Erin Patterson: Mushroom killer’s appeal loss earns her a dark place in Australian history
Erin Patterson has lost her appeal against her murder conviction and has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. She was found guilty of poisoning three people with death cap mushrooms during a lunch in 2023.
Why it matters
This case is historically significant as Patterson becomes only the second woman in Australia to receive a life sentence without parole.
shares Share article Erin Patterson not only lost her appeal in Victoria’s Court of Appeal on Friday , prosecutors won their bid to remove parole from her sentence.
That makes the 52-year-old triple murderer only the second woman to receive a life sentence without parole in Australia.
Erin Patterson is appealing her conviction and sentence. AP
Before her was NSW woman Katherine Knight, who was sentenced in 2001 over the death of her defacto husband John Price.
The infamous female killer was convicted of stabbing her partner 37 times, before skinning him and attempting to serve his cooked flesh to his children.
In 2006 Knight tried to appeal her sentence, claiming it was too harsh for her crime, but her appeal was rejected.
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