Overview
- The appeal hearing opened on Wednesday in Melbourne with Patterson attending by video from a high-security prison as judges heard arguments over two days.
- Patterson’s defence lodged multiple grounds for overturning the conviction, citing alleged errors in evidentiary rulings, contested use of mobile-phone location data, and the temporary hotel accommodation of jurors alongside lead investigators.
- Prosecutors filed a cross-appeal that seeks to remove Patterson’s current earliest chance of parole after 33 years and to increase the punishment to life without parole.
- Judges indicated they will reserve judgment and a ruling could take weeks or months, leaving Patterson’s conviction, the sentence length and parole prospects all subject to change.
- The case stems from a July 2023 family lunch in which three guests died and a fourth survived after doctors diagnosed poisoning by the highly toxic mushroom Amanita phalloides, and the original trial produced unanimous guilty verdicts and concurrent life terms plus a 25-year term for the attempted murder.