{"id":946993,"date":"2026-10-31T00:50:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T00:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/946993\/"},"modified":"2026-10-31T00:50:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T00:50:14","slug":"erin-patterson-joins-rare-group-of-australian-killers-with-no-chance-of-parole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/946993\/","title":{"rendered":"Erin Patterson joins rare group of Australian killers with no chance of parole"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Friday, Victoria’s Court of Appeal ruled Erin Patterson will spend the rest of her life behind bars with no chance of parole.<\/p>\n

WARNING: The following story contains graphic details that may distress some readers.<\/p>\n

A life sentence with no parole is a sentence rarely handed down in Australia, with only a handful of people across the country’s prisons currently serving such a sentence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a country with no death penalty, it is the harshest punishment our criminal justice system can hand down.<\/p>\n

Many of Victoria’s most notorious killers, including Adrian Bayley<\/a> and Jaymes Todd were sentenced to life in prison<\/a>, but had non-parole periods affixed to their sentences, leaving the door open to eventual freedom.<\/p>\n

But Justice Stephen McLeish said Patterson’s offending was “extraordinarily cold and calculated<\/a> and stands to be denounced in the strongest terms”.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Patterson was arrested at her Leongatha home in November 2023. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Former criminal barrister Christopher Corns described the sentencing as “an exceptionally rare event”.<\/p>\n

If you or anyone you know needs help:<\/p>\n

“[There is] a very strong presumption that even in a case of murder, where a head sentence of life is imposed, then a non-parole period must be set. This is exactly what the sentencing judge did in Patterson’s case,” he said.<\/p>\n

“There have only been three [or] four cases where a court in Victoria has refused to set a non-parole period where the head sentence was life.”<\/p>\n

Dr Corns said he could not think of any other case where the Victorian Court of Appeal had re-sentenced someone and arrived at a non-parole period.<\/p>\n

Erin Patterson’s re-sentencing thus puts her in a rare group of convicted killers in Australia who will never be eligible for parole.<\/p>\n

Michael Cardamone<\/p>\n

Michael Cardamone is serving a life sentence without parole<\/a> for the murder of his neighbour, Karen Chetcuti, near Wangaratta in 2016.<\/p>\n

\"Michael<\/p>\n

Michael Cardamone was the first person in Victoria without prior murder convictions to receive a life sentence without parole. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

The murder, which involved extensive torture, was described by Justice Lex Lasry as “quite simply horrifying, depraved and disgusting”, with the veteran judge saying he was shocked by the crime.<\/p>\n

At the time of the murder, Cardamone, a long-time methamphetamine user, was on parole after being jailed for raping a 15-year-old girl.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cardamone initially tried to pin the murder on a group of fictional Lebanese men who he said had threatened him to stay quiet, before later attempting to shift blame to a friend who had unwittingly helped him set fire to Ms Chetcuti’s car.<\/p>\n

He later attempted to have the friend murdered to prevent him from giving evidence at trial.<\/p>\n

Peter Dupas<\/p>\n

One of Victoria’s most notorious serial killers, Peter Dupas is serving multiple life sentences over the murder and mutilation of several women.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Peter<\/p>\n

Serial killer Peter Dupas has been in prison for more than two decades. (Joe Castro: AAP)<\/p>\n

Nicole Patterson, 28, was killed at her Melbourne home on April 19, 1999, and Margaret Maher’s partially-clothed body was found on October 4, 1997.<\/p>\n

In 2008, Dupas was found guilty of the murder of Mersina Halvagis, but that conviction was later overturned by the Court of Appeal and a retrial ordered. A second jury convicted him again.<\/p>\n

“At a fundamental level, you present for us, the awful, threatening and unanswerable question: how did you become to be as you are?” Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth asked during his sentencing.<\/p>\n

“You will now live out the rest of your days in prison.”<\/p>\n

Paul Haigh<\/p>\n

Serial killer Paul Haigh is serving six life sentences for a series of murders in the 1970s, and a prison murder in 1991.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Paul<\/p>\n

Serial killer Paul Haigh, in a photo taken circa 1974. (gallery.skcentral.com)<\/p>\n

In 1979, Haigh murdered his friend Wayne Keith Smith, along with Mr Smith’s ex-girlfriend Sheryle Ann Gardner and her 10-year-old son Danny Mitchell.<\/p>\n

The same year, he stabbed his 19-year-old girlfriend Lisa Maude Brearley 157 times.<\/p>\n

While in prison, Haigh confessed to the 1978 murders of Tattslotto agency worker Evelyn Adams and pizza shop worker Bruno Cingolani.<\/p>\n

He was also convicted of hanging fellow Pentridge inmate Donald Hatherley in 1991, but argued it was an assisted suicide.<\/p>\n

In 2009, Supreme Court Justice Betty King ordered that Haigh never be released.<\/p>\n

Haigh applied to the Victorian Supreme Court in 2012<\/a> to be given a minimum jail term, but was denied.<\/p>\n

Katherine Mary Knight<\/p>\n

Former meatworker Katherine Mary Knight became infamous after becoming the first Australian woman to be sentenced to life in prison without parole.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Katherine<\/p>\n

Katherine Knight (right) pictured with her partner and eventual victim John Price. (AAP: Random House\/PR)<\/p>\n

In 2000, Knight skinned and beheaded her partner John Price at his home in the NSW town of Aberdeen.<\/a><\/p>\n

She then cooked parts of Mr Price’s body in the oven, and arranged them on plates she left as meals for his son and daughter.<\/p>\n

Justice Barry O’Keefe said at the time that “a crime of the kind committed by the prisoner calls for the maximum penalty the law empowers the court to impose”.<\/p>\n

Knight’s file is marked “never to be released”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Friday, Victoria’s Court of Appeal ruled Erin Patterson will spend the rest of her life behind bars…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":946994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,1108,48,29920,2732,8280,2968,44,139583,5220,44600],"class_list":["post-946993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-court","tag-crime","tag-erin-patterson","tag-jail","tag-life","tag-murder","tag-news","tag-parole","tag-prison","tag-sentence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=946993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/946994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=946993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=946993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=946993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}