Erin Patterson loses appeal and will spend life in prison without parole in Australia
A Victorian court rejected her appeal against conviction and ruled the crimes were too shocking to set any non-parole period.
At a glance
- The Supreme Court of Victoria dismissed Erin Patterson's appeal and denied her any chance of parole.
- She was convicted of murdering Gail and Donald Patterson and Heather Wilkinson, and of attempting to kill Ian Wilkinson.
- She can still apply to Australia's High Court, her final appeal option, and denies any wrongdoing.
An Australian court has dismissed Erin Patterson's appeal against her conviction for murdering three relatives with a meal laced with deadly mushrooms, and ruled that she should spend the rest of her life in prison with no chance of parole.
A three-judge panel of the Supreme Court of Victoria delivered the decision on Friday in Melbourne. Justice Stephen McLeish, speaking for the panel, said the offending was "extraordinarily cold and calculated" and stood to be denounced in the strongest terms.
"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," he told the court.
What Patterson was convicted of
Patterson, then 51, was convicted last year of murdering her mother-in-law and father-in-law, Gail and Donald Patterson, and Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, by serving them a lunch of beef wellington laced with death cap mushrooms. She was also convicted of the attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson, Heather's husband, who survived the meal.
The offences, the judge noted, involved an "elaborate series of deceptions", including falsely claiming a cancer diagnosis to explain why her two children were absent from the lunch. The surviving guest testified that Patterson had told her guests she wanted their advice about what to tell the children about her diagnosis.
Patterson was sentenced to life in prison with a 33-year non-parole period, among the longest terms ever handed to a woman in Australia. Friday's ruling sets that non-parole period aside. She has always denied wrongdoing, saying the deaths were accidental.
Grounds for appeal rejected
Her lawyers had argued that certain evidence should have been kept from the trial, that her cross-examination was unfair, and that placing the jury in the same hotel as other parties to the case compromised the result. The judges found these grounds for appeal to be insufficient.
Patterson can still apply to Australia's High Court to overturn the verdicts and her sentence. The High Court is her last appeal option.
She is only the second woman in Australia to be imprisoned for life without the possibility of parole. The first is meatworker Katherine Knight, sentenced in New South Wales in 2001 for the murder of her partner, John Price, a year earlier. He had been stabbed at least 37 times.
Source: Al Jazeera.
Questions and answers
- Why did Erin Patterson lose her appeal?
- A three-judge panel found her grounds of appeal insufficient. These included claims that evidence should have been kept from the trial, that her cross-examination was unfair and that the jury's hotel placement compromised the result.
- What is Erin Patterson's sentence now?
- She will spend the rest of her life in prison. The court removed the original 33-year non-parole period, ruling the crimes were too shocking to fix one.
- Who died after the mushroom lunch?
- Gail and Donald Patterson and Heather Wilkinson died after eating beef wellington laced with death cap mushrooms. Ian Wilkinson survived the meal and Patterson was convicted of his attempted murder.
