small-screen mini-series<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe 50-year-old was convicted of killing three lunch guests with a poisoned beef Wellington in 2023. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n
Patterson is not expected to face the judges in person, instead choosing to watch remotely from Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, the prison where she is housed in Melbourne’s west.<\/p>\n
The 52-year-old claims she suffered a miscarriage of justice when a jury found her guilty of three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. <\/p>\n
Jurors believed she 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 the July 2023 lunch at Patterson’s Leongatha home, in regional Victoria, while Heather’s husband Ian fell seriously ill from the meal but survived.<\/p>\n
![\"Leftovers](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/leftovers-from-the-fatal-beef-wellington-lunch-laced-with-de-ODIIFY2IFFFJVDTCQC7PUJRRJU.png\")
<\/p>\n
Leftovers from the fatal beef Wellington lunch laced with death cap mushrooms. (Source: Supreme Court of Victoria)<\/p>\n
At her appeal hearing in August, Patterson’s lawyers argued she suffered a substantial miscarriage of justice during her high-profile trial and her convictions should be quashed. <\/p>\n
Barrister Richard Edney pointed to the “catastrophic” decision to sequester jurors in the same hotel as the lead detective and prosecution team during their verdict deliberations.<\/p>\n
Patterson had also been “forced” to give evidence during her trial to show she always had an interest in foraging for mushrooms, the defence said.<\/p>\n
![\"Death](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/death-cap-mushrooms-file-image-MUVURDIXRBFLVPJTJYIGFSF54E.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Death cap mushrooms (file image). (Source: istock.com)<\/p>\n
The cross-examination from the prosecutor had been unfair and oppressive, and the prosecution closing address was also “problematic”, Edney argued. <\/p>\n
But Victoria’s top prosecutor said there was no substance to the arguments and Patterson instead should be facing a longer sentence for her crimes.<\/p>\n
Patterson was jailed for life but given a chance at freedom with a 33-year non-parole period. <\/p>\n
Four possible outcomes<\/p>\n
Brendan Kissane KC argued the sentence was manifestly inadequate and Patterson should not be allowed to walk from prison.<\/p>\n
Justices Stephen McLeish, Lesley Taylor and Peter Kidd have spent just over two months considering the arguments.<\/p>\n
Simon Patterson\u2019s explosive claims can now be reported after a court allowed teh testimony to be released.\u00a0 (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n
There are four possible outcomes for Patterson’s appeal. <\/p>\n
She will either be granted leave to appeal or refused leave to appeal, which is the first hurdle she has to clear.<\/p>\n
If she is granted leave, the court must then decide whether to uphold or refuse her appeal. <\/p>\n
If her appeal is upheld, she could be granted a retrial or a complete acquittal. <\/p>\n
The court will not need to decide on the prosecution’s appeal if Patterson is successful. <\/p>\n
But if Patterson loses, the court has two options.<\/p>\n
It can dismiss the prosecution appeal, leaving the sentence unchanged.<\/p>\n
The court could alternatively grant the prosecution appeal and re-sentence Patterson, increasing her 33-year non-parole period.<\/p>\n
Dr Chris Webster said her response immediately set off alarm bells. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n
The judges will hand down their decision at 10am AEDT (12pm NZT) on Friday.<\/p>\n
It comes just days after Paramount+ and Ten announced a six-episode drama series about the Patterson case, titled Mushroom Murders: There’s More to Unearth.<\/p>\n
Emmy-nominated actor Melanie Lynskey has been cast to play the murderer in the series, which is slated to be released in 2027. <\/p>\n
If Patterson is ordered a retrial, the drama and other content about the case could be in doubt as pre-trial rules would once again apply.<\/p>\n
That means there could not be any coverage about the case until the retrial. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Triple-murderer Erin Patterson’s future is in the hands of three appeal judges, set to rule if a retrial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645256,"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-645255","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\/645255","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=645255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}