Prosecutor Jane Warren spoke to submissions on Patterson’s time in jail, while saying the court should show the ‘cruel killer’ no mercy.

The prosecutor said although the case will hold its notoriety, Patterson herself will soon be forgotten.

Turning to Patterson’s jail conditions, Ms Warren said she accepted it was a relevant consideration in sentencing her

‘I have my concerns,’ Justice Beale said.

‘She’s been in her cell mostly for 22 hours every day. It doesn’t sound very humane.’

Justice Christopher Beale said Patterson’s notoriety was likely to continue and could contribute to her being kept in isolation for much of her sentence.

Ms Warren argued society would likely forget about who she was in time, and this would allow her to be moved eventually back into general population.

She used Port Arthur killer Martin Bryant as an example, suggesting people aged in their 20s may not know who he was today.

Justice Beale asked if there had been a TV show made about Bryant, Ms Warren wasn’t sure, but added Netflix now makes shows about ‘everything’.

Ms Warren also called on Justice Beale to dismiss any suggestion Patterson has Asperger’s.

‘It is a crime that is so cruel and so horrific that the offender here should be shown no mercy from the court,’ Ms Warren said.

‘I agree with you the offending here is horrendous,’ Justice Beale said.

The plea has wrapped and Patterson will be sentenced on September 8.

Ms Warren said the fourth and final aggravating factor was Patterson’s efforts to cover her tracks which the prosecutor term was ‘elaborate’.

The court heard they won’t go into details of the cover-up, but steps included dumping the dehydrator, swapping out phones and lying to authorities.

Ms Warren also described Patterson’s offending as the ‘worst of its kind’.

Justice Beale said he had read every victim impact statement over the weekend, and it brought home to him how the murders had impacted on four generations of families.

Ms Warren added Patterson had shown ‘no remorse’.

‘She has maintained her innocence,’ Justice Beale said.

The second aggravated feature of Patterson’s murders, according to the prosecution, is the use of the toxin to kill her victims.

The prosecutor said Patterson’s choice to use poison, rather than a gun or another weapon to kill, was an aggravating factor.

The court heard Patterson had a ‘level of knowledge’ about death caps before serving them for lunch.

Ms Warren told the court Patterson’s use of poison ‘showed her prolonged intention to kill her victims’.

‘Each of her victims took days to die while Patterson went about lying to health officials about what it was she had fed them,’ Ms Warren said.

‘If she had told, even just told Simon Patterson, she used wild mushrooms … it would have changed the course of treatment,’ Ms Warren said.

Ms Warren said Patterson made ‘zero’ effort to help her dying victims

Justice Beale asked Ms Warren about the prosecution submission that ‘knowingly subjected her victims to slow and painful deaths’.

Ms Warren said it was a ‘matter of common sense’ that when you poisoned someone the consequences were slow and painful for the victims.

She added this was the third aggravating factor.

Prosecutor Jane Warren said Patterson’s fake cancer story was also an aggravating factor of her offending.

‘It is clear it was some sort of ruse or lure,’ she said.

‘The lure was aimed at getting Don and Gail to the lunch.’

The court heard Patterson invited Simon to the lunch to get her in-laws to the lunch.

Ms Warren said it was a case that showed ‘the highest level of planning’.

‘It’s essentially as high as you can get,’ Ms Warren said.

The court heard the maximum sentence for attempted murder is 25 years.

Prosecutor Jane Warren made no submissions about it, but she expected the attempted murder sentence would be served concurrently with the murder sentences.

Prosecutor Jane Warren (right) said the photos found on Patterson’s SD cards, including images of death caps in the dehydrator, were also damning.

She said the images strongly supported Patterson did find death caps in Loch and that she dried them.

‘She was preserving them for later use,’ Ms Warren said.

Ms Warren said it was ‘quite extraordinary’ that on May 28 Patterson had the intention to use death caps.

‘But her intention to kill came only when she invited her guests to lunch on July 16,’ Ms Warren said.

She submitted to Justice Beale that even if he couldn’t find Patterson sourced death caps from Loch, she had nonetheless sourced the deadly fungi.

The prosecutor said Patterson had sourced, dried and stored death cap mushrooms ‘with an intention to use them to kill’ by at least May 4, 2023.

