Crime boss’ girlfriend loses appeal bid over ‘appalling’ prison conditions where Erin Patterson will serve sentence

The jailed girlfriend of crime boss George Marrogi has lost a bid to have her sentence cut after arguing the “appalling” jail conditions were driving her mad. Antonietta Mannella, 31, is housed in the Gordon unit at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre maximum security prison in Melbourne where mushroom killer Erin Patterson will be locked up for the “foreseeable future”. Mannella was handed a maximum sentence of 13 years in March 2023 after assisting Marrogi to run his drug trafficking enterprise from prison where he was locked up awaiting trial for murder. Knowing prison phone calls are recorded and monitored, Mannella feigned to be a legal assistant at his law firm and took instructions in code. Marrogi was found to have “manipulated” Mannella’s romantic feelings towards him to run the drug importation business. Her barrister Colin Mandy SC, who also represents Patterson, appealed her sentence, arguing fresh evidence on her prison conditions and mental health warranted a reduced sentence. Two judges of Victoria’s Court of Appeal heard Mannella had been told she would remain in solitary confinement for the duration of her sentence because Marrogi’s “enemies can get to him by assaulting her”. Mr Mandy presented psychological evidence she was experiencing a “very marked and serious decline in her mental health” — including panic attacks, sleep deprivation, PTSD and a distorted belief system. He argued the effect of Mannella’s incarceration had significantly worsened from the time of her sentence and should be reflected. But in a judgment handed down this week, Justices Richard Niall and Phillip Priest rejected the appeal. “In sentencing the applicant, the judge accepted that the conditions of solitary confinement which then confronted the applicant were appalling,” they wrote. “The judge recognised that, in the eight months the applicant had been held in solitary confinement while on remand, the conditions of imprisonment had a serious deleterious effect on the applicant and he anticipated this would continue. “In time, these prognostications have come to pass. They were anticipated by the judge and factored into his sentencing.” Mannella will be eligible for parole in February 2029. Further details of the conditions within the 20-cell Gordon unit at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre were aired during Patterson’s plea hearing on Monday over the death cap poisoning murders of Don Patterson, Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson and the attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson. Patterson, the court was told, had been held in solitary confinement for the past 14 months due to her “notoriety” and the risk posed by other prisoners in general population. Corrections Victoria assistant commissioner for the Sentence Management Division, Jenny Hosking, gave evidence Patterson was “entitled” to a minimum of one hour out of her cell each day. She told the court staffing issues, brought on during the Covid-19 pandemic, had led to an increase in lockdowns and restrictions since the middle of 2024. “We are now in a position of having to recruit, which we are doing,” Ms Hosking said. “We anticipate that it will improve significantly by the end of the year, or early next year.” Ms Hosking said guidelines said prisoners should only be kept in isolation for 15 days due to the known “negative outcomes” — requiring an authorised officer to endorse periods longer than this. Patterson, she said, would be reassessed monthly. The court was told Patterson, a “keen crocheter”, was known to have wool and crochet equipment, blankets she’d made, books, a hair straightener and a fan in her cell. In an affidavit from Patterson’s solicitor Ophelia Holloway, key details of which Ms Hosking did not dispute, the court was told she spends “22 and 24 hours alone in her cell per day”. Patterson has approval to speak with one other prisoner, a woman convicted of terrorism offences, but they had “never spoken one word”. According to the affidavit, despite being allowed access twice a week to the library, due to staffing conditions she’d only accessed it “a handful of times”. “Doesn’t sound very humane,” Justice Christopher Beale, who will sentence Patterson in two weeks, quipped. Patterson’s defence have urged the judge to take into account the likelihood she will spend her sentence in the Gordon unit. “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.” Prosecutors argued Mr Mandy was speculating, suggesting it would be more appropriate to sentence Patterson “on the basis that she will remain in that situation for the foreseeable future”. “I feel fairly confident that she’s going to remain notorious for a long, long time,” Justice Beale said.