Latest news with #CorrectionsVictoria
ABC News
08-07-2025
- ABC News
Erin Patterson endured freezing cell conditions during her trial — now she's headed to maximum-security jail
Since the start of her murder and attempted murder trial, Erin Patterson's daily routine had been the same. On Monday mornings, Patterson would board a van at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre maximum security women's prison in Melbourne's western suburbs and make the two-hour journey — more than 170 kilometres — to the Latrobe Valley in south-eastern Victoria. By the time she reached Morwell, where her case was being heard, a waiting contingent of photographers would emerge from the fog near the town's rose garden like a spectre, jostling for the money shot. Patterson would then be taken to the cells at the local police station, her home for the week, before making the journey in reverse. Before the trial began, she'd already been in custody for more than 600 days since her arrest on November 2, 2023. Patterson, who was on Tuesday convicted of murder and attempted murder, had struck a deal with Corrections Victoria that she would be able to be able to take a doona and pillow into her bare concrete cell. Her defence lawyer, Colin Mandy SC, told the Supreme Court of Victoria none of those things were provided. "At some stage she was given a blanket, but she spent the night cold and awake … and she can't operate like that," Mr Mandy said at the time. "Someone who is in police cells for five weeks, facing a murder trial … requires special treatment so that we can do our job properly, so that she can provide us with proper instructions so that she's not uncomfortable," he said. "It won't be fair to her if that situation continues." Patterson would eventually receive a doona, a pillow and a sheet, but according to sources familiar with the cells at the Morwell police station, it still would not have been a comfortable stay. "They're simply not designed for people to live in," said one criminal lawyer. Until now, the Supreme Court has prevented details of Patterson's time in custody from being published to preserve her right to a fair trial. The only public description of Patterson's cell was made by Justice Christopher Beale, who inspected it before the trial started. "I was shown the cell where she is now being held and the bedding is really just a bit of plastic attached to the floor," the judge told the court. Patterson's accommodation in Morwell was a significant shift from what she was used to at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, a maximum-security facility for women that houses 538 prisoners. The Morwell cells often house people who are drunk or high and, by extension, their associated bodily fluids, which are pressure-hosed out before someone else checks in. Legal sources said the cells, which are made of concrete, were not only extremely cold but quite loud, with sound echoing off every surface. Another criminal lawyer was franker in her assessment. "[They're] just old shitty cells," she said. "It's not clean, that's for sure." The second criminal lawyer said clients were brought into a particular area to speak to their legal team. "They're just like these little boxes like you see in the movies where there's a clear plastic screen separating you," she said. By contrast, some prisoners at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, which also houses Melbourne crime matriarch Judy Moran and convicted paedophile Malka Leifer, have access to more creature comforts to help pass their sentences. In some high-privilege units within the prison, inmates have access to a television and couches. Others are allowed to train support dogs during the day. Some prisoners even have microwaves in their cells. But according to one source who has made frequent visits to the women's prison, even those small comforts are not enough to distract prisoners from reality. "Can you imagine waking up in the morning and you don't see the outside world. You see fences all around — that's what it looks like. It's depressing," they said. The source said visitors were usually allowed on weekends. "There's a visitor centre there. They've got the babies there, the playgrounds and stuff for all the kids — it's like a primary school," they said. "When you go through the entry point you get treated like a criminal. You've got to go through the scanner, you've got to get an eye test to ID you," they said. The prison's stringent visitor policy is something Patterson will have to get used to. The 50-year-old is now facing life in prison over the murders of Heather Wilkinson, Don and Gail Patterson and the attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson. The beef Wellington used to murder her in-laws has captured global attention, which is no surprise to Brandy Cochrane, a criminologist at Victoria University. "There's a long history of fascination with women who kill," Dr Cochrane told ABC Radio Melbourne. "There are a lot of parallels between the way that the media and the courts treated Lindy Chamberlain and Erin Patterson." She said both Patterson and Chamberlain were criticised for showing no emotion during their verdicts, which was interpreted as "another damning moment for both of them". Kathryn Whitely, a US-based feminist criminologist, has worked with 100 female murderers around the world and conducted an in-depth study of women at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre. "In the US, it'd be termed a mass killing. Very, very rare for a female," Dr Whiteley said. "Women, also as we understand, no matter if it's mass or not in this case, their victims are usually someone that is close to them, someone that they know, and often someone that they love," she said. Dr Whiteley, who closely followed the case, said Patterson had struggled with "self-esteem challenges" and would take years to adapt to prison life. "She will find that it will be hard to adjust," she said. "It takes anywhere from five to seven years for a woman to at least assimilate or adjust to the 'prison way' or prison approach to how we survive inside." It comes as the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, which Patterson will now call home, faces significant issues. In June this year, the ABC revealed the prison has faced unprecedented rolling lockdowns due to a lack of staff. Former prisoners said they were locked away with no interaction, support or even meals for days and nights on end. Since July 2024, confidential government correspondence reveals there have been at least 106 lockdowns. Another lawyer told the ABC its prisoners like Patterson would be facing significant restrictions. "Whatever her life is going to be like in Dame Phyllis, at the moment she's going to be more restricted," he said.
