Erin Patterson — mushroom murders appeal

In July 2023 Erin Patterson served a beef Wellington lunch at her home in regional Victoria, Australia, to four relatives of her estranged husband. Three of them died and the fourth survived after weeks in hospital. The meal contained death cap mushrooms. In 2025 a jury convicted her of three counts of murder and one of attempted murder, and she was sentenced to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 33 years.

Her appeal was heard over two days, August 19 and 20, 2026, in the Victoria Court of Appeal. She raised seven grounds, among them that jurors had stayed in the same hotel as a police witness during the trial. Prosecutors cross-appealed the sentence, arguing that 33 years before parole eligibility is manifestly inadequate for three murders. The court must first decide whether to grant leave to appeal; a written judgment could take months.

Her conditions in custody have become a story of their own. At the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre west of Melbourne she is reported to be confined to her cell for at least 22 hours a day, for her own safety, with contact permitted with one other prisoner through wire mesh. In September the advocacy group Justice Action called the arrangement tantamount to torture under the United Nations' Mandela Rules and proposed a peer-support mentor at no cost to the state.

The case is filed under Sickening. Guilt was established by a jury verdict that stands unless the Court of Appeal overturns it.