Australian mushroom murderer Erin Patterson begins appeal against sentence

SYDNEY: An Australian court will on Wednesday (Aug 19) begin hearing the appeal of a woman convicted of murdering three of her estranged husband's relatives with a meal laced with deadly mushrooms.Erin Patterson, 51, was convicted last year of murdering the three elderly in-laws by feeding them Beef Wellington laced with toxic death cap mushrooms, in a case that gripped the country.Patterson was sentenced to life in prison with a non-parole period of 33 years, one of the longest sentences ever given to a woman in Australia. She maintained her innocence throughout the trial, saying the deaths were accidental.Patterson is appealing on several grounds, including that various pieces of evidence should not have been introduced to the trial, that she suffered unfair cross-examination, and that a