Lawyers say Erin Patterson trial was a ‘substantial’ miscarriage of justice as appeal seeks to quash conviction

Erin Patterson suffered a “substantial” miscarriage of justice in her trial, her lawyers told Melbourne’s Supreme Court on Wednesday as they asked judges to quash her conviction in a high-profile triple-murder case involving death cap mushrooms.

Who, what and where

Patterson, 51, was convicted last year of murdering her husband’s parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and his aunt, Heather Wilkinson, after serving them a beef Wellington lunch laced with lethal death cap mushrooms in 2023. A jury also found her guilty of the attempted murder of Ian, Heather’s husband, who survived after weeks in hospital.

Sentence and current legal challenge

A judge sentenced Patterson to life imprisonment with parole eligibility after 33 years. Her lawyers are now seeking to overturn that conviction, arguing a series of irregularities and errors at trial amounted to a miscarriage of justice.

Defence complaints about evidence and cross-examination

Defence counsel Veronika Drago said certain evidence admitted at trial including material relating to cell towers and posts about death cap mushroom sightings was “innocuous” and unreliable, and that allowing Patterson to be questioned on that basis “arises to the level of a substantial miscarriage of justice”.

The defence also argued that images of mushrooms found on a memory card in Patterson’s home were wrongly excluded from the trial record.

Lawyer Richard Edney told the court Patterson had been subject to “unfair and oppressive” cross-examination. He said the fact that some jurors had stayed in the same hotel as a police witness and members of the prosecution “undermined the fairness of the trial” and represented a “fundamental failure” of the legal process in what he called “perhaps one of the most high-profile criminal trials this state has ever had”. He conceded there was no evidence the jury had communicated with others.

Prosecution response and related appeal

Prosecutor Brendan Kissane said placing the jury in the hotel was an “accident”. The prosecution defended the use of evidence intended to show Patterson could source the deadly mushrooms before the lunch.

The three-judge court will also hear a prosecution appeal on Thursday seeking a tougher sentence, with prosecutors saying the non-parole period of 33 years was “manifestly inadequate” and that the sentencing judge erred on a point relating to solitary confinement.

How the hearing was conducted

Patterson watched the proceedings by live video link from the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre maximum-security prison in Melbourne’s western suburbs. The national broadcaster ABC reported she was wearing a blue prison jumper.

Background of the convictions

A 12-person jury found Patterson guilty in July last year of the murders at her home in the Victorian farming village of Leongatha. The attempted murder conviction concerned Heather’s husband, who fell gravely ill but recovered.

“[Placing the jury in the hotel] was an accident,” Brendan Kissane