Erin Patterson - We the members of the MN jury find the defendant Guilty or Not Guilty?

[Dustyblue]

Well here we are, after 2 years of head-scratching speculation and many weeks of trial detail-thrashing. It looks like the Judge will give his directions to the jury on Tuesday, after which they'll be sequestered in a local motel (I do not envy them this) to reach a verdict.

Clearly we're not privy to every last piece of evidence shown at the trial, but those of us who've been following closely will surely have formed an opinion one war or the other.

So, I ask you- if you were on the jury- what would your verdict be?

Prosecution’s reasoning for challenging the sentence has been revealed. They say that the judge made a mistake by saying that she was likely to be in solitary confinement for some time.

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-09/erin-patterson-appeal-prosecutors-jail-mushroom-murder/105869802

I'm not sure we have a lot of evidence for her bad behaviour. The prison officials told the judge they moved her into isolation after what they subsequently judged were unverifiable accusations made about her tampering with another inmate's food.

They then decided not to move her back, presumably for the same reasons - that the other inmates were hostile to her?

I'm not trying to be argumentative. Just trying to put together everything we've actually been told by officials. More than anything, I hope the outrage over her having been given a parole period for this horrific offending based on her unacceptable prison conditions leads to a commission looking at the Australian prison system in general. It's unacceptable in a civilised society for prison authorities to be unable to look after the safety of one non-dangerous female prisoner except by keeping her in conditions the UN assesses as torture.

one non-dangerous female prisoner

I would hardly call someone who has been found guilty of four poisonings, three resulting in prolonged and horrific deaths, the third managing to survive with severe consequences to his health - and who the authorities believe attempted to murder her husband a further three times at least - "non-dangerous".

She was moved after another prisoner accused her of tampering with her food, and certain reference books were found in her cell which seemed to indicate some sort of intent. Even so, she is unlikely to spend the entirety of her sentence in that cell. Far more notorious and dangerous women prisoners - like Katherine Knight - spend some early time in similar cells for their own protection and are then in some part of the general prison for the rest of their sentence.

The prison authorities have stated she is not deemed to be any kind of risk to the safety of other prisoners. She is the one who is at risk of violence from them.

I doubt any of her fellow inmates would be eating anything she made for them now that she's been convicted of poisoning her relatives!

She was placed in that unit when they began investigating the allegations of tampering with, I believe, a jar of mayonnaise.

She remains there for her own protection.

Prior to that she was mixing with other prisoners, which is how they formed the opinion she was rude and arrogant, and disinterested in them.

I'm not trying to be argumentative. Just trying to put together everything we've actually been told by officials

Well prison guards and prisoner families have told local press that she was problematic with other prisoners in general population as supposedly she was rude, arrogant and there was some story of trying to tamper with food (not sure whether true or not).

All that is second hand, so you can choose to believe she was friendly and accomodating with her fellow prisoners, or that, more likely she pissed them off with her rude behaviour, which seems more likely as this aligns with descriptions from previous colleagues (who funnily many years ago, as well as thinking her rude and offensive, also thought she was doing something odd to shared bowls of fruit or something and they ended up refusing to eat general stuff at work).

I'm absolutely sure she wasn't friendly and accommodating with other prisoners, but that alone would be no reason to put her into isolation for years on end.

The prison staff did investigate the claims from the other prisoners and found them to be unsubstantiated. Given that many of the other women in a maximum security prison are probably less than angels too, I wouldn't give too much credence to the stories they leak to the press about the prisoners they don't like.

I'm sure Erin Patterson wont be the only prisoner in general population who is less than sociable and accommodating with the people around her. I still don't think the prison officials should use her unpleasant personality as an excuse to keep her in barbaric conditions for the next three decades.

But I guess that's what will happen anyway. They say she is a big target for the other prisoners, and they can't protect her in any other way, so she will remain in isolation for the foreseeable future. And many people seem quite happy with that. While I'm not personally losing much sleep over it on Patterson's behalf, I do think it's a dangerous precedent to set and for people to accept. A civilised prison system should be better than this.

She was not in isolation prior to roughly 400-odd days ago. Then she was placed in isolation, after being accused of food tampering. Currently she is in isolation. But going by the prison conditions of other far more notorious prisoners (as I mentioned earlier, Katherine Knight) there is a period of time in isolation and then the rest of the sentence out of it. Knight is serving life without parole.

