Lawyers for Australian mushroom murderer Erin Patterson say her conviction was undermined by a "catastrophic" mix-up that led to the jury staying at the same hotel as prosecutors and a key witness. Patterson is serving a life sentence after killing three of her relatives and trying to kill another by serving them a beef Wellington containing death cap mushrooms at her Victoria home in 2023.

Her lawyers also argued some evidence in the trial was too speculative, while evidence crucial to their own case was wrongfully excluded. Patterson's victims include her in-laws Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson, 66.

Patterson, 51, did not attend the Court of Appeal in Melbourne in person, opting to watch via video link from prison. Also not present was Patterson's estranged husb and Simon Patterson, who was meant to attend the deadly lunch but cancelled at the last minute, in part due to his belief that his wife had been trying to poison him for years.

Heather Wilkinson's husb and Ian, the only surviving guest of the lunch, was in court. During Wednesday's hearing, the appeal judges heard that while deliberating their verdict, jurors stayed in the same hotel as members of the prosecution team, a key police witness, and journalists.

Director of Public Prosecutions Brendan Kissane accepted it was regrettable but "happened, as far as we can tell… by accident"." The issue is whether there was communication between this jury and any other person," he said."

The evidence as it stands points towards there being no communication. Once the court accepts that, there's no irregularity in this situation, let alone a fundamental irregularity that goes to the root of the trial."

Patterson's lawyers have also argued a prosecution theory about how the death cap mushrooms were located and foraged should not have been allowed to be put to the jury. During the trial, prosecutors suggested Patterson went looking for death caps after two sightings near her hometown were reported on the citizen scientist site iNaturalist.

Jurors heard her phone connected to cell towers in both of those areas. The mobile phone evidence only "possibly" showed where Patterson had been, Drago said, while there was no evidence that Patterson had ever accessed or seen the iNaturalist posts."

But crown prosecutor Jeremy McWilliams defended the use of a mobile phone tower expert, arguing the jury could use his evidence to decide whether Patterson had an opportunity to source death cap mushrooms, in the way it was alleged. In other strands of the appeal it was argued that Facebook messages which Patterson sent months before the lunch - in which she was damning of her estranged husb and Simon and his parents Don and Gail Patterson - were irrelevant and should not have been allowed.