Patterson granted taxpayer-funded Ozempic jabs behind bars

LEONGATHA triple murderer Erin Patterson has been approved for taxpayer-funded Ozempic injections while serving her life sentence in solitary confinement.

News Corp reported this week that Patterson had been granted the injections in recent weeks at the maximum-security Dame Phyllis Frost Centre at Ravenhall in Melbourne’s west.

Ozempic is approved in Australia to manage type 2 diabetes and is widely used off label as a weight-loss drug.

Corrections says the medication was prescribed on clinical need to head off conditions including type 2 diabetes and the complications that come with rapid weight gain in extreme confinement.

It has not been confirmed whether Patterson’s prescription is for weight loss or for diabetes management.

An unnamed prison source told the outlet staff safety was a serious concern, and that management appeared more focused on the weight of a convicted killer.

The source said the prescription was likely granted because Patterson is isolated and unable to exercise.

That isolation was central to her sentencing, with Justice Christopher Beale allowing for the possibility of parole in September last year partly because of the harsh conditions she faced.

The Supreme Court heard Patterson had been held in the prison’s highly restricted Gordon Unit for about 400 days and was permitted contact with only one other inmate, a convicted terrorist she has never spoken to.

Her barrister Colin Mandy SC told the pre-sentence hearing she was spending about 22 hours a day in her cell because of lockdowns driven by staff shortages, with access to a small courtyard for one hour.

Justice Beale found there was a substantial chance she would be held in solitary for years to come because of her notoriety.

A Department of Justice and Community Safety spokesperson said prescriptions were only issued by clinicians where there was a clear medical need, such as preventing serious conditions like type 2 diabetes.

Patterson is not the first Victorian prisoner approved for the drugs, with Ozempic and Mounjaro made available on clinical need after concerns about obesity in the prison system.

State Shadow Police and Corrections Minister Brad Battin said prisoners wanting to lose weight should be prescribed diet and exercise instead.

“A taxpayer shouldn’t be subsidising Ozempic,” Mr Battin told News Corp.

He said prisoners had time on their hands and the answer was exercise and a review of prison food.

Weight was a recurring theme through Patterson’s 11-week trial, where the court heard she had been considering weight-loss surgery around the time of the lunch.

She told the court the cancer diagnosis she used to gather her guests was a cover story for weight-loss treatment.

Patterson was convicted in July last year of murdering her estranged husband’s parents Don and Gail Patterson and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson at a lunch at her Leongatha home in 2023.

She was also convicted of the attempted murder of Heather’s husband Ian Wilkinson, who survived.

Justice Beale handed her three life sentences and a further 25 years for the attempted murder with a non-parole period of 33 years, meaning she could walk free in late 2056.

Patterson maintains her innocence and her appeal against the convictions was heard in the Court of Appeal on August 19 and 20.

Prosecutors used the same hearing to argue the sentence was manifestly inadequate and that she should never be eligible for parole.

Judges Leslie Taylor, Stephen McLeish and Peter Kidd reserved their decisions on both appeals and a ruling could take weeks or months.