Convicted Australian murderer Erin Patterson, sentenced for killing three of her relatives with lunch poisoned with death cap mushrooms, lost her appeal Friday as the court ruled that she would now never be released from prison,
according to reports.
Patterson, 52, lost her appeal as three appeal court judges ruled "there was no objective basis for a fair-minded person to reasonably apprehend that the jury might not have discharged its function of rendering a verdict according to law," CNN reported.
Patterson initially received three life sentences Sep. 8, 2025, for the July 29, 2023, murders of her parents-in-law Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson, according to Justice Christopher Beale's statement, as shared by news.com.au. She also bagged a 25-year prison sentence for the attempted murder of Wilkinson's husband, Ian Wilkinson, a local pastor, who survived, according to the statement.
All sentences were to be served concurrently with no parole for 33 years and with 676 days already served, according to the statement.
Patterson, who told the court that the poisonings were an accident, appealed the sentencing, her lawyers presenting seven grounds for a retrial. Prosecutors also filed an appeal, arguing against the possibility of parole as "manifestly inadequate" and that Patterson should instead never be freed, the BBC reported.
"We have concluded that the case involved such shocking criminality that it is inappropriate to fix a non-parole period," Justice Stephen McLeish, speaking for the panel, told the court, the BBC separately reported.
The appeal court also ruled that cellphone data showing that Patterson was near the location of death cap mushrooms was admissible evidence, rejecting suggestions that it and other kinds of evidence should not have been submitted, according to CNN.
Patterson had visited a nature website that mapped locations of species including death cap mushrooms in May 2022, according to Judge Beale's statement shared by news.com.au. Later in 2022, she and her estranged husband Simon Patterson disputed over child support payments, after which she disparaged him and his parents in communications on Facebook. Although the dispute was reported as resolved in early 2023, Patterson was believed to have visited a park and collected death cap mushrooms, which she then photographed, sometime between April and May 2023, the judge said.
On June 24, 2023, Patterson hosted a lunch at her home and invited her children, her estranged husband Simon, and Simon's parents, but Simon declined, according to Judge Beale.
On July 29, 2023, Patterson hosted another lunch at her home and invited Simon, Simon's parents, and Heather and Ian Wilkinson. Simon once again declined, the judge stated. (RELATED: Chinese National Arrested After Poisoning Classmate Engaged In Cutting Edge Cancer Research At US University)
"You served your four lunch guests individual Beef Wellingtons which were deliberately poisoned with death cap mushrooms," Judge Beale told Patterson in court, according to news.com.au. "You gave evidence at your trial that had Simon attended the lunch, you would also have served him a Beef Wellington."
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