Ms Warren said there were four main aggravating features to Patterson’s murders.

The experienced prosecutor said the crime was pre-meditated

‘It’s the level or pre-meditation that is important here,’ Ms Warren said.

She highlighted Patterson travelled to source death cap mushrooms from Loch on April 28, 2023.

‘I’m satisfied there was substantial planning in the lead up to the lunch,’ Justice Beale said.

However, Justice Beale said he was still thinking about whether he was satisfied Patterson collected death caps from Loch.

In the meantime, Patterson is struggling to stay awake and seems to be falling asleep in court.

Mr Mandy returned to the plates, telling Justice Christopher Beale he should not accept Patterson dumped them after the crime.

The defence barrister conceded Patterson’s behaviour following the lunch aggravated the offence, including her ‘lies about being unwell’.

‘A feature of aggravation that there was a use of a toxin that caused prolonged suffering,’ Mr Mandy said.

‘And they [the prosecution] go on to say that all poisons would inevitably lead to such an outcome, and the poisoner would have known that and we submit that that’s just not right as a matter of logic and fact, maintaining they go on to say, maintaining an intention to kill over an extended period after the initial act, and engaging in multiple and various steps to cover up the offences.

‘Of course, a conduct that occurs after the offence has the capacity to aggravate the offence.

‘In general terms, we accept that, and the jury, by their verdicts, must have rejected Ms Patterson’s explanation for the way that she behaved after the lunch.

‘So we accept that the post offence conduct in this case is capable of aggravating the offending in terms of the lies about being unwell, the disposal of the dehydrator, etc.’

Mr Mandy then wrapped up his brief submissions.

‘We urge the court to impose a non-parole period,’ he said.

Mr Mandy said he accepted his client had intended to kill her lunch guests the morning of the lunch, but contested she had coldly planned it in the weeks and months before.

However, Mr Mandy said it was possible her actions leading up to the lunch were centred around her estranged husband.

‘So consistently with the jury’s verdict, there can be no argument that the acts were deliberate and that the intention was to kill them,’ Mr Mandy said.

‘[The] Crown goes on to explore a number of issues which compendiously relate to premeditation, and we accept that the evidence is certainly capable of satisfying your honour and beyond reasonable doubt, that at the time of the preparation of the meal on Saturday, 29th of July, the relevant intention existed.

‘A number of disputed acts that occurred before that time when the death cap mushroom was sourced, where they were sourced with one intention, they were sourced towards whom that intention was held, we submit is in the realm of speculation.

‘Well, the Crown, your honour, during the trial, made the argument to the jury that Ms Patterson’s intention was, in fact, to cause harm to her husband.’

Justice Christopher Beale has asked Mr Mandy about his written submissions where he has referred to his client as having Asperger’s Syndrome.

Mr Mandy said Simon Patterson claimed his estranged wife had autism.

The top silk also said police had been told by David Wilkinson that Patterson was a high functioning autistic.

Mr Mandy said despite submitting his client had Asperger’s, he was not pushing for a discount on her sentence due to it.

Mr Mandy said he raised it simply to show that his client did harder time in jail because of it.

Mr Mandy has termed his client’s offending ‘grave’ and conceded a life sentence was the only sentence available for the court to hand-down.

However, Mr Mandy said his client should receive a non-parole period of 30 years, which will mean Patterson will be 80 when she is eligible for early release.

Mr Mandy said the conditions Patterson was forced to endure should mitigate the minimum jail term.

He also said Patterson was likely to spend her entire sentence caged within the Gordon unit.

Mr Mandy said Patterson would ‘always be at risk’ from other prisoners and therefore faced a life in effective isolation.

The court heard Patterson was being kept in ‘appalling’ conditions in jail.

‘Although having never posed any threat to an inmate herself, she would remain at risk for the foreseeable future,’ Mr Mandy said.

The court heard Patterson needed two guards to watch her every time she moved about the jail, and she could only enter the library on a Monday or a Friday.

Mr Mandy claimed his client asked for access every Friday, but can only use it if no-one else in Gordon is there.

As a result, she has accessed it only a ‘handful’ of times for 20 minutes, Mr Mandy suggested.

He also claimed Patterson had asked for access to the lounge with the treadmill regularly, but has never been able to access it because other prisoners were in the room.

