Prosecutors in Australia want convicted mushroom murderer Erin Patterson’s prison sentence extended

Melbourne, Australia — Australian prosecutors on Monday filed an appeal seeking a longer guaranteed prison term for Erin Patterson, who was sentenced to life for poisoning four of her estranged husband’s relatives with death cap mushrooms but will be eligible for parole after 33 years.

Victoria state’s Office of Public Prosecutions said in a statement that it had filed the appeal to the Victorian Court of Appeal, claiming the sentence handed to Patterson a month ago was “manifestly inadequate.”

Patterson was sentenced to life in prison in September by the Victorian Supreme Court for the murder of three people and the attempted murder a fourth, all of whom were lunch guests at her home in 2023.

Patterson fed them beef Wellington pastry dishes laced with toxic mushrooms. Her motive remains a mystery.

Prosecutors argued last month that she should never be eligible for parole. Her lawyers had asked for Patterson to serve 30 years before she could be considered for early release.

Justice Christopher Beale set a non-parole period of 33 years, meaning she could potentially be set free in 2056 at the age of 82.

“Your victims were all your relatives by marriage. More than that, they had all been good to you and your children over many years, as you acknowledged in your testimony,” Beale said when he delivered the original sentence. “Not only did you cut short three lives and cause lasting damage to Ian Wilkinson’s health, thereby devastating extended Patterson and Wilkinson families, you inflicted untold suffering on your own children, whom you robbed of their beloved grandparents.”

It was never disputed that Patterson served the mushrooms or that the pastries killed her guests. The jury was required to decide whether she knew the lunch contained death caps, and if she intended for them to die.

Patterson’s lawyer Richard Edney told Beale last week that she would lodge an appeal against her jury convictions within a month.

Three Court of Appeal judges will hear both appeals on a date that is yet to be set.

Patterson was convicted in July of murdering Don and Gail Patterson, the parents of her husband Simon Patterson. She also murdered Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, and attempted to murder Ian Wilkinson, who spent weeks in a hospital, the court ruled.

Simon Patterson was also invited to the lunch but declined.