Sydney Morning Herald
07-07-2025
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘Do I have to keep suffering through this?': The moment Erin Patterson lost her cool in court
Erin Patterson has been found guilty of murdering three people and trying to kill a fourth by poisoning them with death cap mushrooms. See all 13 stories. It is the outburst the jury never heard but which would quietly define the first days of Erin Patterson's murder trial. It was April 30, and the prosecution was only an hour into laying out its case against the killer cook, when the mother of two hissed at her defence team from the dock in courtroom four. 'Do I have to keep suffering through this?' she cried out. The court had just adjourned for a mid-morning break after senior Crown prosecutor Dr Nanette Rogers, SC, laid out a damning allegation against Patterson – that during the July 2023 lunch, she had eaten from a different-coloured plate to her four guests, all of whom had fallen gravely ill. With all 15 jurors now gone, Patterson sat between two security guards with her head tilted up and her eyes closed, surrounded by her legal team, who had rushed over to placate her. 'Stay in the present,' defence barrister Colin Mandy, SC, reminded Patterson, before asking if she was familiar with German spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle's self-help book The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment. It was unclear whether Patterson's distress was linked to the trial or her living conditions inside the Morwell police station cells, which had become a source of annoyance for her, barely a day into the proceedings. The previous afternoon, Mandy had lodged an extraordinary appeal with Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale, asking for 'special treatment' for his client and arguing that the defence was unable to do its job properly if Patterson was suffering. The source of Patterson's discomfort was the fact she was not allowed to have a laptop or writing materials in her cell, and that she had not been given a doona and pillow for her bed. She wanted access to a laptop to review the brief of evidence of the case, which was tens of thousands of pages. But despite a request to Corrections Victoria before her transfer from the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, the women's maximum security prison in Melbourne, Patterson was told she wouldn't receive special treatment. 'At some stage, she was given a blanket, but she spent the night cold and awake,' Mandy said. 'She can't operate like that.' 'It is our submission that someone who is in police cells for five weeks, facing several murder trials, with a massive brief of evidence, should be afforded some accommodation because in some ways … she requires special treatment so that we can do our job properly.' The cells, which are housed in the police station next to the court, are used to hold accused criminals on remand until they can appear in court the following day or over the weekend. They are not staffed or designed to house prisoners for lengthy periods. 'I think your estimate of this trial was four weeks, Mr Mandy,' Beale teased the defence barrister 26 days into the trial, as it became apparent the timeline was blowing out yet again. 'Don't believe a word he says, your honour,' prosecutor Rogers chimed in. According to police, Patterson, who requested to be tried in Morwell instead of in Melbourne, was aware of the living conditions at the station since at least June 2024. Eventually, Mandy dropped the matter after nearly two weeks of behind-the-scenes discussions, arguing that conditions in the cells for Patterson had improved. But Patterson's outbursts, requests, and dead stares at members of the press seated inside the courtroom quietly continued. However, one of the most bizarre scenes of the trial was staged by Patterson's estranged husband and a key witness in the case, Simon Patterson, who embarked on an impassioned personal plea to Beale to be granted access to the trial and pre-trial transcripts to 'grieve the legal process'. 'I have a small request for you, please,' Simon asked from the witness box during a break in proceedings on May 1. 'Your honour, would you be able to make available – after all the legal proceedings are finished – the transcripts of all those hearings, including the trial, for me to be able to, as I grieve the legal process, to help me deal with that grief … it will take me years.' Beale reminded Simon that he could sit in court after his evidence concluded, and said he would consider his request. However, Simon took another punt after concluding his evidence four days later. 