Erin Patterson: ‘Large sentence’ awaits triple-murderer mushroom cook, spends first night in prison

After a first night behind bars, Erin Patterson now faces the grim reality of spending the rest of her life in prison, convicted of one of Australia’s most shocking murders.

The 50-year-old mother of two was found guilty on Monday of three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder, following a lengthy and closely watched trial.

Her estranged husband’s parents, Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, and his aunt, Heather Wilkinson, 66, died in hospital days after eating a beef Wellington meal laced with deadly death cap mushrooms at a family lunch in July 2023.

Heather’s husband, Ian Wilkinson, was the sole survivor, left to recover from the poisoning that shocked the nation.

There was a shout of “murderer” as Patterson was driven out of the court precinct to prison in Melbourne on Monday evening.

The jury’s guilty verdicts came seven days after they were sent away to deliberate and 11 weeks into the trial in the Victorian town of Morwell.

Brianna Chesser, a clinical forensic psychologist and criminal lawyer, said she was not surprised by the outcome.

She argued Patterson’s testimony across eight days on the witness stand, as well as circumstantial evidence, likely proved critical to convincing the jury beyond reasonable doubt.

“Whenever you have any lies in a trial it is quite a difficult thing to overcome from a defence perspective,” the Associate Professor in Criminology and Justice at RMIT University told AAP.

“What came out regarding the mushrooms was almost insurmountable.

“When you’ve got particular searches on your phone and a dehydrator that you had and didn’t have, it really speaks to the unusualness of the circumstances.”

The story had captivated the world because of the method, as well as the now-convicted murderer being a woman when the vast majority of homicides were perpetrated by men, Dr Chesser said.

Patterson faces a sentence of life in prison for the three murders and one attempted murder and is expected to return to court for a pre-sentence hearing later in 2025.

Options for appeal were usually restricted to points of law, a “massive” error in fact or new evidence, Dr Chesser said.

“It’s going to be quite a large sentence,” she said.

“We’ve heard during the cross-examination and examination in chief that there are some mental health concerns for Ms Patterson.

“That may well act a mitigating factor in any sort of sentence.

“We’re also dealing with someone who’s a middle-aged woman who has never offended before in their life and we’ve got four of the most serious crimes in Victoria being committed.”

Within hours of the verdict, the Supreme Court released dozens of pieces of evidence that helped prosecutors secure the convictions.

They included photos showing remnants of beef Wellington leftovers as they were tested by toxicologists, after police found them inside a bin at Patterson’s home.

A video of Patterson discharging herself from Leongatha Hospital minutes after she had arrived was also released, while images of her at the hospital revealed a pink phone police say they never recovered.

Prosecutors said this was Patterson’s primary phone in 2023 and claimed she had used it to find death cap mushrooms online.

- With AAP