Patterson stared blankly ahead, blinking furiously throughout Ms Hosking’s evidence.

Ms Hosking said Patterson’s high profile would impact her safety going forward and she accepted she could not say whether Patterson would ever leave the Gordon Unit again.

In a bombshell claim, Colin Mandy SC (right) said his client Patterson had ‘never spoken one word’ to the other prisoner who is in custody for terror-related crimes and has attacked other inmates.

The court previously heard Patterson had been approved to speak to another prisoner through a mesh-wired fence between courtyards.

Mr Mandy said the prisoner is one of two inmates who have spent longer periods inside the Gordon Unit than Patterson.

Ms Hosking could not dispute Patterson had never spoken to the other inmate.
Mr Mandy suggested the approval for Patterson to speak with the terrorist prisoner stemmed from a prison guard request rather than by his client.

The court heard Patterson could contact one other prisoner via the prison intercom, but Ms Hosking said she was unaware that Patterson had ever contacted an inmate that way.

Mr Mandy said his client told him she had spent between 22 and 24 hours a day alone in her cell since she was placed in the Gordon Unit.

Patterson then shook her head in disbelief when the court was told she was allowed out an hour a day into a tiny courtyard.

‘There’s two courtyards, as I understand it, there’s a much larger courtyard that a number of cells back onto, is that right?’ Mr Mandy asked.

‘And then there’s a very small courtyard which is adjoined to each person’s cell, that’s correct. And that very small courtyard is a metre and a half, or two metres by a metre and a half, something like that.’

The court heard Patterson has ‘barely had any contact with other individuals’ while she’s been caged in the Gordon unit.

However, Ms Hosking said Patterson has had contact with one other prisoner who she speaks to through a mesh-wired fence in a courtyard.

Ms Hosking said Gordon Unit inmates are ‘not permitted to have contact with other prisoners until there has been an application made and an assessment done’.

‘The women who are in Gordon are there for a range of reasons, but all of them require restrictive environment,’ Ms Hosking said.

‘Some it’s behavioural, some it’s for their safety, some of it is mental health concerns that result in poor behaviour.

‘It’s not a mental health unit. There is a specific unit for those suffering from mental illness, but there are some people whose behaviour requires a higher level of restrictions.

‘So when a person wishes to mix, there is an application process and then an assessment process to make some determination about the safety of everybody in that process.’

The court heard Patterson may be able to shift from the Gordon Unit.

Patterson has refused to engage with forensic intervention services provided at the jail and is entitled to one-hour a day out of her cell.

Ms Hosking said Patterson hasn’t used any chaplain services and has access to a leisure centre, which has a treadmill.

The court heard Patterson is a ‘keen crocheter’ who ‘has a lot of wool and crochet equipment’ in her cell.

Patterson also has a TV and a computer, her own pillows, her own homemade blankets, a hair-straightener, and a fan in her cell.

Ms Hosking said once Patterson goes off remand, she can access educational services.

The court heard meals and medication are delivered to Patterson’s cell via a ‘trapdoor’.

Patterson has also endured extended prison lockdowns due to staff shortages, but Ms Hosking said Corrections is running a new recruitment program.

The court is now hearing evidence from Corrections Victoria Sentence Management Division Assistant-Commissioner Jennifer Hosking.

She said Patterson was placed in the Gordon Unit at Dame Phyllis Frost Centre after the then-accused murderer went into custody on November 3, 2023.

Ms Hosking said Patterson was given a ‘major-offender’ status due to the high profile media coverage of her then-alleged crimes.

The court heard Patterson was then transferred to Murray Protection Unit for the safety and for increased supervision.

Ms Hosking said prisoners inside the unit had access to kitchenettes.

‘There are small kitchenettes where some women can prepare their own food or supplement the food that that’s provided by the kitchen,’ Ms Hosking said.

Patterson was then transferred back to Gordon for seven days then back to the Murray Unit where she remained until June 9, 2024.

Ms Hosking said Patterson was then shifted back to Gordon where she has remained since.

Simon has taken aim at the legal system which helped find his estranged wife guilty of multiple murders.

‘The impact includes trauma caused by an abrasive legal system and an occasionally callous mainstream media,’ his victim impact statment read.

