She was born with a silver spoon in her mouth, but mushroom killer Erin Patterson now struggles to buy herself a box of prison-grade Barbecue Shapes.
Patterson, who turns 51 this month, will spend the best part of her life living off prison slop after blowing her fortune on her cruel and prolonged defence.
She had pleaded not guilty to the murders of Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson.
They died after consuming death cap mushrooms served in beef Wellingtons during lunch at her Leongatha home on July 29, 2023.
Only Pastor Ian Wilkinson survived the lunch, with Patterson also convicted of his attempted murder.
Patterson had been defended by a team of high-priced lawyers, including high-profile Melbourne barrister Colin Mandy, SC.
For all the wealth she enjoyed – and shared – before her eventual arrest, the trial itself has driven Patterson to near bankruptcy.
Barristers don’t work cheap, with Mr Mandy earning anywhere up to $9,000 each and every day he entered the court.
And he spent a lot of days in court this year – and dozens more during pre-trial hearings throughout last year.
Erin Patterson will spend years behind bars for killing three people
Then there was Sophie Stafford and lawyers Bill Doogue and Ophelia Hollway.
Sources have suggested Patterson ran out of money long ago, with her legal team banking on getting her off so they could access money tied up in her family home.
It is the ‘forever home’ Patterson lured her lunch guests to kill them.
For that reason, it has now been seized by police for its use in the commission of a crime.
Patterson had bought the Gibson Street block in 2019 for $260,000 and moved into it in 2022.
‘I saw it as the final house, meaning I wanted it to be a house where the children would grow up … and I’d grow old there,’ she told the jury during her trial.
Patterson had been sure she was going to walk free from the Latrobe Valley Law Courts in July.
Her lawyers had also hoped they had done enough to convince the jury there was reasonable doubt of her guilt.
Police converged on Patterson’s Leongatha home following the deadly lunch
Patterson’s supporters had erected plastic sheeting around the house in anticipation of her walking free
Daily Mail observed black plastic had been erected around Patterson’s Gibson Street property in preparation for her return home.
The black sheeting was supposed to shield her and her children from the expected media pack that never eventuated.
Patterson had been accustomed to the finer things in life throughout her life.
But as the legal process geared up, she was forced to quickly unload assets to pay for her defence.
The first asset to go was a home in Mount Waverley, which the killer had once used as her home base closer to Melbourne.
She offloaded that home for just over $1million just six weeks after being arrested.
Patterson had once owned a home on Shellcot Road in Korumburra and had signed over another property to her estranged husband Simon after they separated.
The Gibson Street property had been the jewel in Patterson’s real estate crown – designed by her to cater for her kids.
The Gibson Street property had been Patterson’s ‘forever home’, but it is now in the hands of authorities
Valued at more than $1million, it will now be sold off by authorities, with the money earmarked as restitution to Patterson’s victims.
In an order made by Justice Michelle Quigley on July 23, the court stated that ‘no person shall dispose of or otherwise deal with the property’ at 84 Gibson Street, Leongatha.
It further stated it was ‘likely’ that an application for restitution or compensation would be made against Patterson.
The restraining order was sought by the Director of Public Prosecutions, who argued the property was considered ‘tainted’ by Patterson’s crimes.
Patterson, who was born a Scutter, was 32 years old when she received the first of two inheritances that would allow her to fund a lifestyle most Australians would envy.
She had been dating Simon Patterson for one year when, in 2006, her grandmother died, leaving her with a $2 million bequest paid out over eight years.
The second windfall came in 2019 following the death of her mother, Heather Scutter, an academic and expert in children’s literature.
The money allowed the pair to fund regular trips to New Zealand, a lengthy African holiday, and a prolonged honeymoon after their 2007 wedding.
Patterson’s friend Alison Rose Prior attended every day of her trial, but she was blanked by her mate at sentencing
It also allowed Patterson to shell out large portions of cash to her husband’s relatives.
‘I think both of us think money was; money has not been the most important motivation to either Erin or me in our decisions,’ Simon Patterson said during his wife’s trial.
‘I was comfortable financially, such that I could afford to go to university and I didn’t need to work a full-time job at the same time,’ Patterson herself told the jury.
In the witness box, Simon agreed his wife had been ‘very generous’ to his three siblings, each receiving large loans to purchase their family homes without interest.
Instead the couples were expected to pay back their loans as they could with indexation.
Patterson’s remaining wealth, aside from what was spent on her defence team, will likely be sought as compensation to her victims.
During a pre-sentence hearing last month, the Supreme Court was told 28 victim impact statements had been submitted, including from four generations of the Patterson and Wilkinson families.
Proceedings related to the restraining order over the property are listed to return to the Supreme Court in November for a directions hearing.
Patterson had employed a team of top lawyers: Sophie Stafford, Ophelia Hollway and Colin Mandy, SC
With Patterson’s fortune all but gone, it remains unclear how or if she will launch an appeal over her conviction and/or sentence.
Any legal challenge in the Supreme Court of Appeal is likely to cost Patterson even more than her initial defence.
While she might apply to Victorian Legal Aid for assistance, it remains unclear whether the taxpayer-funded legal service would hand over the cash to finance it.
Any appeal would only be launched upon expert advice that it was worthwhile in the pursuit of justice.
Patterson had enjoyed a charmed trial, with a swag of damning evidence ruled out by Justice Christopher Beale.
Legal experts further claimed Patterson was fortunate to obtain a non-parole period on her 33-year ‘life sentence’.
As it stands, Patterson faces years caged within Dame Phyllis Frost Centre’s notorious Gordon Unit.
Known as a management unit for the jail’s most high-risk offenders, it contains only 20 cells for the worst of society.
A young Erin Patterson had been brought up by a wealthy academic
Inside the ‘forever home’ of Erin Patterson where she murdered her victims
Homicide Squad top cop Stephen Eppingstall (right) brought Patterson to justice
There, prisoners are locked down as much as 23 hours a day, with limited access to a small, one square metre courtyard at the rear of their cells.
While inmates have access to a prison pantry where they can purchase comfort food in addition to their prison rations, inmates are usually made to work for meagre payments that can fund the products.
Locked away for her own safety, Patterson is unlikely to secure any form of prison job over the next decade and will be forced to live off whatever money her supporters can cobble together for her on the outside.
Patterson appeared to ignore her only remaining friend during her sentencing on September 7.
Daily Mail has contacted Patterson’s lawyers, Doogue + George Defence Lawyers, for comment.
