Deadly Lunch: Appeal Filed in Notorious Mushroom Murder Case

Erin Patterson, an Australian woman sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of three relatives with a meal containing toxic mushrooms, has lodged an appeal challenging her conviction, court documents reveal.

The jury found the 51-year-old guilty of the murders of her estranged husband's elderly relatives in Victoria, 2023, sentencing her to one of the longest terms for a woman in the nation: life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 33 years. Her appeal, citing a 'fundamental irregularity' due to jury sequestration issues and potentially prejudicial evidence, was filed with the Victorian Supreme Court.

Highlighting flaws in the trial process, including jury deliberations in a hotel shared with police and prosecutors, and claims of an unfair prosecution case, Patterson maintains her poisoning was accidental. Prosecutors, meanwhile, have filed for a harsher sentence, deeming the original one 'manifestly inadequate'.