'Mr Patterson, in relation to the matter you raised with me the other day about getting a transcript of the entire proceedings, it's a matter that I've yet to discuss with counsel. If it were to happen, it couldn't happen, in my view, until the conclusion of the criminal proceedings. I'm not just talking about the trial, necessarily,' Beale responded. Simon Patterson was again propelled into the limelight the following day, when Beale told parties in the court that he received information about Simon's plans to make a statement to the media following the conclusion of his evidence – a move that the judge warned against. 'Whatever his media adviser might be telling him, it seems to me the most prudent course for him is to defer any statement to the media until after the conclusion of the trial,' Beale said. Simon refrained from attending court in person again. However, other members of the Patterson and Wilkinson families, including lunch survivor Ian Wilkinson, became a daily presence. The mother-of-two's only supporter in court sat behind Patterson's legal team on and off during the trial, sometimes bringing in takeaway coffees for the defence. The next twist came on May 15, when Beale revealed a tip-off had come in through the court's general email inbox, dobbing in a juror for potentially discussing the case with friends and family. Beale ordered juror 84 to pack up their belongings and be brought into court, where they were notified that they were booted off the case. 'A few moments ago, I discharged juror number 84 ... I was of the view that it was at least a reasonable possibility that the information I'd received was credible,' Beale told the remaining jurors. 'I hasten to add that I have not made a positive finding that juror No. 84 discussed the case with family and friends, but neither could I dismiss the possibility that he had.' The court impanelled 15 jurors, three more than the 12 required, to ensure there were enough to deliver a verdict if someone fell ill or had to be excused. They were chosen from a pool of those who did not personally know the witnesses and had managed to avoid most of the barrage of podcasts, news reports and social media reels about the high-profile case, much of which made global news. Two jurors were later balloted off just before they were sent out to deliberate and, in a highly unusual move for modern courts, the remaining jurors were sequestered – kept together night and day – until the verdict was reached. As well as the logistical difficulties of running a long trial in the country, Beale also had to contend with multiple potential breaches of sub judice rules – which restrict comment or reporting on a case to what is heard by the jury – by media outlets, podcasts, radio hosts, academics and influencers over the course of the trial. The first came on May 20, when a TV news bulletin used the word 'damning' to describe CCTV footage of Patterson spending nine seconds in a petrol station bathroom after the fatal lunch. The second came just hours before Patterson stepped into the witness box, when a forensic psychologist allegedly discussed the case during a lecture on the psychology of serial killers at Melbourne's Hamer Hall on May 31. Described as an 'unmissable event', the talk promised to delve into the minds of the world's most notorious murderers. The potential breach prompted Beale to get the court staff to ask the jurors whether they had attended any events or shows in Melbourne that weekend. To his relief, none had. 'There was one person who attended an event in Melbourne and that was the soccer,' Beale told the court. In early June, influencer Constance Hall found herself in trouble after an online tirade about how something felt 'off' about the case, and she worried Patterson might not have served the poisoned beef Wellingtons on purpose. She told her followers she had many photos of mushrooms on her phone, including with 'superimposed fairies under them'. Loading 'So as an example, I doubt it would be hard to build a case against me and mushrooms ... but I guess I'd also never cook for my ex-in-laws,' Hall wrote. The self-described designer, artist and writer, who has about 1.3 million followers on Facebook and another 368,000 on Instagram, later told her fans she had been told to remove the post. 'What I am saying ... to the Victoria government Supreme Court [is] if I monitored my post and read every comment, I get riddled by anxiety, and I don't need that,' the influencer told her followers. 'It's important not to have that, especially as a creative. You need to stay on your creative path. You need to be able to write what you want to write and that is hard.'
