MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Triple-murderer Erin Patterson should never be released from prison after she poisoned four of her estranged husband’s relatives with death cap mushrooms, a prosecutor told an Australian court on Thursday.Prosecutor Brendan Kissane told three judges of the Victoria state Court of Appeal that a judgment that Patterson must serve 33 years of a life sentence before she can apply for parole was “manifestly inadequate,” in an appeal on the leniency of her sentence.Kissane said Patterson should never be considered for parole but that if the judges did not agree, then they should impose a nonparole period longer than 33 years.“That’s a harsh submission to make,” Kissane said of removing any possibility of parole.“But … it’s demanded by the nature of the offending,” he added.Patterson on Wednesday began her appeal against convictions on three counts of murder and one of attempted murder relating to a lunch of beef Wellington pastries she prepared at her rural home in Leongatha in July 2023.
Few Australian prisoners are sentenced without prospect of release on parole.The judges reserved their decisions on both appeals until a date to be set.
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Kissane said the 51-year-old would be around 82 years old before she could be considered for release under her current sentence.Because of her notoriety, Patterson is held in the high-security Gordon Unit of Melbourne’s Dame Phyllis Frost Centre women’s prison. The unit is for prisoners assessed as being at high risk from other inmates.In sentencing her in September last year, trial judge Christopher Bale said there was a “substantial chance” that Patterson could be held in “solitary confinement for years to come.”
