In a statement on Monday afternoon, a spokeswoman for the Victorian Director of Public Prosecutions confirmed an appeal against her sentence had been lodged.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe confirm that a DPP appeal has been filed on the basis that the sentence handed down to Erin Patterson is manifestly inadequate,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Patterson, who maintains she is innocent, has separately flagged plans to appeal her conviction.<\/p>\n
She has enlisted a new barrister, Richard Edney, who told Victoria\u2019s Supreme Court last week the appeal would be lodged.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can indicate there will be an appeal against conviction,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Don Patterson and Gail Patterson, Erin Patterson’s former parents-in-law, died after Patterson poisoned them. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Under Victorian guidelines, both sides of a criminal case have 28 days after a sentence to lodge an appeal with the Court of Appeal.<\/p>\n
That window for prosecutors was due to close on Monday but, under a recently announced trial, Patterson\u2019s lawyers can request a 28-day extension.<\/p>\n
The change was announced in a notice to the legal profession shared by the Vivienne Mahy, the Executive Associate to Victorian Chief Justice Richard Niall, on September 17.<\/p>\n
It said members of the profession had \u201craised concerns\u201d about the difficulty in preparing appeal paperwork within the four week period.<\/p>\n
Patterson was found guilty after an 11-week trial earlier this year, with Justice Christopher Beale finding her offending fell into the \u201cworst category\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have no hesitation in finding your offending falls into the worst category for the offences of murder and attempted murder,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe gravity of your offending warrants the imposition of the maximum penalties for your crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n
She was sentenced to life imprisonment, with no eligibility of parole for 33 years. Ahead of Patterson\u2019s sentencing, prosecutors had called for her to spend the rest of her life behind bars.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a crime that is so horrific that the offender is not deserving of this court\u2019s mercy,\u201d prosecutor Jane Warren argued in August.<\/p>\n
Throughout the trial, Patterson maintained the deaths were a tragic accident, and the prosecution conceded they could not prove a motive for the poisonings.<\/p>\n
Under the sentence imposed in September, the mother-of-two will be in her early 80s before she is eligible for parole.<\/p>\n
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor\u2019s Picks<\/a>, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week\u2019s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a statement on Monday afternoon, a spokeswoman for the Victorian Director of Public Prosecutions confirmed an appeal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[50820,6375,3936,6023,42,5762,1334,5769,43,50819,2171,50821,26481,3109,12860,5763,1335,61,40,38,41,39,7821],"class_list":["post-62064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-33year","tag-appeal","tag-director","tag-erin","tag-headlines","tag-inadequate","tag-jail","tag-manifestly","tag-news","tag-pattersons","tag-plans","tag-prosecutions","tag-prosecutors","tag-public","tag-revealed","tag-sentence","tag-term","tag-to","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-victorian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62064","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=62064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}