‘I’ve found both to be remarkably dehumanising. The inability to share openly with close family members prior to us giving evidence, to avoid influencing each other’s memories, has partly inhibited my healthy grieving.

‘My inability to follow or absorb the legal process that occurred before I gave evidence in the trial has distressed me.

‘The deplorable behaviour by some legacy media personnel has also substantially impacted my family and me.

‘My kids and I have suffered many days filled with strangers menacing our home, brandishing notebooks, phones, cameras and microphones.

‘We have faced people waiting in ambush at our front door, inches away, with TV camera and microphone at the ready after ringing our doorbell; strangers holding notebooks have banged aggressively on our windows in the early morning trying to peek into my children’s bedrooms, always skulking away before the police arrived.

‘I’ve been ambushed by strangers with cameras and microphones waiting by my car when I’m parked in public. The children and I have been filmed in cafes and in the street by opportunistic individuals.

‘I doubt I’ll get used to being treated in such dehumanising ways by these creepy strangers who regard humans as merely content to further their media careers.

‘The kids and I establish a routine for when we stay away at short notice to avoid the immediate circus suddenly gathered outside our home.

‘When we’re at a cafe, if I suddenly say, time to go now, the kids know we immediately leave quietly because I’ve spotted someone serendipitously recording us.

‘The need to perpetually watch for strangers who are showing a threatening interest has introduced a new strain on our lives.’

The plea has now broken for lunch and will resume shortly.

‘My two children are left without grandparents as a result of these murders,’ Simon said in his victim impact statement.

‘They have also been robbed of hope for the kind of relationship with their mother that every child naturally yearns for like all of us. They face the daunting challenge of trying to comprehend what she has done and then who she might be.

‘It is great that the children live continually with me in a safe, healthy and honest home within a supportive community.

‘The grim reality is they lived in an irreparably broken home with only a solemn, solo parent, when almost everyone else knows their mother murdered their grandparents. None of these hurdles that my children face are easy for them to overcome.

‘The fact these foreseeable hurdles were actively put in front of them by their own mother is an impact we will wrestle with for the rest of our lives.

‘Despite this, both children are incredibly strong, loving, intelligent, observant and wise beyond their years.

‘With much help, they are overcoming the hurdles. They both know they are always loved, supported and encouraged at home and upheld by our family and community.

‘With this ongoing love, they will continue to overcome, and ultimately thrive, especially if the wider public persists in letting them be the practical impact on our family and me, since the murders have been intense, added to the bewildering killing of special people we love dearly.’

Naomi Gleadow read Simon’s victim impact statement to the court.

‘I miss my parents in more than words can express, and I think of them often,’ Simon said in his statement.

‘I miss the opportunity to offer them more love, and I miss their great love. I’m thankful, however, that they are with God and I will see them again.

‘The extraordinary effect they had on so many of us means their brilliant legacies live on too.

‘I will be aware for roughly the next 30 years, presuming I live that long, that they could still be alive, had Erin not chosen to murder them.

‘My life now carries the melancholy of facing the absence of my parents and aunt, their incredible love, support, wisdom, knowledge, intelligence, warmth, gentleness, guidance, and humour in both spirit and truth are gone.

‘I have known mum, dad, Heather and Ian almost their entire adult lives, and they each constantly display those attributes in spades.

‘Praise God that at least Ian miraculously survived to continue to make the world a better place, living an exceptional life as he always has.

‘I feel incredibly sad that the others cannot continue to fulfil their potential to keep making the world a better place too.’

More of Tim’s victim impact statement was read to the court.

‘Why did Erin decide that she’d make her life’s work a portrait of death and destruction?

‘Why did she decide to focus her expertly hidden wrath upon the most selfless, loving group of people I’ve known?

‘Why would God choose such a violent end for those who gave their lives to him?

‘I guess that’s the final injustice in all of this: the lack of explanation, reason or remorse.

‘Since then, life has gone on. I still cry when I think about how we came to lose Heather, Gail and Don. It’s a strange thing, but for some reason, I still can’t fully accept that Don and Gail are gone.

‘Probably the greatest ongoing impact, however, is that I now find myself consciously trying to soak in every moment I get to bed with my amazing wife and our kids, the time I get with my parents, family and friends, chatting for hours with my 100-year-old grandmother, and just revelling in the life that we are so lucky to have.’

