MELBOURNE, Australia — An Australian judge on Monday sentenced triple-murderer Erin Patterson to life in prison with a non-parole period of 33 years for poisoning four of her estranged husband’s relatives with death cap mushrooms.

Justice Christopher Beale told the Victoria state Supreme Court that Patterson’s crimes involved an enormous betrayal of trust.

Patterson was convicted in July of murdering Don and Gail Patterson and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, with a lunch of beef Wellington pastries laced with foraged death cap mushrooms.

Patterson was also convicted of attempting to murder Heather’s husband Ian Wilkinson, who spent weeks in a hospital.

Patterson’s estranged husband, Simon Patterson, was invited but did not attend the July 2023 lunch served to her parents-in-law and her estranged husband’s aunt and uncle at her home.

Murderer robbed her children of their grandparents”Your victims were all your relatives by marriage. More than that, they had all been good to you and your children over many years, as you acknowledged in your testimony,” Beale said.

“Not only did you cut short three lives and cause lasting damage to Ian Wilkinson’s health, thereby devastating extended Patterson and Wilkinson families, you inflicted untold suffering on your own children, whom you robbed of their beloved grandparents,” he added.

Both prosecution and defense lawyers had agreed that a life sentence was an appropriate punishment for the 50-year-old on three counts of murder and one of attempted murder.

But defense lawyers had asked for Patterson to become eligible for parole after serving 30 years. Prosecutors had argued she should never be considered for parole because she did not deserve the court’s mercy.

Survivor calls for kindnessIan Wilkinson did not comment on the sentence but thanked police, prosecutors and health services he’d encountered since the poisonings.

“We’re thankful that when things go wrong, there are good people and services and systems available to help us recover,” he told reporters outside court.

“Our lives and the life of our community depends on the kindness of others. I’d like to encourage everybody to be kind to each other. Finally, I want to say thank you to the many people from across Australia and around the world who through their prayers and messages of support have encouraged us,” he added.

Beale said Patterson had also intended to kill her husband if he had accepted his invitation to lunch.

She had pretended to have been diagnosed with cancer as a reason to bring them together. She claimed to have wanted advice on how to break the news to her two children, who were not present at the lunch.

Beale accepted Ian Wilkinson’s account that the guests were served grey plates while Patterson ate from an orange-tan plate. This was to ensure she didn’t accidentally eat a poisoned meal, Beale said.

Only triple-killer knows her motivation”Only you know why you committed them (the crimes). I will not be speculating about that matter,” the judge told Patterson.

Patterson showed little emotion during the sentencing hearing, which took less than an hour. She kept her eyes closed for much or it or stared directly ahead.

Patterson maintained at her trial that she had added foraged mushrooms to the meals by accident.

But she had initially denied to authorities that she fed her guests foraged mushrooms. A drug that is a specific antidote for death cap mushroom poisoning was not initially administered to her dying victims.

Beale told Patterson he inferred “from your pitiless behavior that your intention to kill was ongoing.”

Beale noted that no psychiatric or psychological reports had been provided in her sentencing hearing. He said he had no doubt she had instructed her lawyers not to provide such evidence.

Patterson has been in custody since she was charged on Nov. 2, 2023. Her sentence is backdated until then. She has 28 days from her sentencing to appeal against her convictions and the severity of her sentence.

The case has attracted enormous public interest in Victoria, nationally and internationally. Because of this, the Victorian Supreme Court allowed for the first time a sentencing hearing to be broadcast live on television.

Beale accepted that because Patterson was classified as a “notorious” prisoner who had to be kept separate from other inmates for her own safety, her conditions were harsher than those of a mainstream prisoner.

Patterson spends at least 22 hours a day in her call and has never spoken to the only inmate she’s allowed to. That inmate, who has an adjoining exercise yard that shares a mesh wire fence, has been convicted of terrorism offenses and has attacked other prisoners.

“I infer that, given the unprecedented media coverage of your case, and the books, documentaries and TV series about you which are all in the pipeline, you are likely to remain a notorious prisoner for many years to come, and, as such, remain at significant risk from other prisoners,” Beale said.

After a video went viral last week showing a man crashing a wedding in Glendale and then taking off with a gift box containing about $60,000 in cash and checks, police were able to identify and arrest two men in connection to this brazen theft.

Armean Shirehjini was arrested Thursday at his home in Sherman Oaks, along with Andranik Avetisyan, who resides in Los Angeles, according to Glendale police detectives. Shirehjini is suspected of stealing the gift box, and Avetisyan was identified as the alleged getaway driver on the night of the wedding.

The theft took place just after midnight Aug. 31 at the Renaissance Banquet Hall in Glendale. Video surveillance from the venue shows a well-dressed man moving casually through the wedding reception while guests are on the dance floor. He appears at ease and even holds the door open for a few guests.

The suspected thief, who was an uninvited guest, went largely unnoticed until a bridesmaid saw him grab the donation box from the banquet hall and dash out through a side door.

“At that point, the music stopped, everyone was aware of the situation,” Nadeen Farahat, the bride, told KTLA-TV. “It’s such a memorable and happy day and you’re having so much fun. You don’t think about this stuff. It’s the last thing that could’ve been on anyone’s mind.”

George Farahat, the groom, told The Times that the man was clearly visible in surveillance recording, carrying the gift box to a black Mercedes-Benz SUV waiting in an alley outside the banquet hall. Other video had clear images of the man’s face during the wedding reception, which helped police identify and track down the suspects within five days of the wedding.

During the arrest last week, Shirehjini, the main suspect, was found to be in possession of a handgun, police said. Several firearms and various drugs were also seized, and “detectives are still processing a significant amount of evidence and will continue their work through the weekend,” according to a Glendale police report.

Glendale Police Sgt. Jose Barajas told ABC-7 that detectives were also able to recover 26 checks and about $10,000 in cash. (About $60,000 in cash, gift cards and checks had been stolen in total, according to estimates from the newly married couple.)

It remains unclear why the couple was targeted or whether the thieves had carried out a similar wedding-venue crime before.

Anyone with additional information related to this investigation is urged to contact the Glendale Police Department burglary detectives at (818) 548-3127.