Australia: Erin Patterson sentenced to life without parole
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on L’essentiel
Victoria’s Court of Appeal rejected Erin Patterson’s appeal and replaced her life sentence with parole possible after 33 years with life without parole. She was convicted of poisoning three relatives with mushrooms in a beef Wellington, according to the judgment delivered in Melbourne.
The Court of Appeal of the Australian state of Victoria rejected Erin Patterson’s appeal on Friday and increased her sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. It found that there were no grounds for a retrial, according to the judgment delivered in Melbourne.
Convicted of murdering three relatives after serving them a mushroom-poisoned beef Wellington, Erin Patterson had initially received a sentence allowing her to apply for parole after 33 years. The prosecutor had sought a harsher sentence, arguing that the penalty was insufficient given the seriousness of the crimes.
Justice Stephen McLeish described the acts as having been committed with “extraordinary coldness and calculation”. Patterson had also been convicted of attempting to murder her husband’s uncle, the only survivor of the meal held at her home in Leongatha in 2023. She said the poisoning was accidental; the motive for the crimes remains unknown.
