Erin Patterson, 51, who is serving a life sentence for murdering three relatives with death-cap mushrooms, has returned to court to appeal her convictions.

She was convicted of murdering her estranged husband’s parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson and attempting to murder Heather’s husband, Ian Wilkinson, who survived after becoming seriously ill.

Patterson’s lawyer today argued that the jury sequestration was fundamentally flawed because jurors were housed in the same hotel as police, media and others connected to the trial.

Richard Edney has argued in court today that even if the jury did not actually interact with anyone involved, they had the opportunity to encounter people from one side of the case.

He calls the court’s failure to prevent this an “inexplicable” and “catastrophic” error in such a high-profile trial.

The case centres on a July 2023 lunch at Patterson’s home at Leongatha in Victoria, where she served beef Wellington containing poisonous death-cap mushrooms.

Erin Patterson’s lawyer says jury’s sequestration arrangements were ‘catastrophic’

Erin Patterson’s defence has argued that a decision to house jurors in the same hotel as police and prosecution figures during her murder trial was a serious failure that could have affected the verdict.

Defence barrister Richard Edney described the jury’s sequestration arrangements as a “fundamental irregularity” and called what happened “catastrophic”.

Patterson’s lawyers have acknowledged there is no evidence that jurors actually spoke to prosecutors or police at the hotel. But they argue that simply being around key figures from the prosecution could have created a risk of improper communication or subconscious influence.

Patterson is appealing her convictions for murdering three relatives and attempting to murder another relative using poisonous death cap mushrooms.