Erin Patterson: Mushroom murderer returns to court as sentencing looms

Erin Patterson is due back before court a month after being convicted of killing three members of her estranged husband’s family by serving a death cap mushroom-laced lunch.

The 50-year-old mother has a mention hearing scheduled on Friday at the Supreme Court in Melbourne, where she is set to appear remotely via video link from prison.

Dates for her pre-sentence hearing, known as a plea, are expected to be set during her court appearance.

Plea hearings allow victims and their families to deliver statements to the court about how the crime has impacted them.

They also allow defence lawyers and prosecutors to argue matters for the judge to take into account in deciding Patterson’s sentence.

Patterson faces up to life in prison after being convicted of three murders and one attempted murder over a toxic beef Wellington meal she served in July 2023.

Her estranged husband Simon’s mother and father, Don and Gail Patterson, and aunt and uncle, Heather and Ian Wilkinson, all became sick and ended up in hospital after eating the lunch.

Mr Wilkinson was the only lunch guest to survive.

Patterson had pleaded not guilty and claimed not to have intentionally poisoned her lunch guests.

She spent eight days in the witness box during her regional Victorian trial, where she admitted a series of lies and said she may have accidentally included foraged mushrooms in the beef Wellington.

This included lies to police about her interest in wild mushrooms, and lies about owning a food dehydrator which she dumped at a local tip.

The trial became a media circus, involving 252 media outlets including 15 international, making it the biggest matter the Supreme Court has managed in recent history.

As the trial in Morwell reached its 11th week, jurors returned with guilty verdicts on all charges on July 7 after seven days of deliberations.

Patterson will have 28 days to lodge an appeal after she is sentenced.