Erin Patterson mushroom murder verdict – what happens next?
Legal expert anticipates a life sentence for Australian triple-murderer but her legal team has 28 days to decide if they are going to appeal
After almost 11 weeks, a jury has found Erin Patterson guilty of murdering three relatives and attempting to murder a fourth by lacing a beef wellington lunch with poisonous mushrooms.
The guilty verdict read out in the Morwell court on Monday was swift. Yes, they said, guilty of murdering Don and Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson. Yes, they said – to the attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson, the pastor who had lost his wife.
This will not be the last of it, however – Patterson’s sentencing is still to come, as well as a possible appeal.
So what happens now?
The sentencing comes first, with the court likely to reconvene sometime in the next month, says Emeritus Professor in Law at the University of South Australia Rick Sarre.
“The court will reconvene,” he said. “[Patterson will] sit there, and the judge will ask for sentencing submissions.”
At this point, the defence would typically ask for a pre-sentence report, Sarre said.
The pre-sentence report is often an independent psychological evaluation, but it could also include an analysis on the defendant’s rehabilitation prospects, her background, criminal history, health or other mitigating factors that could help determine an appropriate sentence.
The matter will then be set down for a future date, and when the reports come in they will be delivered to the judge and court will reconvene.
The submissions on the sentence from the prosecution and defence will then be heard by the judge.
“Then the judge will consider [Patterson’s] sentence and probably come back another week later and deliver the sentence,” Sarre said.
What sentence could Erin Patterson face?
The last triple-murderer to be sentenced in Victoria was Robert Farquharson, who was convicted of murdering his children in 2007 and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 33 years.
Maximum penalty sentences are scaled, with murder and trafficking large quantities of drugs sitting at level 1 – which attracts the highest penalty.
“The maximum sentence is life imprisonment, and I’m anticipating that she’ll get a life sentence, and then it just comes down to what the non-parole period will be,” Sarre said.
In Victoria, the minimum non-parole period for murder, if the offender has other convictions, is 30 years.