The cook convicted of killing three lunch guests with the world’s most toxic mushrooms was sentenced to three life sentences with a non-parole period of 33 years on Monday, bookending a real-life crime drama that’s gripped Australia and spawned multiple podcasts and documentaries.
Erin Patterson, 50, was found guilty in July of murdering three people, including the parents of her estranged husband, with a beef wellington meal she had deliberately laced with death cap mushrooms picked near her rural home in the state of Victoria in 2023.
The sentence will be served concurrently with a 25-year sentence for the attempted murder of the sole survivor, pastor Ian Wilkinson, whose wife of 44 years, Heather, was among the guests who died in hospital of multiple organ failure caused by the toxic lunch.
The hearing was broadcast live from Melbourne’s Supreme Court, reflecting the intense public interest in the case that thrust Patterson, her family and the small town of Leongatha into the global spotlight.
Earlier Monday, media crews jostled for position outside the courthouse as Justice Christopher Beale took his seat in front of a camera inside Court 4 to deliver Patterson’s sentence.
“I am satisfied by July 16, 2023, when you unusually invited Simon, his parents, and aunt and uncle to a lunch without the children to discuss your non-existent medical issue, you did so with the intention of killing them all,” Beale said.
The sentence will likely see Patterson – who became widely known as “the mushroom murderer” – spend the rest of her life behind bars for a crime that Wilkinson, the surviving guest, said defied logic.
“What foolishness possesses a person to think that murder could be the solution to their problems, especially the murder of people who had only good intentions towards her,” he said in the victim impact statement he read aloud at Patterson’s pre-sentencing hearing last month.
“Erin has brought deep sorrow and grief into my life and the lives of many others,” he added.
Ian Wilkinson, survivor and husband of the deceased Heather Wilkinson, arrives at the Supreme Court of Victoria on September 08, 2025 in Melbourne, Australia. – Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images
Murder by mushroom
Patterson had separated from her husband, Simon Patterson, but remained in contact with his parents, Don and Gail Patterson. She’d known his aunt and uncle, Ian and Heather Wilkinson, for years and for a time saw them relatively regularly at local church services.
Patterson invited all five family members to lunch at her house in Leongatha on July 31, 2023. No reason was given for the occasion – Patterson told the court she simply wanted a better relationship with her in-laws.
However, Simon pulled out the night before, saying he didn’t feel comfortable attending, so just his parents, aunt and uncle arrived on Saturday for the meal.
It emerged after the trial that Patterson believed his wife had attempted to poison him multiple times in the two years before the lunch and had been wary of her intentions. Three attempted murder charges related to those accusations were dropped before the main trial.
Over 10 weeks, crown prosecutors presented the mother-of-two as a flawed individual who lied repeatedly to police and health workers.
They offered no real evidence for Patterson’s motive, but suggested she showed “two faces” to the world – a public one that suggested she had a good relationship with the Pattersons, and a private one she revealed in messages to Facebook friends that bristled with frustration over the family’s behavior and beliefs.
In Facebook messages sent in December 2022, Patterson had expressed anger over Don and Gail’s reluctance to get involved in their son’s marriage breakdown.
“I’m sick of this shit I want nothing to do with them,” she wrote. Another message read: “This family I swear to f***ing god.”
Simon Patterson leaves Latrobe Valley Magistrates’ Court where Erin Patterson attended her trial in Morwell on May 2, 2025. – Martin Keep/AFP/Getty Images
World’s attention on a small town
Patterson’s trial focused the world’s attention on the small town of Morwell in the state of Victoria, near the scene of the crime in Patterson’s Leongatha dining room.
Each day, members of the public queued for seats in the tiny courtroom to listen to hours of detailed evidence.
Patterson’s defense lawyers claimed she had accidentally added foraged mushrooms to the meal and had only realized after her guests were close to death in hospital.
After six days of deliberation, a 12-member jury found Patterson guilty, despite her protestations of innocence during days of cross-examination on the witness stand.
In Australia, jury members must remain anonymous even after the trial and are bound by law not to divulge discussions held in the jury room. So, it will never be clear what convinced all 12 jury members to reach their unanimous verdict.
Patterson has until midnight on October 6 to lodge an appeal against her sentence, or conviction.
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