The only surviving guest of a lunch laced with death cap mushrooms has said he feels ‘half alive’ without his ‘beautiful wife’.
But, in a statement to the killer at her pre-sentencing hearing in Melbourne, Ian Wilkinson shocked the court by offering his forgiveness.
Erin Patterson, 50, murdered three of her estranged husband’s relatives by serving them the world’s deadliest funghi in a beef Wellington lunch at her rural home in the state of Victoria.
Patterson’s former in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, died shortly after eating the meal in July 2023.
Heather’s husband, Ian, was the sole survivor. He was in an induced coma for weeks following the poisoning.
Patterson denied three murder charges and one of attempted murder but, in July this year, a jury at Australia’s Supreme Court returned a guilty verdict on all counts following six days of deliberation. She faces life in prison.
Sitting across from Patterson, Ian Wilkinson told the court – voice shaking – that his wife was ‘compassionate, intelligent, brave, witty – simply a beautiful person who loved sharing life with others’, the BBC reported.
He said that if Heather could help somebody, ‘she would’, adding she had a ‘great sense of humour and it was a joy to be in her company’.
The pastor said: ‘I only feel half alive without her.
‘I’m suddenly single, [experiencing] the heartbreak of having to wind up her affairs, return to pastoral work without her sage advice.’
He added that her death had even ‘taken much of the joy out of pottering around the house and garden’ – and his ‘consolation’ was that they would be ‘reunited in the resurrection and the age to come.’
He fought back tears as he spoke about the impact of Patterson’s crime on his children.
Ian said: ‘She loved our children and believed her greatest work was to raise them to be good people.
‘The trauma they experienced…has left deep wounds. I’m deeply grieved by their ongoing pain.’
He also said Don and Gail Patterson were ‘good and solid people’.
‘We encouraged and supported each other for about 50 years. My life is greatly impoverished without them.’
As Ian read his victim impact statement, Patterson appeared to become extremely emotional.
He said the focus on those who do evil rather than those who do good was a ‘shortcoming of society’, adding: ‘The silence in our home is a heavy reminder.’
‘What foolishness could lead someone to think murder could be the solution to her problems?’, he said, adding that his family bore her only good will.
He said he was ‘compelled to seek justice’ but then, prompting gasps in court, offered Patterson his forgiveness.
‘I bear her no ill will. My prayer for her is that she uses her time in jail wisely to become a better person.
‘Now I am no longer Erin Patterson’s victim. She has become the victim of my kindness.’
A spokesman also read out a statement from Erin Patterson’s estranged husband, Simon Patterson.
She first met him while working as an animal welfare worker in the early 2000s. They married in 2007 and had their first child soon after. Despite separating in 2015, they remain married still.
He was invited to the fatal lunch but did not go.
He said: ‘I miss my parents and aunt more than words can express.
‘I am faithful, however, they are with God and I will see them again.
‘Praise God that at least Ian miraculously survived…[and is] living an exceptional life, as he always has.’
He also detailed the suffering of his and Erin Patterson’s children, in the wake of their mother’s crimes.
‘My two children are left without grandparents…they have also been robbed of hope, of the kind of relationship with their mother that children naturally dream of.
‘Like all of us, they face the daunting challenge of trying to comprehend what she has done.
‘The grim reality is they live in an irreparably broken home with a solo parent, when almost everybody knows their mother murdered their grandparents.’
He said his grieving had been restricted by the ‘abrasive’ court system which prevented him from speaking to his family members about what happened.
He added that the ‘callous’ media attention throughout the case meant cameramen were ‘waiting in ambush’ at his front door, while ‘strangers holding notebooks bang[ed] on windows’.
The Wilkinsons’ daughter, Ruth Dubois, also told the court of the impact Patterson’s crimes had on their family. She said her mother Heather was a ‘wonderful example of a mother and one I continually strive to live up to’.
Ruth said it was ‘difficult to comprehend’ Patterson’s behaviour.
‘She could have changed the plans,’ she said, but instead Patterson ‘chose to follow through.’
‘As a mother I could never understand how you could willingly choose this for your children,’ she told Patterson.
Today’s pre-sentencing hearing was the first time Erin Patterson had been seen since her conviction last month.
Prosecutors have never offered a motive for the killings but did point out in earlier hearings the strained relations between Patterson and her estranged husband, and frustration that she had felt about his parents in the past.
The prosecution today pushed for Patterson to be jailed for life without parole, pointing to the level of planning her crimes required and that she spent the days afterwards disposing of evidence and lying to police.
Her defence lawyer, Colin Mandy, acknowledged her ‘grave offending’ and made no argument her sentence should be ‘anything other than life in prison’.
He also mentioned that – though Patterson has no formal diagnosis – it is believed she has a form of autism, which could make her life in prison more difficult.
She will be sentenced on September 8.
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