Wire reporting: (AP, via ABC News), (AFP, via IOL)

MELBOURNE — Victoria’s Court of Appeal on Friday dismissed Erin Patterson’s challenge to her murder convictions and, granting a prosecution appeal, removed the 33-year non-parole period on her life sentences, meaning she is not eligible for release^3,6,9,13.

Patterson was convicted last year of murdering her estranged husband’s parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, and of attempting to murder Heather’s husband, Ian Wilkinson, after a July 2023 lunch of beef Wellington at her home in Leongatha, in rural Victoria^3,5,9,13.

A jury found death-cap mushrooms had been mixed into the meal^3,5. Ian Wilkinson survived after weeks in hospital^3,9. Patterson has maintained the contamination was accidental and that she did not know the mushrooms were poisonous^9,13.

Three judges — Stephen McLeish, Leslie Taylor and Peter Kidd — dismissed the conviction appeal^3,6. The panel said the offending was “extraordinarily cold and calculated”³.

Her lawyers had argued the trial was unfair, citing among other issues a period when jurors stayed in the same hotel as prosecutors and a police witness, cell-tower evidence, and the conduct of cross-examination^3,6,9. The court granted leave on two grounds, including the hotel arrangement and phone-tower evidence, and refused leave on five others; it found no real possibility the hotel stay affected the verdicts and held the tower evidence admissible⁶.

The Director of Public Prosecutions, Brendan Kissane, had argued the 33-year non-parole period set by trial judge Christopher Beale was manifestly inadequate^6,9,14. Beale had cited onerous prison conditions among reasons for fixing a parole date that would have fallen around 2056^3,6.

The appeal court set that period aside, saying the nature of the offences made a non-parole period inappropriate⁶. Patterson watched by video from Dame Phyllis Frost Centre and did not attend in person^6,14.

She may seek special leave to appeal to the High Court of Australia; the Court of Appeal’s orders anticipate any such application by Nov. 27^3,6,13. ABC News Australia reported that a further Victorian conviction appeal would require fresh and compelling evidence, which legal commentators said was unlikely¹³. Motive, several outlets noted, has not been established on the public record^9,14.