The Age
07-07-2025
- The Age
‘Do I have to keep suffering through this?': The moment Erin Patterson lost her cool in court
Erin Patterson has been found guilty of murdering three people and trying to kill a fourth by poisoning them with death cap mushrooms. See all 13 stories. It is the outburst the jury never heard but which would quietly define the first days of Erin Patterson's murder trial. It was April 30, and the prosecution was only an hour into laying out its case against the killer cook, when the mother of two hissed at her defence team from the dock in courtroom four. 'Do I have to keep suffering through this?' she cried out. The court had just adjourned for a mid-morning break after senior Crown prosecutor Dr Nanette Rogers, SC, laid out a damning allegation against Patterson – that during the July 2023 lunch, she had eaten from a different-coloured plate to her four guests, all of whom had fallen gravely ill. With all 15 jurors now gone, Patterson sat between two security guards with her head tilted up and her eyes closed, surrounded by her legal team, who had rushed over to placate her. 'Stay in the present,' defence barrister Colin Mandy, SC, reminded Patterson, before asking if she was familiar with German spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle's self-help book The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment. It was unclear whether Patterson's distress was linked to the trial or her living conditions inside the Morwell police station cells, which had become a source of annoyance for her, barely a day into the proceedings. The previous afternoon, Mandy had lodged an extraordinary appeal with Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale, asking for 'special treatment' for his client and arguing that the defence was unable to do its job properly if Patterson was suffering. The source of Patterson's discomfort was the fact she was not allowed to have a laptop or writing materials in her cell, and that she had not been given a doona and pillow for her bed. She wanted access to a laptop to review the brief of evidence of the case, which was tens of thousands of pages. But despite a request to Corrections Victoria before her transfer from the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, the women's maximum security prison in Melbourne, Patterson was told she wouldn't receive special treatment. 'At some stage, she was given a blanket, but she spent the night cold and awake,' Mandy said. 'She can't operate like that.' 'It is our submission that someone who is in police cells for five weeks, facing several murder trials, with a massive brief of evidence, should be afforded some accommodation because in some ways … she requires special treatment so that we can do our job properly.' The cells, which are housed in the police station next to the court, are used to hold accused criminals on remand until they can appear in court the following day or over the weekend. They are not staffed or designed to house prisoners for lengthy periods. 'I think your estimate of this trial was four weeks, Mr Mandy,' Beale teased the defence barrister 26 days into the trial, as it became apparent the timeline was blowing out yet again. 'Don't believe a word he says, your honour,' prosecutor Rogers chimed in. According to police, Patterson, who requested to be tried in Morwell instead of in Melbourne, was aware of the living conditions at the station since at least June 2024. Eventually, Mandy dropped the matter after nearly two weeks of behind-the-scenes discussions, arguing that conditions in the cells for Patterson had improved. But Patterson's outbursts, requests, and dead stares at members of the press seated inside the courtroom quietly continued. However, one of the most bizarre scenes of the trial was staged by Patterson's estranged husband and a key witness in the case, Simon Patterson, who embarked on an impassioned personal plea to Beale to be granted access to the trial and pre-trial transcripts to 'grieve the legal process'. 'I have a small request for you, please,' Simon asked from the witness box during a break in proceedings on May 1. 'Your honour, would you be able to make available – after all the legal proceedings are finished – the transcripts of all those hearings, including the trial, for me to be able to, as I grieve the legal process, to help me deal with that grief … it will take me years.' Beale reminded Simon that he could sit in court after his evidence concluded, and said he would consider his request. However, Simon took another punt after concluding his evidence four days later. 