Naomi said Tim Patterson had struggled to put into words the emotional impact of Patterson’s crimes.

‘How do you measure or quantify such a deep sense of loss or injustice?’ Naomi read from his victim impact statement.

‘How do you answer the question, what is the emotional impact on you when the impact is on the very foundations on which you have modelled yourself?

‘Do the tears cried provide a measure in volume, perhaps, or the heart palpitations and resulting specialist appointments in the immediate aftermath, in dollars or hours?

‘What I do know is the week following the lunch was the worst of my life.

‘I am no stranger to anxiety, but that week was the most acutely anxious I’ve ever been. Driven by my worst fears, my nightmares made real.

‘Would Don Gail, Heather and Ian, the people who played central roles in shaping the person I am today, survive?

‘Would the police be engaged early enough to capture the evidence, and would she, the author of the carefully calculated and executed demise of these gentle and selfless souls, be held accountable?’

Family friend Naomi read the impact statements of Don’s mum Martha Patterson and Don’s brother Colin Patterson and Colin’s son Tim Patterson.

Naomi said Martha said her whole family was broken.

She spoke fondly about how Don had helped her learn to use a computer.

Naomi said Colin described the deaths as ‘a spiritual loss’.

‘I miss them keenly,’ he said.

The court heard Colin had the closest relationship with Don, who helped him with work and family.

Colin said Don had helped their elderly mother continue to live in her own home.

‘That effort had now been passed onto her other children,’ Colin said in his statement.

Dr Nanette Rogers SC read the victim impact statement of Lynette, sister of Heather Wilkinson and Gail Patterson.

Dr Rogers said Lynette said ‘Heather was my little sister, bright as a button, always happy to befriend any person that came into her orbit’.

‘We all had to suffer with our father, grandfather, knowing two of his daughters had been poisoned, then his son in law, Don died, dad was watching and waiting as Ian struggled for his life,’ Lynette said in her victim impact statement.

Dr Nanette Rogers SC read the victim impact statement of Don’s mum Marsha Patterson.

Dr Rogers told the court Marsha said her ‘whole family was broken’.

She spoke fondly about how Don had helped her learn to use a computer.

Seated in a wheelchair next to her father at the front of the court, Ms Dubois condemned Patterson for taking away her mother.

Ms Dubois went into detail about the kind and caring relationship she had with her mother.

‘Her final conversations with us were not about herself she was more concerned about our family,’ she said.

Ms Dubois said Don and Gail had been a constant in her life too, and paid tribute to their kindness and to her father and his strength in his recovery.

She described her horror at Patterson’s efforts to lure in her family and kill them the way she did.

She described her ordeal as an ‘endless nightmare’, saying she struggled to work out how Patterson had gone to such lengths to kill her family.

‘Followed up by the extraordinary lies and the absolute lack of care for the victims,’ she said.

‘She could have stopped, she could have cancelled the plans.’

Ms Dubois condemned Patterson for following through with her evil plans.

In the prison dock, Patterson showed little emotion as Ms Dubois delivered her the grim truth of her actions.

Pastor Ian Wilkinson said he has forgiven Patterson.

‘I’m distressed that Erin has acted with callous and calculated disregard for my life and the lives of those I love,’ he said.

‘What foolishness possesses a person to think that murder could be the solution to their problems, especially the murder of people who had only good intentions towards her?

‘Erin has brought deep sorrow and grief into my life and the lives of many others.

‘The ripples spread out through family, friends, our church, congregation, the local community and beyond you.

‘In regard to the many harms done to me, I make an offer of forgiveness to Erin.

‘I have no power or responsibility to forgive harms done to others in regards to the murder of Heather, Gail and Don, I am compelled to seek justice.

‘However, I encourage Erin to receive my offer of forgiveness for those harms done to me with full confession and repentance. I bear her no ill will.

‘My prayer for her is that she will use her time in jail wisely to become a better person.

‘Now I am no longer Erin Patterson’s victim, and she has become the victim of my kindness.

‘Thank you for hearing me.’

Mr Wilkinson praised God and medical staff for his ‘miraculous healing’.

‘I very, very nearly died,’ he said.

‘It has taken me the best part of two years for my health and strength to recover to the point that they have.

‘I praise God for my miraculous healing, and I thank the many medical professionals who strive to save all four of us. They threw everything into our care.

