Mushroom killer Erin Patterson’s appeal loss earns her a dark place in Australian history

Erin Patterson not only lost her appeal in Victoria’s Court of Appeal on Friday, prosecutors won their bid to remove parole from her sentence.

That makes the 52-year-old triple murderer only the second woman to receive a life sentence without parole in Australia.

Before her was NSW woman Katherine Knight, who was sentenced in 2001 over the death of her defacto husband John Price.

The infamous female killer was convicted of stabbing her partner 37 times, before skinning him and attempting to serve his cooked flesh to his children.

In 2006 Knight tried to appeal her sentence, claiming it was too harsh for her crime, but her appeal was rejected. 

Patterson was convicted in 2025 for the murders of her in-laws Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, and the attempted murder of Heather’s husband Ian Wilkinson.

In July 2023, she had invited the group to lunch at her Leongatha home, in regional Victoria, where she served them beef Wellington laced with death cap mushrooms.

All four were hospitalised, but only Ian Wilkinson survived after a lengthy stay.

Patterson, watched the appeal proceedings from Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, where she will now see out her days.

The 52-year-old lost her bid to have her conviction quashed on multiple grounds, which her lawyers argued led to a “miscarriage of justice”.

They pointed to the jury being sequestered in the same hotel as members of the prosecution and the case’s lead investigator, as well as claiming Patterson suffered unduly intense and oppressive cross-examination in court.

Justices Stephen McLeish, Lesley Taylor and Peter Kidd rebuked the notion as they re-sentenced her on Friday.

"This offending was extraordinarily cold and calculated and stands to be denounced in the strongest terms," the judges said.

"This is a case of such shocking criminality that it is inappropriate to fix a non-parole period."

The justices found that Patterson had sustained the intent to murder for three weeks – from the moment she invited the guests to her house, right through to the lies she gave while her victims were hospitalised after their meal.

“[Patterson’s] conduct was characterised by an elaborate series of deceptions,” the judges said.

“The offending was carefully planned and deliberate. It represented a cruel breach of trust to members of (her) extended family.”

Patterson will have until November 27 to lodge an appeal with the High Court, which would be her final hope of overturning her conviction.