'Mr Patterson, in relation to the matter you raised with me the other day about getting a transcript of the entire proceedings, it's a matter that I've yet to discuss with counsel. If it were to happen, it couldn't happen, in my view, until the conclusion of the criminal proceedings. I'm not just talking about the trial, necessarily,' Beale responded. Simon Patterson was again propelled into the limelight the following day, when Beale told parties in the court that he received information about Simon's plans to make a statement to the media following the conclusion of his evidence – a move that the judge warned against. 'Whatever his media adviser might be telling him, it seems to me the most prudent course for him is to defer any statement to the media until after the conclusion of the trial,' Beale said. Simon refrained from attending court in person again. However, other members of the Patterson and Wilkinson families, including lunch survivor Ian Wilkinson, became a daily presence. The mother-of-two's only supporter in court sat behind Patterson's legal team on and off during the trial, sometimes bringing in takeaway coffees for the defence. The next twist came on May 15, when Beale revealed a tip-off had come in through the court's general email inbox, dobbing in a juror for potentially discussing the case with friends and family. Beale ordered juror 84 to pack up their belongings and be brought into court, where they were notified that they were booted off the case. 'A few moments ago, I discharged juror number 84 ... I was of the view that it was at least a reasonable possibility that the information I'd received was credible,' Beale told the remaining jurors. 'I hasten to add that I have not made a positive finding that juror No. 84 discussed the case with family and friends, but neither could I dismiss the possibility that he had.' The court impanelled 15 jurors, three more than the 12 required, to ensure there were enough to deliver a verdict if someone fell ill or had to be excused. They were chosen from a pool of those who did not personally know the witnesses and had managed to avoid most of the barrage of podcasts, news reports and social media reels about the high-profile case, much of which made global news. Two jurors were later balloted off just before they were sent out to deliberate and, in a highly unusual move for modern courts, the remaining jurors were sequestered – kept together night and day – until the verdict was reached. As well as the logistical difficulties of running a long trial in the country, Beale also had to contend with multiple potential breaches of sub judice rules – which restrict comment or reporting on a case to what is heard by the jury – by media outlets, podcasts, radio hosts, academics and influencers over the course of the trial. The first came on May 20, when a TV news bulletin used the word 'damning' to describe CCTV footage of Patterson spending nine seconds in a petrol station bathroom after the fatal lunch. The second came just hours before Patterson stepped into the witness box, when a forensic psychologist allegedly discussed the case during a lecture on the psychology of serial killers at Melbourne's Hamer Hall on May 31. Described as an 'unmissable event', the talk promised to delve into the minds of the world's most notorious murderers. The potential breach prompted Beale to get the court staff to ask the jurors whether they had attended any events or shows in Melbourne that weekend. To his relief, none had. 'There was one person who attended an event in Melbourne and that was the soccer,' Beale told the court. In early June, influencer Constance Hall found herself in trouble after an online tirade about how something felt 'off' about the case, and she worried Patterson might not have served the poisoned beef Wellingtons on purpose. She told her followers she had many photos of mushrooms on her phone, including with 'superimposed fairies under them'. Loading 'So as an example, I doubt it would be hard to build a case against me and mushrooms ... but I guess I'd also never cook for my ex-in-laws,' Hall wrote. The self-described designer, artist and writer, who has about 1.3 million followers on Facebook and another 368,000 on Instagram, later told her fans she had been told to remove the post. 'What I am saying ... to the Victoria government Supreme Court [is] if I monitored my post and read every comment, I get riddled by anxiety, and I don't need that,' the influencer told her followers. 'It's important not to have that, especially as a creative. You need to stay on your creative path. You need to be able to write what you want to write and that is hard.'
