Erin Patterson loses her appeal over the mushroom murders and will serve life with no parole
Victoria's Court of Appeal has dismissed Erin Patterson's bid to overturn her convictions for murdering three relatives with a death-cap-mushroom lunch, and has granted the prosecution's appeal against her sentence: the 33-year non-parole period imposed last year has been set aside and no new one fixed, so the 52-year-old will serve life imprisonment with no parole. The ruling was delivered on Friday 30 October in Melbourne (Thursday 29 October UTC), reported from the court by the Guardian and confirmed by a Reuters wire report read in this run. Justices Lesley Taylor, Stephen McLeish and Peter Kidd granted Patterson leave to appeal on the first two of her seven grounds but dismissed her appeal and dismissed the other five grounds, so there is no retrial and no acquittal: her convictions for the murders of Don and Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson, and the attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson, all stand.