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Convicted triple murderer Erin Patterson showed no pity for her victims, no remorse over their deaths and continued to pour salt in the wounds of their families with her lies.
One of Victoria’s most notorious killers sat with her eyes closed as Justice Christopher Beale delivered the damning assessment of her crimes which he said remain without explanation more than two years after the deaths of Don and Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson.
Erin Patterson’s sentencing at the Supreme Court.Credit: The Age
Patterson opened her eyes only a handful of times as she was sentenced to life in jail with a non-parole period of 33 years.
This included when the judge mentioned surviving lunch guest Ian Wilkinson’s offer of forgiveness, and a scowl towards the media when Beale said her case was so infamous she was likely to remain in restricted conditions in custody.
“I have no hesitation in finding your offending falls into the worst category. The gravity of your offending warrants the maximum penalties for your crimes,” Beale said.
“The word used again and again in the [victim impact] statements to describe your crimes is ‘senseless’.
“Your failure to exhibit any remorse pours salt into all the victims’ wounds.”
Watching on from the courtroom as Beale delivered his remarks was Ian Wilkinson, about a dozen members of both families and more than 80 members of the public packed into an upstairs gallery where people were seen peering over a wooden balustrade and glass screen down to where Patterson was seated below.
There, Beale held nothing back as he described how Patterson had formed an intention to kill her guests 13 days before the fateful beef Wellington lunch when, after a Sunday church service, she invited them to her Leongatha home on July 29, 2023.
The court heard the invite came after Patterson had a falling out with estranged husband Simon over child support and had been “scathing” of her in-laws’ role in the dispute.
Don Patterson, Gail Patterson, Heather Wilkinson and Ian Wilkinson.
When Simon Patterson cancelled on the eve of the lunch, it went ahead anyway and Erin Patterson watched her lunch guests eat their poisoned meal from different coloured plates to her own.
Patterson lied to the group about having cancer and, at Ian Wilkinson’s suggestion, they prayed for her health.
After the meal, when the four became gravely ill, Beale said the killer went to elaborate lengths to cover up her crime and had an ongoing intention to kill them.
Patterson claimed the mushrooms used in the beef Wellington had come from Woolworths and an Asian grocer. She dumped a food dehydrator at the local tip and handed police a “dummy” phone instead of her own.
She maintained the poisonings were all a terrible accident and that she too had consumed the meal, albeit falling only mildly ill.
Beale found the jury rejected her “elaborate explanation”.
“I am satisfied that your vague story about the Asian grocery was a lie. When you realised that the lie would not work … you changed tack: you concocted the story you told the jury about foraged mushrooms ending up in the container with the Asian grocery mushrooms and then, accidentally, ending up in the beef Wellingtons.
“As the Wilkinsons’ daughter, Ruth Dubois, remarked in her victim impact statement, you ‘followed through’ on your lethal plan.”
In handing down his sentence, Beale also made a number of other findings.
These included that Patterson dumped the grey plates used to feed her guests, faked her cancer diagnosis as part of a plan to get the victims to attend, and falsely made out she fed her children leftovers of the same meal, all while having “the gall” to tell police she had been “very, very helpful”.
Beale also addressed the lack of apparent motive in killing her lunch guests, saying some murders occur for no apparent reason and that only Patterson knows why she committed them.
It was when he mentioned her children were deliberately not present at the lunch, though, that Patterson could be seen slightly shaking her head.
Beale found the lunch guests also suffered greatly before they died. Their suffering, he said, was protracted.
Ian Wilkinson outside court.Credit: Getty Images
“Ian and Heather’s son, David, remembers his mother being ‘desperate for water’ which she was not allowed by medical staff and saying her ‘insides were burning.’ David also mentions his father’s tortured appearance – ‘black lips, gaunt face, pained and serious expression’,” he said.
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“It is implausible that you would have selected death cap mushrooms without ascertaining how they would work upon your victims.
“Your crimes have impacted a great many people. Not only did you cut short three lives and cause lasting damage to Ian Wilkinson’s health … you inflicted untold suffering on your own children whom you robbed of their beloved grandparents.
“[Ian Wilkinson] offered you forgiveness for what you did to him. That offer of forgiveness presents you with an opportunity. You would do well to embrace it in the manner he suggests.”
Beale concluded his summary of her crimes with lines spoken by Don and Gail’s son, Matthew, about her betrayal of trust.
“Erin was embraced as part of the Patterson family. She was welcomed and treated with genuine love and respect in a way she did not appear to experience from her own family. Her actions represent a profound and devastating betrayal of the trust and love extended to her.”
As part of Patterson’s defence, no medical reports, including psychiatric statements, were presented, nor any character references.
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Instead, her legal team largely focused on Patterson’s ongoing conditions in jail which Beale accepted equated to solitary confinement – a situation he said was likely to be ongoing.
Patterson will be in her early 80s before she’s eligible for parole – one of the longest prison terms for a woman in the state’s history.
As she left the courtroom, Patterson looked straight ahead, stopping briefly to tap twice on the bench in front of the media as she was led away to a cell.
Outside court, Wilkinson thanked everyone who had shown him and his family kindness through the difficult process.
This, he said, included homicide squad Detective Stephen Eppingstall and his team who ran a professional, efficient and effective investigation.
“They brought to light the truth of what happened with the death of three good people. We’re grateful for their skills that brought this truth to this light,” Wilkinson said.
“We’re also grateful for the staff of the various public health services that played an important role in dealing with the aftermath of the lunch. Please, each one, accept my sincere gratitude for the part that you have played in this process.
“We’re thankful that when things go wrong, there are good people and services and systems available to help us recover.
“I’d like to encourage all those involved to keep turning up and serving others – our lives and the life of our community depends on the kindness of others.”
As everyone left, Wilkinson embraced his children, and members of the homicide squad offered their support as the group walked united off along Lonsdale Street and Patterson was bundled into a prison van for a long and lonely prison term.
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