After filing an appeal against her murder convictions, triple killer Erin Patterson will find out her destiny in a matter of months.
The appeal hearing was set to take place over two days on August 19 and 20, the Supreme Court of Victoria said on Friday.
It is not anticipated that Patterson, 51, who is still incarcerated at Melbourne’s infamous Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, will appear in court.
Due to the deaths of three family members who ate death cap mushrooms served in beef Wellingtons at her Leongatha home in Victoria’s Gippsland region in July 2023, the mother-of-two is serving a life sentence with a minimum 33-year non-parole period.
She was convicted of killing Gail Wilkinson’s sister and her in-laws Don and Gail Patterson.
Ian Wilkinson, Heather’s husband, recovered from a serious illness. Patterson was found guilty of attempted murder as well.
After her then-attorney Colin Mandy SC argued that his client would face harsher conditions while incarcerated, Patterson was spared life without the possibility of parole.
Patterson filed intentions to appeal her conviction in November of last year on seven grounds, including what she called a “substantial miscarriage of justice” that occurred during the lengthy 11-week trial.
In August, triple killer Erin Patterson will appeal her murder convictions.
After eating death cap mushrooms in beef Wellingtons at her Leongatha home, Patterson’s in-laws Don and Gail Patterson passed away.
After the lunch, Heather Wilkinson, Gail’s sister, also passed away. Pastor Ian Wilkinson, her husband, survived the trial. Patterson’s defense argued that the jury’s stay in the same hotel as the police and journalists had “fatally undermined the integrity of the verdict.”
Additionally, she said that the prosecutor’s five-day cross-examination of her in the witness box was “unfair and oppressive.”
Additionally, Patterson contended that certain evidence—such as Facebook posts from a true crime group—created unreasonable prejudice and ought not to have been presented to the jury.
Patterson has consistently insisted on her innocence.
She has demanded a new trial and the overturning of the convictions.
At the same hearing, the Director of Public Prosecutions will also challenge Patterson’s sentence, claiming it was “manifestly inadequate.”
They seek a life sentence with no chance of parole.
It follows the Daily Mail’s revelation earlier this month that Patterson was recently released into the general prison population and is no longer in solitary confinement.
