Erin Patterson: Details of killer mushroom cook’s life behind bars at Dame Phyllis Frost Centre revealed

Fresh details of Erin Patterson’s life inside a Melbourne prison have been disclosed as the killer cook awaits sentencing. The 50-year-old mother of two has been behind bars since her arrest in November 2023 – more than three months after hosting the fatal lunch with members of her husband’s family at her Leongatha home. After a trial spanning 11 weeks, a jury found she murdered Don Patterson, Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson by intentionally spiking a beef wellington with death cap mushrooms on July 29, 2023. Patterson was also found guilty of attempted murder after Heather’s husband, Ian Wilkinson, fell critically ill but recovered. She faced a pre-sentence hearing in the Victorian Supreme Court this week, as both the Crown and her lawyers submitted life imprisonment was the only sentence appropriate on the jury’s verdict. Their main contention however, was whether Justice Christopher Beale should give her the chance at parole three decades from now. Details of her life in custody were laid bare as Patterson’s defence argued the judge needed to take into account the “appalling” conditions she will likely spend her sentence in. The court was told Patterson has spent the past 14 months in effectively solitary confinement in the Gordon Unit at Dame Phyllis Frost Center maximum security prison – with only two other women having been there longer. One of these is jailed crime boss George Marrogi’s girlfriend Antonietta Mannella, who has been told she will serve her entire sentence there due to the risk other prisoners pose to her. Prison authorities fear Marrogi’s “enemies can get to him by assaulting her” and she has spent more than three years in strictly managed conditions. This week, Mannella lost a bid to have her sentence reduced after Victoria’s Court of Appeal was urged to reassess the impact that solitary confinement was having on her. Mannella, the court was told, is now suffering a “very marked and serious decline in her mental health” — including panic attacks, sleep deprivation, PTSD and a distorted belief system. News.com.au Mushroom Cook timeline According to Corrections Victoria assistant commissioner Jenny Hosking, the Gordon Unit is a 20 cell restrictive “management unit”, used to separate women from the mainstream prison population for various reasons. She said prisoners should only be kept in the unit for 15 days due to the known “negative outcomes” — requiring an authorised officer to endorse periods longer than this. Patterson is housed in a cell with an approximately 1.5m by 1.5m fenced courtyard, and has spent 22-24 hours confined to her cell daily. Inside, the court was told, the “keen crocheter” was known to have wool and crochet equipment, blankets she’d made, a TV, books, a hair straightener and a fan in her cell. Meals are provided to Patterson through a trap door and she has limited interaction with staff. Ms Hosking said the unit has been facing regular lockdowns due to staffing shortages since mid-2024, but a recent recruitment drive was expected to alleviate these shortages by the end of the year. Prisoners in the Gordon Unit are entitled to access library and leisure facilities twice a week and the main lounge and courtyard for up to an hour each day. Due to Patterson’s risk rating, two officers are required as escorts if she visits any other part of her prison. But according to Patterson’s lawyers, she’s only been able to access the facilities “a handful of times” as officials deal with the staffing issue and efforts to avoid placing her at risk of other prisoners. Patterson’s barrister Colin Mandy SC argued his client is likely to remain a “notorious” person in the prison, experiencing “vitriol” and “animus” from other incarcerated women. “She will, in our submission, always be at risk from other prisoners and that risk, regrettably, given the auspices of the custodial arrangement, can only be effectively managed by isolation,” Mr Mandy argued. “Those are very deprived circumstances.” Mr Mandy told the court his client reported hearing other prisoners’ “screaming and yelling” at times, The court was told after Patterson is sentenced “very little” will change for her, other than access to education courses. But Ms Hosking said she could “never say” Patterson would not be moved back to the less restrictive Murray Unit for general population female prisoners. After her arrest, Patterson had two three month stints in the Murray Unit before she was ultimately moved into the Gordon Unit due to safety concerns and the high volume of media attention her case received. “It felt sensible to separate her while any risks to her as a result of that media was assessed,” Ms Hosking said. Patterson has approval to speak with one other prisoner, a woman convicted of terrorism offences, through the fence in their courtyards but they had “never spoken one word”. That woman, the court was told, had been kept in the restrictive unit because she posed a risk to other prisoners and had been violent in the past. Justice Beale, who will sentence Patterson early next month, said her prison conditions were a “weighty consideration”, noting it “doesn’t sound very humane”. “One of the reasons it’s likely to continue is because her notoriety is not going to diminish,” he said.