Katy Watson<\/strong>
Reporting from the court<\/p>\nThe sentencing of Erin Patterson comes just over two years
\nsince she invited her in-laws Don and Gail Patterson to lunch at her house,
\nalong with Gail\u2019s sister Heather Wilkinson and her husband Ian.<\/p>\n
Erin Patterson\u2019s motive remains a mystery \u2013 and perhaps
\nthat\u2019s why this case has garnered so much attention. Why would a devoted mother
\nof two try and kill relatives who, as the judge said, had been good to her? <\/p>\n
It
\nwas, he said, an enormous betrayal of trust.<\/p>\n
And it was a horrendous crime – Ian and Heather\u2019s son David
\nremembers his mother saying her insides were burning as she lay dying in
\nhospital. His father\u2019s face appeared tortured \u2013 black lips, gaunt face and a serious expression.<\/p>\n
Patterson now begins her life sentence at the Dame
\nPhyllis Frost Centre, a prison she\u2019s been at since November 2023. She\u2019s being held in
\nrelative isolation \u2013 in a wing where prisoners are not allowed to mix and meals
\nare delivered via a flap in the cell door. <\/p>\n
Such is her notoriety, said the
\njudge this morning, that the conditions in prison will be hard. Solitary
\nconfinement is a likely prospect because of the risk posed by other prisoners, he said.<\/p>\n
The attention on this case has been unprecedented. That\u2019s
\nwhy the judge decided to broadcast the sentencing live. True crime fans who\u2019ve
\nfollowed this case from the beginning were in court again today to see this to
\nthe very end. <\/p>\n
Ian Wilkinson, the only survivor of the lunch asked for
\nprivacy \u2013 a family that\u2019s been deeply private since the awful events of that
\nlunch in July 2023 wants to grieve quietly now the sentencing is over.<\/p>\n
We’re ending our live coverage now – you can read more in our news story here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Patterson’s motive remains a mystery, as she begins her life sentencepublished at 07:27 British Summer Time 07:27 BST…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[748,393,4884,12,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-407230","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-northern-ireland","13":"tag-scotland","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115167449892505558","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Katy Watson<\/strong>