Lawyers for Erin Patterson have confirmed she will appeal against her convictions for murder and attempted murder, the Victorian supreme court heard on Thursday. Patterson was sentenced to life imprisonment last month for the deaths of three people and the attempted murder of a fourth.
Patterson’s barrister, Richard Edney, announced the appeal during a brief hearing in Melbourne. Edney recently replaced Colin Mandy, who represented Patterson at trial, a change not uncommon before an appeal.
Patterson, 51, was sentenced on 8 September to life with a non-parole period of 33 years for the murders of Don and Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson, and the attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson. The court granted an extension of a suppression order to 3 November, allowing Patterson to lodge her appeal under new guidelines that double the filing period.
Justice Christopher Beale, who sentenced Patterson, noted the court of appeal routinely grants such applications but previously stated he believed an appeal was unlikely to succeed. The hearing lasted three minutes, with Patterson appearing via video link from the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre prison.
Patterson was convicted in July after an 11-week trial in Morwell. She maintained her innocence, claiming she did not intend to serve beef wellingtons laced with death cap mushrooms to her lunch guests in July 2023.
