Australian mother jailed for murdering relatives with Death Cap mushrooms must never be released, prosecutor tells court

An Australian woman who murdered three of her estranged husband's relatives with poisonous mushrooms should never be released from prison, a prosecutor told an appeals court.

Erin Patterson is appealing her sentence, claiming the trial in which she was found guilty of murdering three elderly relatives was unfair and that there were "irregularities".

Patterson was jailed for life with a minimum of 33 years in September last year - one of the longest sentences ever given to a woman in Australia.

Read more: How murder plot unfolded

At the Victoria State Court of Appeal on Thursday, prosecutor Brendan Kissane told the three judges that a judgment saying Patterson must serve 33 years of a life sentence before she can apply for parole was "manifestly inadequate".

He said she should never be considered for release, adding: "That's a harsh submission to make. But... it's demanded by the nature of the offending."

The prosecutor added that if the judges did not agree that she should never be released, then they should impose a non-parole period longer than 33 years.

Mr Kissane also described the offences as "pitiless behaviour" and "truly dreadful," while the prosecution's court documents said that "there is no factually comparable case to this".

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Last July, the 51-year-old was convicted of killing her mother-in-law Gail Patterson, father-in-law Donald Patterson and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson - and attempting to murder a fourth with Death Cap mushrooms in 2023.

Reverend Ian Wilkinson - who also ate the meal, which was served alongside mashed potatoes and green beans - survived after receiving a liver transplant and spending months in hospital.

He said he was left feeling "half alive" after the ordeal.

Under state law, a judge must set a non-parole period for murder unless that judge considers the nature of the offence or the history of the offender makes such a minimum sentence inappropriate.

It comes after prosecutor Jeremy McWilliams rejected Patterson's lawyers' argument that her five days of cross-examination during her trial had been "unfair and oppressive" - one of Patterson's grounds for appeal against her convictions - earlier in the day.

(c) Sky News 2026: Australian mother jailed for murdering relatives with Death Cap mushro