By LIAM DURKIN
VICTORIA’S Court of Appeal last week sentenced Erin Patterson to life without parole.
In a country that doesn’t have the death penalty, there is no harsher outcome.
The infamous ‘mushroom murderer’ is now only the second woman in Australia to receive the sentence.
Patterson’s high-profile murder trial put Morwell on the world map last year.
She was found guilty by a jury sitting in Latrobe Valley Law Courts of murdering three of her in-laws and attempting to murder another after serving them beef wellingtons laced with poisonous mushrooms. She was sentenced to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 33 years.
Patterson, who has always maintained the deaths were a “terrible accident”, appealed her conviction last August.
Her lawyers argued that the Morwell trial was compromised, given members of the jury stayed at the same hotel as police and prosecutors.
Appeal judges Justices Stephen McLeish, Lesley Taylor and Peter Kidd handed down their verdict last Friday.
Patterson was told her offending was “extraordinarily cold and calculated”.
“And stands to be denounced in the strongest terms,” Their Honours said.
“It is inappropriate to fix a non-parole period.
“The applicant’s intent to murder all four victims was sustained for nearly three weeks from when she invited them to lunch, through to preparing and serving the poisoned meal and then throughout the protracted suffering and ultimate deaths that resulted.”
The judges not only dismissed Patterson’s appeal, but increased her sentence.
Patterson did not appear at the Court of Appeal in person. Instead, she watched via video link, and appeared to stare blankly when the decision was made. She is being held in the maximum security wing of the Dame Phyllis Frost women’s prison.
In September, it was revealed Patterson had been approved to take weight-loss drug Ozempic at taxpayers’ expense while serving time behind bars.
The prosecution had also submitted an appeal against the original sentence carrying parole last August. The DPP wanted no chance of parole, and said that the offending was the “worst category” of murders.
Outside court, it was reported that Patterson’s estranged husband Simon grinned broadly.
Back in Morwell, the news passed by with barely a mention when it broke just after 10am.
Express editor Liam Durkin told ABC Victoria Statewide Drive that most, if not all, locals were over the attention the trial gave Morwell.
“I think it’s fair to say everyone has well and truly moved on,” he said.
“It’s not something people talk about in their everyday life.”
The editor did not travel to Melbourne for the appeal.
“There was a couple of local true crime buffs that did head down, but for the sake of a 15 minute hearing to make the trip down to Melbourne for that probably wasn’t really justified,” he told ABC presenter Jane Nield.
“A lot of interest in the Patterson case, whilst it will always be there, but certainly nowhere near the levels that it was for those crazy few months last year.
“It’s going to remain in the psyche of the Latrobe Valley for a long, long time, there’s no doubt.
“I think most of the book has closed, but until we’ve got an absolute final decision from the High Court, the story is still developing.”
Patterson’s last chance will be to appeal to the High Court.
She has until November 27 to do so.
Patterson now takes an infamous place alongside some of Australia’s worst criminals to have served or be serving life without parole, including Ivan Malat and Martin Bryant.
Bryant’s actions led then Prime Minister John Howard to overhaul the country’s gun laws in the wake of the Port Arthur Massacre.
Mr Howard wore a bulletproof vest while addressing a pro-gun crowd at Sale Oval shortly after the tragedy.
