Erin Patterson: Explosive new claims emerge about triple mushroom murderer’s life behind bars

Explosive new claims have emerged about Erin Patterson’s life behind bars, with a former cellmate of the convicted triple murderer painting a grim picture of her behaviour inside the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre.

Patterson, 50, was found guilty in July of three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder, after serving a beef Wellington laced with deadly death cap mushrooms to members of her estranged husband’s family.

She is due back in court on Monday, where she will come face-to-face with her sole surviving victim, Ian Wilkinson, and relatives of the three people she murdered - Heather Wilkinson and Don and Gail Patterson.

Since her arrest in November 2023, Patterson has been held in the Murray Unit, a protective section of the maximum-security women’s prison in Ravenhall, outside Melbourne.

She faces the prospect of spending the rest of her life there after a jury delivered a guilty verdict following an 11-week trial.

Now, a former inmate who shared the unit with Patterson has come forward, revealing to news.com.au that the high-profile prisoner earned a reputation for being unpleasant, manipulative and antisocial.

“She is just a real rude b....,” the former inmate said bluntly.

“When she first moved to the Murray Unit (protection), girls would say hello to her and she would just ignore them.

“Any interactions she has with people, she tries to manipulate them and make them feel like s...,” she added.

The former inmate, who was released in March this year, claimed Patterson was convinced she wouldn’t be convicted.

“She didn’t ever deny (her crimes) but said they couldn’t prove it,” she said. “She’s not going to cope doing 30 years. No way, absolutely not.”

Describing Patterson’s demeanour in custody, the woman said she spent her time obsessively crocheting and regularly clashed with another inmate “who was getting more attention”.

“Her cell was a pig sty. She was very serious, never smiled, only made fun of people, was narcissistic and hardly slept,” the former inmate said.

“She thinks she can have whatever she wants because she’s so high profile.”

It comes after the bombshell allegation that Patterson tampered with another inmates’s food while awaiting trial.

The bombshell accusations were allegedly made by inmates at the Melbourne prison, but could not be made public until after the trial concluded.

A former inmate told news.com.au she heard about the food tampering incident when she asked a fellow prisoner if she could borrow her mayonnaise.

“She just laughed and joked about me ‘poisoning it like Erin Patterson did’,” the former inmate said.

“I was like ‘What the f...?’ and she told me the story about how prison officers found mayonnaise in Erin’s room that was allegedly used to poison (one of the inmates).

“She went to medical and was vomiting everywhere. She was saying that the mushroom lady’s cell was searched and they found chemistry books with pages tagged including sections on natural remedies.

While a justice department spokesperson said there was “no evidence to support that there has been any contaminated food or suspected poisonings,” the former inmate believes the incident “100 per cent happened.”

Patterson’s return to court is expected to draw widespread attention as the families of her victims continue to seek justice and closure, following one of Australia’s most shocking and bizarre murder cases.