Metro
07-07-2025
- Metro
Mushroom killer accused of 'tampering with with prison food'
Erin Patterson has been accused of tampering with prison food and making an inmate sick while working in the jail kitchen, it's reported. The allegation was allegedly made by the inmate who said they became ill after eating the food she prepared at Melbourne's Dame Phyllis Frost Centre in Australia where she's being held. Patterson was found guilty earlier today of three counts of murder and one of attempted murder today after serving a beef wellington lunch containing poisonous death cap mushrooms she had foraged. The inmate says she fell ill after having a dispute with Patterson and believes the 50-year-old was to blame, the Herald Sun reports. According to a Corrections Victoria source who spoke to the Daily Mail Australia, Patterson had been given a job in the prison kitchen despite the nature of the crime she was charged with. Her supporters say the inmate's poisoning accusation is baseless. Following her conviction at the Supreme Court in Melbourne, Patterson faces life in prison and will be sentenced at a later date. In 2023 the mother-of-two served the individually cooked beef wellingtons at her home in Leongatha to her parents-in-law, Don and Gail Patterson, Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson and Heather's husband pastor Ian Wilkinson. All four guests became ill, with all but Wilkinson dying. During a nine-week trial the jury was asked to decide if she knew the lunch contained death caps, and if she intended for her guests to die. Prosecutors did not offer a motive for the killings but had pointed out strained relations between Patterson and her estranged husband, and frustration that she had felt about his parents in the past. The defence claimed there was no reason why she would want to kill the couples, as she had just moved to a beautiful new home, was financially comfortable and was due to begin studying for a degree in nursing and midwifery. But prosecutors suggested Patterson had two faces – the woman who publicly appeared to have a good relationship with her parents-in-law, while her private feelings about them were kept hidden. More Trending Her estranged husband Steven Patterson was also invited to the deadly lunch but decided to not to go. Police have previously said she may have attempted to poison Simon on three separate occasions between 2021 and 2022. Patterson claimed she did not become ill after eating the wellington because she threw up afterwards because of an eating disorder. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: YouTuber arrested on suspicion of causing '£30,000' of damage to F1 car at British Grand Prix MORE: Teenage girls arrested after woman left with 'life-changing' stab wounds MORE: Hero sniffer dog killed by 'cowards' who gave him sausages with nails in them
Daily Mirror
07-07-2025
- Daily Mirror
Mushroom killer who poisoned family 'tampered with lag's meal in prison kitchen'
Erin Patterson is accused of tampering with the food after she was reportedly given a job in the prison kitchen while on remand and waiting to stand trial for murder A woman convicted of murdering three relatives by poisoning them with deadly mushrooms is now accused of targeting a fellow inmate with another poisoned meal. Erin Patterson is accused of tampering with the food after she was reportedly given a job in the prison kitchen while on remand and waiting to stand trial. Today, she was found guilty of lacing a beef wellington with poisonous mushrooms and feeding to her estranged husband's parents and aunt after inviting them to lunch. Her former parents-in-law, Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, and Gail Patterson's sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66, died after the lunch at Patterson's home in the town of Leongatha, Australia, the court heard. She was found guilty of their murders and the attempted murder of Mrs Wilkinson's husband Reverend Ian Wilkinson, who ate the food but survived. Patterson, a mother of two, was convicted at the Supreme Court trial in Victoria state after the jury returned a verdict after six days of deliberations, following a nine-week trial. Following her conviction, The Herald Sun reports that following a dispute with Patterson, a fellow prisoner became sick - and pointed the finger at the triple murderer. A Corrections Victoria source confirmed to Daily Mail Australia that Patterson had been given a job in the prison kitchen despite the nature of the allegations against her. A Department of Justice and Community Safety Victoria spokesman denied this however. They added: "There is no evidence to support that there has been any contaminated food or suspected poisonings at Dame Phyllis Frost Centre." During her trial the court heard that all of Pattison's guests fell ill following the lunch, which consisted of beef wellington, mashed potatoes and green beans the court was told. Prosecutors had alleged that she laced the meal with deadly death cap mushrooms, also known as Amanita phalloides. Mrs Wilkinson and Mrs Patterson died on Friday 4 August 2023, while Mr Patterson died a day later and Reverend Wilkinson spent seven weeks in hospital but survived. Her estranged husband Simon Patterson was also invited to the lunch and initially accepted but later declined, the trial was told. The court heard how all four guests fell ill after eating their meal off four large grey dinner plates, while Patterson ate hers off a smaller, tan coloured plate. The prosecutions case alleged that she ate of a visibly different plate in order to ensure that there was no cross contamination. Reverend Wilkinson said that straight after the meal, Patterson told the group that she had been diagnosed with cancer, suggesting that she was wanting their advice on the best way to tell her children. The defence did not dispute his claims. It wasn't disputed that Patterson served the mushrooms or that the food killed her guests. The jury was only required to decide whether she knew the lunch contained the poisonous mushrooms, and if she intended for them to die. Prosecutors didn't offer a motive for the killings, but during the trial highlighted strained relations between Patterson and her estranged husband, and frustration that she had felt about his parents in the past. Patterson will be sentenced at a later date.
