00:00The Court has concluded that it was not reasonably open to fix a non-parole
00:03period of 33 years because it did not reflect the calculated criminality of
00:08the case on the facts identified by the sentencing judge.
00:13On those facts the applicant's intent to murder all four victims was sustained
00:18for nearly three weeks, from when she invited them to lunch through to
00:23preparing and serving the poisonous meal and then throughout the protracted
00:27suffering and ultimate deaths that resulted.
00:31The applicant's conduct was characterised by an elaborate series of deceptions
00:36including the false cancer claims deployed to explain the absence of the
00:40children, the false denials of having foraged for mushrooms, the repeated
00:45false assertions as to the source of the mushrooms and the destruction of
00:49evidence.
00:50The offending was carefully planned and deliberate.
00:53It represented a cruel breach of trust to members of the applicant's
00:57extended family.
00:59On that basis the appeal against sentence succeeds and the non-parole period
01:03fixed by the judge will be set aside.
01:07The mushroom murderer Erin Patterson has lost her appeal and was
01:11re-sentenced to life behind bars without parole.
01:16Patterson had been seeking to overturn her convictions arguing she suffered a
01:21substantial miscarriage of justice.
01:23However, the panel of three Victorian Court appeal judges dismissed her appeal and
01:29instead granted the prosecution's appeal against her minimum 33-year sentence.
01:36In re-sentencing it is necessary that the sentence indicates unequivocally the primary value that our
01:44society places on each individual human life.
01:47As already noted the applicant's murderous intent dated back to the invitations to lunch.
01:53It persisted through the lunch when the poison was administered and for nearly a week after that during
01:59which time the applicant repeatedly tried to hide the truth about the source of the mushrooms even as
02:05the victims continued to suffer.
02:06This offending was extraordinarily cold and calculated and stands to be denounced in the strongest terms.
02:14In all the circumstances after anxious consideration we have concluded that the case involved such
02:20shocking criminality that it is inappropriate to fix a non-parole period.
02:26In respect of the sentence appeal, the orders of the Court are as follows.
02:321. The appeal is allowed.
02:342. The non-parole period of 33 years fixed by the Honourable Justice Beale on 8 September 2025 is set
02:42aside.
02:433. In its place the Court considers under section 11 of the Sentencing Act 1991 that the nature of the
02:51the Appellant's offences makes the fixing of a non-parole period inappropriate.
02:564. All other orders of the Supreme Court of Victoria made on 8 September 2025 are affirmed.
03:03And we will note that the respondent is granted an indemnity certificate
03:08pursuant to section 15 of the Appeal Costs Act.
