Victorian court orders Erin Patterson to serve life without parole

The Supreme Court of Victoria ruled on Friday that Erin Patterson must spend the remainder of her life in prison without the possibility of parole. A three-judge panel dismissed her final appeal against the conviction and sentencing structure, ending her bid for a non-parole period.

Patterson was found guilty in 2025 of murdering her parents-in-law, Gail and Donald Patterson, and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson. She served them a lunch of beef wellington containing death cap mushrooms. Ian Wilkinson, Heather’s husband, survived the meal and was convicted as an attempted murder victim. Patterson, who was 51 at the time of the crimes, has maintained that the deaths were accidental.

Justice Stephen McLeish, writing for the panel, described the offenses as “extraordinarily cold and calculated.” He stated that the court found the criminality “shocking” and determined that fixing a non-parole date was inappropriate given the circumstances. The panel rejected legal arguments that specific evidence should have been excluded, that cross-examination was unfair, or that housing the jury in the same hotel as other parties compromised the verdict.

The trial record detailed an “elaborate series of deceptions” used by Patterson to gather the victims at her home. She falsely claimed a cancer diagnosis to explain why her two children were absent from the lunch. The survivor testified that Patterson asked the guests for advice on what to tell the children about her supposed diagnosis.

Patterson’s original sentence of life in prison with a 33-year non-parole period was among the longest terms handed to a woman in Australia. By removing that benchmark, the court places her in a rare category. She is the second woman in the country to be imprisoned for life without parole. The first was Katherine Knight, a meatworker sentenced in New South Wales in 2001 for stabbing her partner at least 37 times.

Patterson retains one final legal option. She may apply to the High Court of Australia to overturn both her sentence and her convictions. The High Court is the last available avenue for appeal in the Australian judicial system.