The one surviving guest of a lunch laced with death cap mushrooms has said he feels ‘half alive’ without his ‘beautiful wife’.
But, in a press release 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 within the state of Victoria.
Patterson’s former in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, each 70, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, died shortly after eating the meal in July 2023.
Heather’s husband, Ian, was the only survivor. He was in an induced coma for weeks following the poisoning.
Patterson denied three murder charges and one in every of attempted murder but, in July this yr, 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 lovely one who loved sharing life with others’, the BBC reported.
He said that if Heather could help someone, ‘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 getting to wind up her affairs, return to pastoral work without her sage advice.’
He added that her death had even ‘taken much of the enjoyment out of pottering across the house and garden’ – and his ‘consolation’ was that they might be ‘reunited within the resurrection and the age to return.’
He fought back tears as he spoke concerning the impact of Patterson’s crime on his children.
Ian said: ‘She loved our kids and believed her best work was to lift 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 one another for about 50 years. My life is greatly impoverished without them.’
As Ian read his victim impact statement, Patterson appeared to change into extremely emotional.
He said the concentrate on those that do evil somewhat than those that do good was a ‘shortcoming of society’, adding: ‘The silence in our house is a heavy reminder.’
‘What foolishness may lead someone to think murder could possibly be the answer to her problems?’, he said, adding that his family bore her only good will.
He said he was ‘compelled to hunt justice’ but then, prompting gasps in court, offered Patterson his forgiveness.
‘I bear her no sick will. My prayer for her is that she uses her time in jail correctly to change into a greater person.
‘Now I’m not Erin Patterson’s victim. She has change into the victim of my kindness.’
A spokesman also read out a press release from Erin Patterson’s estranged husband, Simon Patterson.
She first met him while working as an animal welfare employee within the early 2000s. They married in 2007 and had their first child soon after. Despite separating in 2015, they continue to be married still.
He was invited to the fatal lunch but didn’t go.
He said: ‘I miss my parents and aunt greater than words can express.
‘I’m faithful, nonetheless, they’re with God and I’ll see them again.
‘Praise God that at the least Ian miraculously survived…[and is] living an exceptional life, as he at all times has.’
He also detailed the suffering of his and Erin Patterson’s children, within the wake of their mother’s crimes.
‘My two children are left without grandparents…they’ve also been robbed of hope, of the type of relationship with their mother that children naturally dream of.
‘Like all of us, they face the daunting challenge of trying to understand what she has done.
‘The grim reality is that 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 chatting with his members of the family 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 as much as’.
Ruth said it was ‘difficult to understand’ Patterson’s behaviour.
‘She could have modified the plans,’ she said, but as a substitute Patterson ‘selected to follow through.’
‘As a mother I could never understand how you might willingly select this to your children,’ she told Patterson.
Today’s pre-sentencing hearing was the primary time Erin Patterson had been seen since her conviction last month.
Prosecutors have never offered a motive for the killings but did indicate in earlier hearings the strained relations between Patterson and her estranged husband, and frustration that she had felt about his parents prior to now.
The prosecution today pushed for Patterson to be jailed for all times without parole, pointing to the extent of planning her crimes required and that she spent the times afterwards disposing of evidence and lying to police.
Her defence lawyer, Colin Mandy, acknowledged her ‘grave offending’ and made no argument her sentence ought to be ‘anything aside from life in prison’.
He also mentioned that – though Patterson has no formal diagnosis – it’s believed she has a type of autism, which could make her life in prison tougher.
She can be sentenced on September 8.
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