From left to right: Don Patterson, Gail Patterson, Heather Wilkinson and Ian Wilkinson. Composite: Supplied\/facebook<\/p>\n
Patterson hosted the guests at a lunch in July 2023, deliberately feeding them beef wellingtons laced with death cap mushrooms.<\/p>\n
Delivering an emotional victim impact statement in a pre-sentencing hearing last month, Wilkinson, a pastor, offered Patterson forgiveness<\/a> for trying to murder him.<\/p>\n Family graphic<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cNow I am no longer Erin Patterson\u2019s victim, and she has become the victim of my kindness,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n But Wilkinson said he was \u201ccompelled to seek justice\u201d for the three murder victims. He said he bore Patterson no ill will and his prayer for her was that she would use her time in custody to reform.<\/p>\n Simon Patterson said his estranged wife\u2019s crimes had robbed their two children, a son born in 2009 and a daughter born in 2014, of \u201cthe kind of relationship with their mother that every child yearns for\u201d.<\/p>\n TimelineErin Patterson: how Australia’s mushroom poisoning case unfolded \u2014 a timelineShow<\/p>\n 29 July 2023<\/p>\n Erin Patterson hosts lunch for estranged husband Simon\u2019s parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and his aunt and uncle Heather and Ian Wilkinson. Patterson serves beef wellington.<\/p>\n 30 July 2023<\/p>\n All four lunch guests are admitted to hospital with gastro-like symptoms.\u00a0<\/p>\n 4 August 2023<\/p>\n Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson die in hospital.\u00a0<\/p>\n 5 August 2023<\/p>\n Don Patterson dies in hospital. Victoria police search Erin Patterson\u2019s home and interview her.\u00a0<\/p>\n 23 September 2023<\/p>\n Ian Wilkinson is discharged from hospital after weeks in intensive care.<\/p>\n 2 November 2023<\/p>\n Police again search Erin Patterson\u2019s home, and she is arrested and interviewed.\u00a0She is charged with three counts of murder relating to the deaths of Don and Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson, and the attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson.\u00a0<\/p>\n 29 April 2025<\/p>\n Murder trial begins.\u00a0Jury hears\u00a0that charges\u00a0of attempting to murder her estranged husband Simon are dropped.<\/p>\n 7 July 2025<\/p>\n Jury finds Erin Patterson guilty of murdering Heather Wilkinson, Don and Gail Patterson and attempting to murder Ian Wilkinson.\u00a0<\/p>\n Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n The prosecution and defence agreed Patterson should receive a life sentence for her crimes, which Beale said were \u201chorrendous\u201d. Prosecutors had called for no prospect of parole for Patterson, while the defence said she should be given a chance to be released.<\/p>\n Patterson\u2019s defence barrister, Colin Mandy SC, said her notoriety meant she was in onerous conditions \u2013 spending 22 hours locked in her cell \u2013 which should be considered by Beale. He said his client\u2019s isolation made the \u201cburden of imprisonment\u201d much greater for her than other prisoners.<\/p>\n Jane Warren, for the prosecution, agreed that Beale could consider these conditions.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Breaking News Australia<\/p>\n Get the most important news as it breaks<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n On Monday, Beale said he agreed Patterson should receive the maximum penalty for her crimes. He sentenced her to life in prison for the murders of Heather Wilkinson and Don and Gail Patterson, and 25 years in prison for the attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson, to be served concurrently.<\/p>\n Patterson had already served 676 days in pre-sentence detention, the court heard. She <\/strong>will be 82 when she becomes eligible to apply for parole in 2056.<\/p>\n Beale said the jury in the 11-week trial was satisfied, beyond reasonable doubt, that Patterson committed triple murder and attempted murder. \u201cOnly you know why you committed them,\u201d he said, addressing Patterson.<\/p>\n Patterson\u2019s crimes had inflicted great harm on her victims, Beale said. \u201cYou inflicted untold suffering on your own children who you robbed of their beloved grandparents.\u201d<\/p>\n Beale said Patterson had \u201ceffectively been held in solitary confinement\u201d for the past 15 months. Given given the intense media interest in the case, he said, Patterson was likely to \u201cremain a notorious prisoner for many years to come\u201d and remain at \u201cserious risk\u201d from other prisoners.<\/p>\n The \u201charsh prison conditions\u201d that Patterson had endured were relevant considerations for her sentencing, Beale added.<\/p>\n While it is typically illegal for media outlets to record inside a courtroom, the court granted permission for a television camera to film Beale handing down his sentencing remarks. The footage was broadcast to the public with a 10-second delay in a historic first for the state.<\/p>\n Patterson will have until 6 October to lodge an appeal against her conviction, sentence or both.<\/p>\n She pleaded not guilty to all charges and claimed the deaths were a tragic accident.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Erin Patterson has been sentenced to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 33 years after murdering three…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":210406,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-210405","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115169160467754681","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Erin](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/3675.jpg\")
Erin Patterson: Australia’s mushroom murderer sentenced to life in prison \u2013 video<\/p>\n