Ian Wilkinson says he forgives Erin Patterson for trying to murder him but cannot offer her forgiveness for killing three other people with poisoned beef wellingtons, a Victorian court has heard.
The supreme court also heard on Monday that the prosecution and defence both agreed that Patterson should receive a life sentence for her crimes, which Justice Christopher Beale agreed were “horrendous”.
Wilkinson, a pastor whose wife, sister-in-law and brother-in-law were killed by Patterson after they were served the lunch in 2023, told the court in Melbourne that he had not fully recovered from the death cap mushroom poisoning he suffered.
Patterson was convicted last month of murdering Heather Wilkinson, 66, and Don Patterson and Gail Patterson, both 70, and convicted of the attempted murder of Ian.
She faced a plea hearing on Monday, where the court heard victim impact statements ahead of her sentencing by Beale in a fortnight. Wilkinson, standing at the end of the bar table throughout court and facing Beale rather than Patterson, spoke for about 20 minutes about the impact of what he called the “fateful lunch”.
“I make an offer of forgiveness to Erin,” he told the court.
“In regards to the murders of Heather and Gail and Don, I am compelled to seek justice.
“Now I am no longer Erin Patterson’s victim, and she has become the victim of my kindness.”
Wilkinson said he bore Patterson no ill will and his prayer for her was that she would use her time in custody to reform. But he said he remained troubled by the decision she made to kill his loved ones and to try to kill him too.
“I am distressed that Erin has acted with callous and calculated disregard for my life and the life of those I loved,” he said.
“What foolishness possesses someone to think that murder could be the solution to their problems, particularly people who only have good intentions towards her?”
Wilkinson’s was the first of seven victim impact statements read in court on Monday, with 28 tendered to the court for Beale’s consideration.
He spoke of his marriage of 44 years to Heather and the loss of joy and silence that her murder had caused. She was a stay-at-home mother to their four children, he said, who believed her greatest work was raising them to become good people.
“She was wise, and had skills that made up for my shortcomings,” he said.
“Together we faced life as a team, and we delighted in each other’s company.
“The way our children conducted themselves through the crisis of our illness and the subsequent legal processings is testament to her mothering skills … the trauma they experienced at their mother’s death, and my near death, has left deep wounds.”
Wilkinson said it was “a truly horrible thought to live with, that someone could decide to take her life”.
At this point he removed his glasses, dabbed his tears with a tissue and sipped from some water before continuing.
“My consolation is we will be reunited in the resurrection, and the age to come.”
Wilkinson bemoaned that “so much attention is showered on those who do evil, and so little on those who do good” and said he also felt that the death of Don and Gail was the second-greatest impact of Patterson’s crimes on him.
Simon Patterson, Erin’s estranged husband, had his victim impact statement read in court by Naomi Gleadow, his cousin.
He said he missed his parents and aunt “more than words can express, I am thankful however that they are with God, and I will see them again”.
Simon said he believed all three could have lived to 100, given the genes of their parents, had they not met an untimely end.
Their two children, a son born in 2009 and a daughter born in 2014, had been “robbed of … the kind of relationship with their mother that every child yearns for”, Simon said.
He said they lived in an “irreparably broken home, with only a solo parent, and almost everyone knows their mother murdered their grandparents”, but both children remained strong and knew they would always be loved and supported.
Simon said the court process and media coverage had been dehumanising.
He described the “callous” and “deplorable” behaviour of “strangers” clutching cameras and notebooks, who rapped on the window of his house in the early hours of the morning and stalked him and his children, including filming them in public.
Ian Wilkinson also remained standing at the bar table while his daughter, Ruth Dubois, read her victim impact statement.
Dubois said that it was deeply disturbing that Patterson had sat at the dining table watching her family members eat a meal that she knew would kill them and then followed that up with “extraordinary lies and a complete lack of care”.
There were multiple times that Patterson could have abandoned the plan, but “at every step of the way, she chose to follow through”.
Timeline
Erin Patterson: how Australia’s mushroom poisoning case unfolded — a timeline
Show
Erin Patterson hosts lunch for estranged husband Simon’s parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and his aunt and uncle Heather and Ian Wilkinson. Patterson serves beef wellington.
All four lunch guests are admitted to hospital with gastro-like symptoms.
Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson die in hospital.
Don Patterson dies in hospital. Victoria police search Erin Patterson’s home and interview her.
Ian Wilkinson is discharged from hospital after weeks in intensive care.
Police again search Erin Patterson’s home, and she is arrested and interviewed. She is charged with three counts of murder relating to the deaths of Don and Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson, and the attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson.
Murder trial begins. Jury hears that charges of attempting to murder her estranged husband Simon are dropped.
Jury finds Erin Patterson guilty of murdering Heather Wilkinson, Don and Gail Patterson and attempting to murder Ian Wilkinson.
Dubois found intense media coverage compounded her grief and left her second-guessing who she could share her pain with. It was “particularly revolting”, she said, that some media were using the tragedy as “entertainment for the masses”.
Dubois said she could also not understand, as a mother, why Patterson had acted the way she had, given the impact it would have on Patterson’s two children.
Statements from Lynette Young, Heather and Gail’s sister; Martha Patterson, Don’s mother; Colin Patterson, Don’s younger brother; and Tim Patterson, Don’s nephew, were also read into court.
Tim Patterson, whose statement was also read by Gleadow, his sister, said that he wrote in his diary on 30 July, the day after the lunch: “Don and Gail in hospital with apparent food poisoning after eating at Erin’s. Coincidence, or is [there] evil at play here?”
He said his worst fears were confirmed the following day, when their conditions worsened.
He had “only experienced death at a distance before this”, but then had to reckon with the death of loved ones, including Don, who he described as his role model.
“Why did Erin decide she would make her life’s work a portrait of death and destruction?,” he said.
Patterson, 50, was not required to speak during the hearing, other that to confirm four questions about her particulars: her date of birth, age, previous job and former address.
Appearing more drawn and gaunt than when she was last in court on the day of her verdict, Patterson watched on quietly but appeared to become emotional during the statements, occasionally dabbing at her eyes and nose with a tissue.
Beale said he agreed with submissions by the prosecution that Patterson’s offending was “horrendous”, a factor he had to consider in sentencing.
The defence and prosecution agreed that Patterson should receive a life sentence for the murders, though Colin Mandy SC, for Patterson, said she should receive a non-parole period.
Mandy also submitted that Beale should consider the onerous conditions of Patterson’s current conditions in custody.
Jane Warren, for the prosecution, agreed that Beale could consider these conditions.
Beale said that the fact Patterson had spent 22 hours a day in her cell for at least 14 months since her arrest in November 2023 “doesn’t sound very humane”.
The court earlier heard about Patterson’s time in custody from Jenny Hosking, an assistant commissioner of Corrections Victoria.
Patterson was held in those conditions because of her notoriety, which could see her subject to violence and vitriol from other inmates, the court heard.
Patterson is set to be sentenced on 8 September.