Australian mushroom murderer Erin Patterson claims she was victim of “miscarriage of justice”

Australian convicted murderer Erin Patterson alleges a “substantial miscarriage of justice” took place when she was convicted of killing three people with toxic mushrooms, court documents made public on Wednesday showed. Patterson, 51, was handed life in prison with parole this year for serving a beef Wellington laced with poisonous fungi to her estranged husband’s parents, aunt and uncle during a lunch at her home in 2023, killing three of them. Local media, including national broadcaster ABC and the Sydney Morning Herald, reported Monday that Patterson’s bid to appeal her guilty verdicts had been lodged and accepted by the Court of Appeal.The state of Victoria’s Court of Appeal said Wednesday, however, that while her appeal had been lodged, it had not yet been accepted. In a document outlining the grounds for her appeal, Patterson’s lawyer alleged several counts of “substantial miscarriage of justice” took place during her trial, which sparked a global media frenzy. They said a “fundamental irregularity” had taken place while the jury was sequestered that “fatally undermined the integrity of the verdicts,” without giving further details.But local media, citing the court, said the jurors were put up in the same hotel as police and prosecutors for most of their deliberations, according to the Reuters news service. Patterson’s lawyer also accused the prosecution of an “unfair and oppressive” cross-examination during the trial. And her lawyer said evidence submitted and accepted by the judge wasn’t relevant to her case while other evidence wasn’t admitted but should have been. She also requested that she not be physically present in court should an oral hearing into her case go ahead. Patterson was sentenced in September and a judge said she would be eligible for parole after 33 years. The prosecution has since appealed what it called a “manifestly inadequate” sentence. Throughout a trial lasting more than two months, Patterson maintained the beef-and-pastry dish shle served was accidentally poisoned with death cap mushrooms — the world’s most lethal fungus. But a 12-person jury found Patterson guilty in July of murdering her husband Simon’s parents, Don and Gail Patterson, as well as his aunt Heather Wilkinson, at her home in Leongatha, in the state of Victoria. She was also found guilty of attempting to murder Ian, Heather’s husband.In a victim impact statement at Patterson’s sentencing hearing, Ian Wilkinson, a Baptist pastor, said he only felt “half-alive” without her.

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