Reasons for Director of Public Prosecution appeal on Erin Patterson’s sentence revealed

Mushroom cook Erin Patterson should spend the rest of her life in prison and her non-parole period of 33 years is “manifestly inadequate”, it has been argued.

The Victorian Director of Public Prosecutions had filed an appeal against Erin Patterson’s sentence, with the grounds of the appeal revealed on Thursday.

Patterson, 51, was jailed for a minimum of 33 years last month by Justice Christopher Beale after she was found guilty of murdering Don Patterson, Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson, and the attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson.

The four members of her estranged husband Simon Patterson’s family fell ill after eating a beef wellington lunch at Patterson’s Leongatha home on July 29, 2023.

The meal contained death cap mushrooms, with prosecutors successfully arguing she deliberately sourced and included the fungi intending to kill her guests.

Three days after announcing the appeal had been lodged, the grounds have now been released.

In a three-page document, acting director of public prosecutions Diana Piekusis said the judge should not have found that Patterson would be held in solitary confinement “for years to come”.

This, it is argued, “infected his assessment” of Patterson’s future conditions in prison and “his decision to fix a non-parole period”.

The second ground says the sentence is “manifestly inadequate” and it was “inappropriate for the sentencing judge to fix a non-parole period”, or the period of 33 years was “manifestly inadequate”.

Patterson, who maintains she is innocent, has separately flagged plans to appeal her conviction.

She has enlisted a new barrister, Richard Edney, who told Victoria’s Supreme Court last week the appeal would be lodged.

“I can indicate there will be an appeal against conviction,” he said.

Patterson was found guilty after an 11-week trial earlier this year, with Justice Beale finding her offending fell into the “worst category”.

“I have no hesitation in finding your offending falls into the worst category for the offences of murder and attempted murder,” he said.

“The gravity of your offending warrants the imposition of the maximum penalties for your crimes.”

She was sentenced to life imprisonment, with no eligibility of parole for 33 years. Ahead of Patterson’s sentencing, prosecutors had called for her to spend the rest of her life behind bars.

“It is a crime that is so horrific that the offender is not deserving of this court’s mercy,” prosecutor Jane Warren argued in August.

Throughout the trial, Patterson maintained the deaths were a tragic accident, and the prosecution conceded they could not prove a motive for the poisonings.

Under the sentence imposed in September, the mother-of-two will be in her early 80s before she is eligible for parole.