Katherine Knight - Wikipedia

@WaryHiker But I guess that's what will happen anyway. They say she is a big target for the other prisoners, and they can't protect her in any other way, so she will remain in isolation for the foreseeable future. And many people seem quite happy with that. While I'm not personally losing much sleep over it on Patterson's behalf, I do think it's a dangerous precedent to set and for people to accept. A civilised prison system should be better than this

I do not think anyone disagrees. However, the answer would then be to release her to general pop to serve out her sentence, which most people probably wouldn’t disagree with either. Personally, I don’t believe isolation or special wings should exist within prisons, I believe it should just be general population as this mirrors the society from which prisoners have come from and committed their crimes within, so why should prison be different?

Yes, I have no idea what the ideal solution would be. Probably to have far more staff so that small groups of prisoners like her could be in a special unit together with a lot of oversight to keep them safe, But with the opportunity to socialise and exercise and take classes and be treated in as humane away as possible.

But I'm aware things are highly unlikely to change. Decent treatment for prisoners and higher taxes to make that possible isn't exactly a vote winner.

I don't expect her isolation will go on for the next 31 years, but it could be a decade or more before the massive media attention dies down enough to make it possible for her restrictions to be eased. I wonder whether they will report on that if it ever happens? Probably not because that would cause fresh media outrage, and the whole Merry-Go-Round would start again.

Part of the prosecution appeal case, as I understand it, is that Justice Beale was misled by the defence claiming she would be in isolation/solitary for a considerable portion of her sentence, hence his sentence ruling - but the prosecution believes on past cases this will not be so. They are going for life without parole.

My god that Katherine Knight case is awful.

Yes. Another woman you wouldn't want working in the prison kitchen.

Apparently the Doctor has had to undergo lots if training after his conduct in the media.

Apparently the Doctor has had to undergo lots if training after his conduct in the media

Yep. The module re patient confidentiality made me think. As a medical professional you can be subpoenaed and forced to give evidence in an open court or inquest, which can be reported on, and the associated medical records will have been subpoenaed. That means patient confidentiality is basically out the window in that scenario. Yet, you can’t step outside court and disclose exactly the same thing there to a reporter who was sitting in the court recording what you said there. That scenario lacks a common sense factor to me, although why anyone would want to talk to a reporter also baffles me. The other modules make sense given the personal philosophies he communicated with such grandiose enthusiasm🤣.

EP has been granted approval to appeal guilty verdicts. Ugh.

She probably wont succeed and hopefully the Prosecutors win with their appeal for a longer sentence.

What a waste of time and money.

I hope it bites her in the bum.

Recipe for Murder: The poisonous truth behind Erin Patterson the mushroom murderer of Leongatha by Duncan McNab - Books - Hachette Australia

It Begins!

Just borrowed this from my local library. Given how heavily we on these threads followed the story- I'm guessing this will be a tad boring. But I'll give it a read anyway!

I've reserved Helen Garner's collaborative one, and have just seen my local library have now ordered in the McNab. It's going to be a cottage industry!

Snap! I've also reserved the Helen Garner et al book at the library.

Let's see if there's anything we haven't already read 😜

Helen Garner is such a good writer I would read her shopping list for the week.

The McNab book was actually pretty good. Very well written and a few new tid-bits I hadn't read before. Mainly to do with the court proceedings.

I was particularly interested in the jury selection part, since I was called up for duty at Morwell at the time. Apparently, they summoned 8000 potential jurors from the vast region of La Trobe Valley, knowing that distance to the court would prove difficult. Of the 8000, approx 1400 were sent a summons to attend court. (oh jeez, and I thought I was special!)

I had myself excused on distance grounds. I live 10km further out than the 'mandatory' requirement. You can also be excused if you're self employed, on medical grounds, carer grounds and a few others. By mid-April only 597 remained; of that 234 said they'd be available for an 8-week trial. Which of course became much longer!

On the day, 112 potential jurors arrived & were whittled down to 15.

They got $80/day for their service! Which is bugger all really. But this case must've cost the govt a lot of money.

Anyway, I wouldn't go out and buy this book but worth a read if you can borrow it.

That's interesting about the jury selection. Thanks!

I might be behind the curve here, but only found out about this documentary series when Ep1 was on Channel 9 earlier this week.

I thought it was really well done, and despite reading all the threads about it on here I still found out new info: