how the jury was sequestered<\/a>.<\/p>\nJury members remained together during their deliberations but ended up staying in the same hotel as the lead investigator and members of the prosecution team.<\/p>\n
That decision was “catastrophic” as it could have resulted in inappropriate communication or subconscious influence, defence barrister Richard Edney said.<\/p>\n
When Justice Peter Kidd questioned whether there was any evidence of communication between jurors and the parties, Edney said there was not.<\/p>\n
But he maintained it was still a failure of process that had not been explained by the prosecution and should lead to a re-trial.<\/p>\n
“It does amount to a fundamental irregularity,” Edney said.<\/p>\n
The 50-year-old was convicted of killing three lunch guests with a poisoned beef Wellington in 2023. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n
Edney also argued the cross-examination of his client had been unfair and oppressive, with the prosecutor repeatedly asking whether other witnesses were wrong, mistaken or correct.<\/p>\n
The prosecution closing address was also “problematic”, he said.<\/p>\n
Patterson’s lawyers will finish their appeal arguments on Wednesday afternoon before Victoria’s top prosecutor responds. <\/p>\n
Brendan Kissane KC will then appeal Patterson’s sentence on the ground her 33-year non-parole period was manifestly inadequate. <\/p>\n
A jury found Patterson deliberately served beef Wellingtons laced with death cap mushrooms to her former in-laws Don and Gail Patterson, 70, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, 66.<\/p>\n
The three guests died after lunch at Patterson’s Leongatha home, in regional Victoria, while Heather’s husband Ian fell seriously ill from the meal but survived.<\/p>\n
Patterson was also convicted of Ian Wilkinson’s attempted murder. <\/p>\n
The appeal hearing before Justices Stephen McLeish, Lesley Taylor and Peter Kidd continues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Triple murderer Erin Patterson’s right to silence was compromised during her high-profile trial due to the exclusion of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":573783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[85,67,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-573782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-australia","tag-crime-and-justice","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Leftovers](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/leftovers-from-the-fatal-beef-wellington-lunch-laced-with-de-7MNAFSZ72ZBA5A7TBQG6PK6YKU.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Death](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/death-cap-mushrooms-file-image-H4TEEA5QUFA5DHGW2OONGBDSVA.jpg\")
<\/p>\n