As it happened: Mushroom killer’s appeal rejected

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To recap, convicted triple murderer Erin Patterson had her appeal thrown out by the courts in Victoria, while the non-parole period of her original sentence was also scrapped.

In effect, this means she is very likely to remain in prison for the rest of her life.

She has a narrow window to take her appeal to the High Court, and that decision will have to be made by Patterson and her legal team before November 27.

We’ll end our rolling coverage here but you can visit nine.com.au for updates, or sign up to our newsletter here.

Justice McLeish went into considerable detail in his remarks about why the court of appeal saw fit to deny Patterson the possibility of parole.

The original sentence, he said, “did not reflect the calculated criminality of the case on the facts identified by the sentencing judge”.

“(Patterson’s) intent to murder all four victims was sustained for nearly three weeks, from when she invited them to lunch through to preparing and serving the poisonous meal,” he said.

“Then throughout the protracted suffering and ultimate deaths that resulted, the applicant’s conduct was characterised by an elaborate series of deceptions, including the false cancer claims deployed to explain the absence of the children, the false denials of having foraged the mushrooms, the repeated false assertions as to the source of the mushrooms, and the destruction of evidence.“

This was justification for setting aside the non-parole period, he said.

Regarding the resentencing to life without parole, he invoked the legal necessity that the sentence “vindicates unequivocally the primary value that our society places on each individual human life”.

“As already noted, the applicant’s murderous intent dated back to the invitations to lunch, it persisted through the lunch when the poison was administered, and for nearly a week after that, during which time the applicant repeatedly tried to hide the truth about the source of the mushrooms, even as the victims continued to suffer,” he said.

“This offending was extraordinarily cold and calculated, and stands 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.”

Patterson now faces the very likely possibility she will never leave prison.

The Court of Appeal has given her until November 27 to decide whether to launch another appeal to the High Court.

If she does not choose to do that, she will remain behind bars and her non-parole period of 33 years will be removed, effectively dooming her to die in prison.

If she does launch another appeal, she faces a very high legal hurdle.

To overturn an upheld conviction before the High Court, her legal team must successfully argue that not only was her case mishandled, but that the law used for her prosecution was fundamentally in error.

And there’s no guarantee that the High Court would agree to hear her appeal at all.

Patterson's only other hope to overturn her conviction is if fresh evidence emerges to justify a retrial.

Prosecutor Brendan Kissane KC kept his response clipped as he walked passed assembled media outside court.

Asked if he was satisfied with the court’s decision, Kissane carefully chose his words.

“That was the application. The application was successful,” he said.

“I’m not saying anything more.”

Patterson did not attend court in person today, but appeared via video-link from the maximum security Dame Phyllis Frost prison.

It’s illegal to broadcast or republish images from inside the Court of Appeal, but Nine court reporter Amber Johnston said Patterson was wearing her prison blues and had her hair tied back.

She had a book with her but while awaiting the judge’s decision she gazed out of the window onto the prison yard.

Johnston said Patterson had shown no expression when the court dismissed her appeal, nor when it upheld the prosecution’s request that she never be released from prison.

She looked down briefly but there was “no real reaction”, Johnston said.

To sum up:

Mushroom killer Erin Patterson’s bid to overturn her conviction has been quashed by the Victorian Court of Appeal.

They ruled that while there were grounds for her appeal, it was dismissed.

The prosecution’s appeal to remove Patterson’s 33-year non-parole period was successful, meaning Patterson will serve life without the possibility of parole.

These orders will come into effect on November 27, which is the deadline

Patterson has to launch an appeal bid to the High Court.\

Until then, her original sentence stands.

Patterson will have until November 27 to launch an appeal bid to the High Court.

Until that date, her original sentence stands.

The court backed the prosecution’s bid to remove Patterson’s non-parole period from her sentence.

Patterson’s murders involved “such shocking criminality” that a non-parole period was inappropriate.

This could mean Patterson will never walk free.

The Court said that while Patterson had the grounds to appeal her sentence, the appeal should be dismissed.

The official orders will be read at the end of the hearing.

The court struck down the first plank of Patterson’s appeal, which claimed it was inappropriate for the jury to be sequestered in the same hotel as members of the prosecution.

However, the Court of Appeal found no reasonable grounds for a “fair minded person” to assume the jury had not discharged its duties properly, and found no evidence of any contact.