{"id":645667,"date":"2026-10-30T08:14:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T08:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/645667\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T08:14:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T08:14:14","slug":"cold-and-calculated-mushroom-killer-loses-appeal-likely-to-die-in-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/645667\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Cold and calculated’: Mushroom killer loses appeal, likely to die in prison"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia\u2019s infamous mushroom killer cook Erin Patterson will never be released from prison, after a ruling from Victoria\u2019s Court of Appeal set aside her non-parole period of 33 years.<\/p>\n

The appeal decision was handed down in the Supreme Court in Melbourne this morning. Justice Peter Kidd told the court “the nature of appellant’s offences makes the fixing of a non-parole period inappropriate”.<\/p>\n

Mushroom murder: Outcome of Erin Patterson\u2019s appeal bid revealed – Watch on TVNZ+<\/a><\/p>\n

Erin Patterson has lhad her last chance of parole removed after unsuccessfully appealing her sentence.\u00a0 (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

Last year Patterson was sentenced to at least 33 years behind bars<\/a> for murdering three lunch guests and trying to kill a fourth with poisonous mushrooms in 2023.<\/p>\n

The victims, her parents-in-law Don and Gail Patterson, along with Gail\u2019s sister, Heather, had been invited to lunch at Patterson\u2019s rural Victoria home, where she served them death cap mushrooms inside a dish of beef wellington.<\/p>\n

\"Erin<\/p>\n

Erin Patterson, accused of poisoning her estranged husband’s family members with death cap mushrooms. August 7th, 2023. (Source: Getty)<\/p>\n

Heather\u2019s husband Ian was also there, and became critically ill, but survived the poisoning.<\/p>\n

The decision to overturn the non-parole period of 33 years followed an appeal by the Prosecution in August, saying she should serve a harsher sentence, due to the number of victims, the premeditation, the continuation of offending by not revealing the poisoning to medical staff treating the victims and a lack of remorse.<\/p>\n

A jury has found Victorian woman Erin Patterson guilty of murder, nearly two years after a family lunch ended in tragedy. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

Separately Patterson had appealed against her conviction, claiming there was a substantial miscarriage of justice during her trial.<\/p>\n

Arguments included a mishap which saw the jury staying at the same hotel as prosecutors and a police witness during deliberations and that some evidence was too speculative.<\/p>\n

Her appeal was dismissed by Justices Stephen McLeish, Lesley Taylor and Peter Kidd.<\/p>\n

The 50-year-old was convicted of killing three lunch guests with a poisoned beef Wellington in 2023. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

“This offending was extraordinarily cold and calculated,” they said. <\/p>\n

Patterson did not appear in person, but via video link from prison.<\/p>\n

\"Convicted<\/p>\n

Convicted triple-murderer Erin Patterson arrives at Supreme Court of Victoria on August 25, 2025 in Melbourne, Australia. (Source: Getty)<\/p>\n

She could take that matter to the High Court and appeal the decision.<\/p>\n

She has until the end of November to lodge that appeal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia\u2019s infamous mushroom killer cook Erin Patterson will never be released from prison, after a ruling from Victoria\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645668,"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-645667","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\/645667","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=645667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}