‘I joke that I know this because I have a bump on the back of my head from the kitchen sink.’

Mr Wilkinson said he now only feels ‘half alive without’ Heather.

‘My consolation is that we will be reunited in the resurrection and the age to come,’ he said.

‘In a similar vein, the second heaviest impact on me has been the loss of Don and Gail (pictured).

‘They were the next two closest people to me, after Heather and our family, and again, they were good and solid people.

‘No doubt, their families will say more about them, but I would like to acknowledge their good character and their constructive influence on my life.’

Mr Wilkinson had to take a large pause while delivering his emotional tribute to his wife.

‘Heather had a great sense of humour, and it was a joy to be in her company,’ he said.

‘She loved learning and had a special interest in languages. She was wonderful wife.

‘We shared a very close marriage relationship for 44 years. Heather was always supportive and encouraging to me.

‘She was wise and had skills that made up for my shortcomings. Together, we faced life as a team, and we delighted in each other’s company.

‘We shared a lot of common interests and yet encouraged each other in our own particular interests.

‘Heather was a great mother to our four children. We decided together that she would be a stay at home mum.

‘She loved our children and believed her greatest work was to raise them to be good people with values of care for each other in the family, and for other people beyond the family.

‘I think that the way our children conducted themselves through the crisis of our illness, and the subsequent legal proceedings, is testament to her mothering skills.

‘Our children were thrown into an unprecedented situation in which they suddenly had to take medical responsibility for the lives of their parents.

‘The trauma that they experienced at their mother’s death, and at my near death, has left deep wounds.

‘I’m deeply grieved by their ongoing pain.’

Pastor Ian Wilkinson has tearfully commenced reading his victim impact statement to the court.

‘Your Honour, I would like to begin with a few words about my beautiful wife, Heather,’ Mr Wilkinson said.

‘She was a compassionate, intelligent, brave, witty, simply a delightful person who loved sharing life with others like everyone else.

‘She had faults, but she actively sought to overcome them so that she could live peacefully and constructively with all people.

‘She was generous in her attitudes and with her resources. If she could help somebody, she would.’

Justice Beale has opened the plea hearing.

Patterson, who is wearing black pants and a paisley top, confirmed her age and told the court she worked as an administrative clerk.

Prosecutor Dr Nanette Rogers told the court a portion of Ruth Dubois’ victim impact statement, pastor Ian’s Wilkinson’s daughter, was problematic.

The court heard Mr Wilkinson will read his impact statement first.

Erin Patterson was seen smiling as she was escorted out of the back of a police van and into the Supreme Court of Victoria.

Media crews had already been waiting outside the courthouse for some time, in anticipation of the mushroom murderer’s arrival.

A huge number of the public have already shown up, as locals vie for a limited seat to see the biggest show in town, with extra security deployed.

Patterson’s defence team, led by Colin Mandy SC (pictured), will have an opportunity to make submissions on behalf of their client in an attempt to mitigate the jail term.

These submissions can include Patterson’s personal circumstances, including her upbringing.

However, as Patterson has denied killing her victims she cannot use remorse as a mitigating factor, nor is she entitled to a sentence discount for pleading guilty.

The plea will commence at 10.30am.

Patterson (pictured) is today facing a plea hearing which is expected to last for two days, but could go longer.

In Victoria a plea hearing is a pre-sentence hearing where the prosecution have the opportunity make submissions on the gravity of Patterson’s offending and the grade of the severity of her murders.

Her sole surviving victim, and other family of the deceased, will also be given the opportunity to read out victim impact statements.

The victims and family have the choice on whether to make a statement, whether they or the prosecutor reads out the statement to the court, or the statement is handed directly to Justice Christopher Beale who will read it privately.

Erin Patterson, 50, will return to court today for the first time since she was found guilty of murdering three in-laws and attempting to murder a fourth victim.

Patterson, who was found guilty on July 7, murdered in-laws Don and Gail Patterson and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, wife of lone lunch survivor Pastor Ian Wilkinson (pictured).

Patterson murderd her victims by poisoning their beef Wellington lunch with death cap mushrooms at her Leongatha home on July 29, 2023.

The killer is expected to come face-to-face with her Pastor Wilkinson at today’s hearing.