Had she looked up, she would have noticed familiar faces craning in the public gallery’s upstairs section to get a glimpse at their former neighbour, friend and acquaintance.
Flanked by two security guards, she sat still inside a courtroom full of intricate ornate plaster ceilings, decorative cornices and a giant chandelier – a stark contrast to the tiny prison cell she will today return to, one described by fellow inmates as a “pigsty”.
For 45 minutes, Patterson looked ahead towards Justice Christopher Beale.
She blinked rapidly as Justice Beale told her “only you know why you committed [the murders]”.
She did not react when Justice Beale recalled her online comments labelling her estranged husband “a deadbeat”.
Convicted triple-murderer Erin Patterson arrives at the Supreme Court of Victoria. Photo / Getty Images
Then she closed her eyes. They remained closed from 9.52am until 9.59am.
They remained closed while Justice Beale scolded her for “pitiless behaviour”.
They remained closed while he thundered at her about the “elaborate cover up of your guilt” and the “untold suffering” and “enormous betrayal of trust” towards her victims, victims he said “were all your relatives and who had all been good to you”.
She refused to open her eyes while Justice Beale described “the terrible way your victims died” and “anger at the callousness” of her crimes.
Her lips pursed while Justice Beale asked how anyone “could sit there and watch those four kind people eat that meal” – a reference to the Beef Wellington meal she laced with fatal death cap mushrooms in a deliberate attempt to kill her own family.
She opened her eyes only when Justice Beale spoke about an opportunity she now has, specifically to accept the forgiveness of Wilkinson, a gesture inspired by his Christian faith during his victim impact statement read out last month.
Details of Patterson’s upbringing were read out in court. Her relationship with her estranged husband, the birth of her children, family holidays, the death of her father and mother, her separation. Through it all, her eyes were closed.
“There is no evidence of remorse,” Justice Beale told her.
Then she would learn her fate.
“Is it inappropriate to fix a non-parole period? This is the main dispute that I have to determine,” he told her, hinting at the slightest of mercies.
“You have effectively been held in solitary confinement for 15 months and will continue to be held in solitary confinement for years to come.”
“Please stand,” he told her. She opened her eyes, stood up straight and braced herself as he told her she would spend the next 33 years at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre – Victoria’s only maximum-security women’s prison.
Patterson, heavy under the weight of the sentence, swayed briefly before she made her slow shuffle back out of court. She did not say a word, nor did any member of the public gallery. A silent, disgraced end to a saga that had gripped so many inside the courtroom and around the world.
As Patterson made her way from the dock, she grabbed a banister. On her way out the door, she touched every piece of sculpted timber that lined her walkway.
Erin Patterson was convicted earlier this year of three murders and one attempted murder. Photo / Supreme Court of Victoria
Those outside court celebrated. Some had woken as early as 1.30am for a 2am departure from Leongatha to close this chapter in person.
A chapter that ends in infamy – Patterson’s 33-year sentence is among the longest of any woman in Victorian history.
The only woman in Victoria serving a longer sentence is Momena Shoma, the Bangladeshi exchange student turned terrorist who was jailed for 42 years for an act of terrorism.
Shoma, fittingly, is in the protection unit right next to Erin Patterson.
The two have much in common now. But as Justice Beale alluded to during his remarks on Monday, they refused to speak, despite sharing an adjoining courtyard and having access to one another through a chain-link fence.
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