Woman Sentenced for Killing In-Laws with Poison Mushrooms Berated by Judge: 'No Pity for Your Victims'

Erin Patterson, 50, was accused of killing in-laws Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, as well as the attempted murder of Heather's husband, local pastor Ian Wilkinson, 68, by serving them death cap mushrooms in a beef Wellington meal she prepared for them back on July 31, 2023.

After six days of deliberation following her trial back in July, a jury found Patterson guilty. On Monday, she was sentenced to three concurrent life sentences without the possibility of parole for at least 33 years. She was also sentenced to 25 years for the attempted murder of the lunch's sole survivor, to also be served concurrently.

Speaking outside the courthouse following the verdict, per CNN World, Ian Wilkinson thanked police for their "professional, efficient and effective investigation," as well as the prosecutors, medical staff, and community for their support for his grieving family.

During a pre-sentencing hearing on August 25, Wilkinson had offered Patterson his forgiveness. "I am no longer Erin Patterson’s victim, and she has become the victim of my kindness," the Korumburra Baptist Church pastor said. He did not refer to her in his remarks Monday, instead asking for privacy and that "everybody be kind to each other."

In the courtroom, Justice Christopher Beale did not hold back with his remarks to Patterson as she was sentenced, as covered by BBC and ABC (Australian Broadcasting Company). He accused her of "substantial premeditation" ahead of the meal, as well as engaging in an "elaborate cover-up" when her lies began to unravel in the face of the police investigation.

Prosecutors in court had stated that Patterson lied to her guests that she had cancer, arguing that she used this detail as a way to keep her children from attending. At another point, she said there was no special reason for the lunch, just that she wanted to become closer to her in-laws.

Her estranged husband Simon had also been invited, but bowed out at the last minute, stating that he felt uncomfortable. He later alleged in pre-trial hearings, per CNN, that she had previously tried to poison him on multiple occasions, including one that left him so sick he spent weeks in a coma and his family was twice told to say their goodbyes.

Patterson also offered inconsistent stories about how she acquired the death cap mushrooms, saying at one point that she had foraged for them and been unaware they were deadly when ingested and at another instance that she'd purchased them from a major supermarket and Asian grocer, per CNN.

Prosecutors argued that she'd seen the location of the mushrooms on a citizen science website and had purchased a dehydrator to dry them, later dumping it at a waste recycling center as her relatives were in the hospital dying.

She further claimed she had gotten sick herself and that she'd fed the beef wellington -- after scraping off the gravy and mushrooms -- to her children the following day.

While Patterson suggested publicly that she had a good relationship with her husband's family, according to prosecutors, she revealed a more frustrated side in Facebook messages to friends. One cited message from December 2022 reportedly read, "I'm sick of this s--t I want nothing to do with them," while another purportedly read, "This family I swear to f--king god."

"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 told Patterson, per CNN World.

He further said that her crimes had a "devastating impact" on her own children, conducting "untold suffering" by killing their grandparents on their father's side. "The devastating impact of your crimes is not limited to your direct victims, your crimes have harmed a great many people," he said.

"There is great anger at the callousness of your actions," Beales added. "Your failure to exhibit any remorse poured salt in all the victims wounds." He told her that she "showed no pity for your victims," even as they were in the hospital.

He said that as the case gained national and international media attention, even "the youngest" could not be shielded from her alleged actions, saying that "four generations" had been traumatized by this crime.

"Only you know why you committed [these murders]," he told her, adding that he would "not be speculating about that matter." Due to Australian law, jurors are not allowed to speak about deliberations even after a trial has been concluded, so a true motive may never be known.

"That offer of forgiveness presents you with an opportunity," Beale told Patterson, referring to Pastor Wilkinson's pre-sentencing remarks. "You'd do well to embrace it."

Taking the stand in June, per The Sydney Morning Herald, Patterson said that before they got married, she was an atheist who was trying to convert the Christian Simon to her side. "But things happened in reverse and I became a Christian," she said, after experiencing what, in her words, "can be best described as like a spiritual experience" after going with him to church.

On the stand, she reportedly credited Gail with supporting her after the "traumatic" birth of the couple's first baby -- saying Simon's parents "came very quickly" to help.

"Don and Gail came very quickly. It would have been only a couple weeks after," she testified. "I remember being really relieved that Gail was there because I felt really out of my depth."

She went on to detail the beginnings of estrangement with her husband, saying, "We could never communicate in a way that would make each of us feel heard and understood," though she still described their relationship as "functional."

In early 2023, she said, she started to feel more distance between her and her in-laws as well and was seeing less and less of them -- due, in part, to her moving out of the same town as them.

"I had felt for some months that my relationship with the wider Patterson family, particularly Don and Gail, had perhaps had a bit more distance or space put between us," she said. "I'd begun to have concerns that Simon was not wanting me to be involved too much with the family any more. Perhaps I wasn't being invited to so many things."

Speaking about her own mental state before the deaths, Patterson said she was battling low self-esteem and weight gain, and was "planning to have weight-loss surgery," struggling with mental health.

According to The Guardian, her testimony came after the surviving dinner guest, Ian Wilkinson, took the stand for the prosecution -- reportedly claiming Erin served their meals on grey plates, before seating herself with a smaller, orange-tan colored plate.

Following the deaths of both Heather and Gail, but before Don died, Erin actually spoke with reporters outside her home in August 2023.

"I'm devastated by what's happened," she said, calling Heather and Gail "some of the best people that I've ever met." She said her late mother-in-law was like the mother she "didn't have" after her own died four years ago, adding that she's "never been anything but good and kind to me."

"They never did anything wrong to me," she said of the Wilkinsons. "I'm so devastated what's happened and the loss to the community and to the families and to my own children who have lost their grandmother."

When asked about the lunch, she told reporters, "What I can tell you is that I just can't fathom what has happened. I just can't fathom what has happened ... I pray that [Don] pulls through, because my children love him. I'm devastated, I loved them, I can't believe this has happened and I'm so sorry they have lost their lives. I just can't believe it. I just can't believe it."

One reporter also asked about detectives saying she was considered a suspect at the time. "I say I didn't do anything. I loved them and I'm devastated that they're gone and I hope with every fiber of my being that Don pulls through," she said, before going inside and avoiding any questions about where the mushrooms came from.

After an investigation into the deaths, Patterson was formally charged in November 2023 with three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder for the fatal lunch she served in July 2023.