The Toll of Solitary Confinement on a High-Profile Inmate

Erin Patterson, the so-called mushroom murderer, will spend at least the next 33 years in jail with parole a possibility but not a certainty when she’s 81 years old. 

As she sat in the courtroom the convicted triple murderer and mother of two showed no emotion, often with her eyes closed as Justice Christopher Beale handed down the life sentences.  

Today, criminologist Dr Xanthe Mallett explains what comes next for one of the most notorious killers in Australian history. 

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Dr Xanthe Mallett, associate professor of criminology at Central Queensland University