Apart from Erin Patterson’s own legal team, who were paid to be there, just one person turned up in court every single day to support the triple killer.
Alison Rose Prior, known as Ali, has been the most devoted loyal friend Erin – or anyone else – could ever have hoped for.
Day after day, regardless of the incriminating evidence, bitter cold or ever-growing media pack, Ms Prior stuck by her friend through thick and thin.
And when the jury delivered its damning series of ‘guilty…guilty…guilty…guilty’ verdicts, it was Ms Prior the killer immediately turned to.
‘See you soon,’ Patterson told her bosom buddy before being led away to begin her likely life sentence behind bars for the three murders and one attempted murder.
Ms Prior left the court thronged by media, and as she fought back tears behind large sunglasses, she told reporters: ‘I’m saddened.’
Escorted by G4S security staff through the precincts of Morwell Law Courts – where the Supreme Court had held Patterson’s ten-week trial – Ms Prior battled to keep her composure.
‘I didn’t have any expectations,’ she added. ‘It’s the justice system and it is what it is.’
Alison Prior during her best friend Erin Patterson’s trial
Ms Prior (pictured) was thronged by media shortly after leaving court
Erin Patterson photographed in custody before she was found guilty of murder
Patterson was later whisked away to Dame Phyllis Frost prison, 200km away on the other side of Melbourne, far from her Leongatha home in Gippsland.
But despite the distance, Ms Prior immediately vowed to remain Patterson’s best mate as the mother-of-two now faces decades behind bars.
‘I will see her,’ Ms Prior defiantly insisted to a reporter’s question.
‘I’m her friend and I’ll see her – I’ll visit with her.’
Ms Prior begged media to leave her alone so she could get to her car.
As a sign of the intensity and closeness of their relationship, Patterson has granted Ms Prior complete power of attorney over her estate, giving her carte blanche over her substantial wealth and property.
The pair are believed to have met through Facebook, where Patterson was an avid contributor to several True Crime groups.
Ms Prior, who has a daughter with a rare genetic condition, had previously campaigned locally to reform the law on registering sex offenders and to prevent them living near schools.
In the weeks after the agonising deaths of her estranged husband’s parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson – who were fatally poisoned by the beef Wellingtons she laced with death cap mushrooms – Patterson fled her Leongatha home as the net closed in on her.
Patterson is said to have bunkered down at Ms Prior’s four-bedroom bungalow, set in lush woodlands on the edge of rural Healesville, 65km north-east of Melbourne, as detectives pored over her own home looking for murder clues.
Erin Patterson was later whisked away to Dame Phyllis Frost prison, 200km away on the other side of Melbourne, far from her regional Gippsland home
Patterson has granted Ms Prior complete power of attorney over her estate, giving her carte blanche over her substantial wealth and property
The night before Patterson was arrested, she threw a party at her home for Ms Prior (pictured) and three other female friends
Black sheets appeared around Patterson’s Leongatha home ahead of the jury’s verdict
The night before Patterson was finally arrested, she threw a party at her home for Ms Prior and three other close female friends.
On the evening of Wednesday, November 1, 2023, Patterson held the knees-up at the Leongatha property for her dwindling inner circle of friends.
The weeknight gathering is believed to have been small and included Patterson’s two children, a girl and a boy (who can’t be identified for legal reasons).
But it was still noisy enough that it was noticed by neighbours, who speculated Patterson threw the party in the certain knowledge that those murder charges were imminent.
As the jury retired to consider her guilt 18 months later, it was rumoured Patterson would once again return to Ms Prior’s home to hide out from the media if she was found innocent.
Instead though, the jury unanimously found her guilty – and she was transported by prison van to her new jail cell as one of Australia’s most notorious killers.
The verdict ends one of the nation’s most intriguing homicide cases – and now Patterson likely only has prison visits from Ms Prior to look forward to.
