One of Australia’s most high-profile murder cases is back in court where a possible retrial, or an even longer prison sentence, awaits the home cook who used toxic mushrooms to kill three lunch guests.
Erin Patterson was convicted last year of deliberately lacing a beef wellington meal with death cap mushrooms to murder her children’s grandparents and the wife of the local pastor. She was also found guilty of attempted murder for almost killing the pastor with the same meal.
Investigate the ‘mushroom murders’ ahead of upcoming appeal arguments
Her 10-week trial was held in a small town in rural Victoria that was inundated with media crews and curious members of the public who queued for hours each day for a seat in the public gallery.
The intense interest in the case is one reason why her lawyers are pushing for a retrial – the town was so crowded that at one stage jury members shared a hotel with the prosecution team and an informant.
This week, during the same appeal hearing, prosecutors are mounting a separate argument that her prison sentence of 33 years with no parole isn’t long enough.
Patterson wasn’t in court to hear the proceedings but listened to the arguments via a video link from a maximum-security prison.
Patterson invited the parents of her estranged husband and their two elderly friends to lunch in July 2024. Within hours of the meal, they experienced stomach pains and within days, three of the four were dead.
The case spawned international headlines, podcasts, books and documentaries.
Patterson had been accused of deliberately seeking out the world’s most toxic mushrooms, death caps, after potentially seeing their location posted on iNaturalist, a citizen science website. She bought a dehydrator to dry the mushrooms before using them in the fatal meal.
Patterson was accused of pretending to eat the same portion, and of feigning illness in an elaborate ruse to suggest she’d also been poisoned. The prosecution said she’d created a separate batch of the meal and served only the poisoned parcels to her guests.
Her motive wasn’t a major part of the trial, but evidence presented by the prosecution suggested her relationship with her in-laws had deteriorated.
Patterson maintained her innocence, suggesting she didn’t know the mushrooms she added to the meal were toxic, and she had no reason to kill her guests.
Patterson’s lawyers have seven points of appeal – starting with the way jury members were sequestered, which they claim was “catastrophic” to their case.
They’re talking about the use of a small hotel in the town of Morwell, where the trial was held. While there was no evidence that the guests interacted, the lawyers say the possibility of interactions “cannot be excluded.”
One of the judges pointed out that jury members were separated from other guests, eating and sleeping on a different floor of the hotel – but Patterson’s lawyers say the fact they were in the same building “fatally undermined the integrity of the verdicts” – pointing to the need not only for justice to be done, but to be “seen to be done.”
The six other points include the way Patterson was cross-examined over several days, which her lawyers said was “unfair and oppressive.” Her lawyers say some evidence submitted was irrelevant and worked to prejudice the case.
They said testimony about the iNaturalist website was irrelevant, because there was no evidence she saw the posts that exposed the location of the death caps. And they say the use of her Facebook posts about her in-laws was unfair, because they were used to suggest she had a motive.
Patterson was given three life sentences for three murders and a 25-year sentence for the attempted murder of the lone survivor.
Justice Christopher Beale ordered her to serve a non-parole period of 33 years, saying he’d taken into account Patterson’s notoriety, and the likelihood that she’d spend many years in solitary confinement.
However, the prosecutors say that he only assumed Patterson would be kept in solitary confinement, and that she should be jailed with no prospect of parole.
If the appeals court agrees, Patterson would only be the second woman to receive a full life sentence in Australia, after Katherine Knight, who murdered her de facto husband and cooked parts of his body.
The court of appeal will likely hand down its decision at a later date, still to be announced.
