to survive the deadly lunch.

• Monday, August 25, 2025

Erin Patterson appears in court to face her victims with Pastor Ian Wilkinson delivering a stunning account of the severe impacts of Erin’s actions on his extended family and the wider community. The restrictive nature Ms Patterson’s incarceration in the 20-cell Gordon Unit of the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre is also described.

• Monday, September 8, 2025

Erin Patterson is sentenced to life for the murders of Don and Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson and 25 years for the attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson, with a minimum of 33 to serve. She will now have 28 days to consider lodging an appeal, against her conviction and/or the nature of the sentence.

• August 19 & August 20, 2026

The Court of Appeal judges; Justice Leslie Taylor, Justice Stephen McLeish and Justice Peter Kidd, preside over a two-day appeal hearing including Erin Patterson’s appeal against her convictions over irregularities during the trial, while the DPP appeals against the ‘manifestly inadequate’ sentence.

• Friday, October 30, 2026

The Court of Appeal judges hand down its judgement dismissing the appeal of Erin Patterson against her conviction but upholding the appeal of the DPP against what they claimed was an inadequate sentence. Erin Patterson will never be released, barring only an appeal to the High Court of Australia.