Doctor’s testimony in Mushroom Cook murder trial reveals how close Ian Wilkinson came to death
The odds were stacked up against him after a pastor invited to Erin Patterson’s fateful lunch ingested poisonous mushrooms, but then a near miracle happened.
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Ian Wilkinson, the Baptist pastor who survived Erin Patterson’s cooking, knew how close he came to death.
On Friday, the rest of us found out.
One of the team who worked to save his life, Dr Stephen Warrillow, told the Supreme Court in the King v Erin Patterson how he survived what was “unsurvivable” for his wife, Heather, her sister Gail Patterson and her husband, Don.
The pastor himself, Mr Wilkinson, was inside the courtroom, arms crossed and surrounded by family, as he listened to the Austin Hospital’s specialist recall how bleak his chances were of pulling through as the toxins from the lethal death cap mushrooms broke down his body.
The septuagenarian was suffering multiple organ failure, the doctor testified.
“We thought he was going to die. He was very close,” Dr Warrillow said.
The cook, Ms Patterson, never became as sick as her guests.
The prosecution alleges she didn’t get sick at all.
This week they also called a different kind of doctor as a witness, Dr Matthew Sorell, a phone tower expert.
And in language experts often use, Dr Sorell testified that he could not eliminate the possibility that Ms Patterson’s phone travelled near the townships of Outtrim and Loch in the Gippsland region where death caps were growing.
But ping they did off those nearby towers.
The prosecution have also alleged in this trial that the 50-year-old mother of two researched iNaturalist, a website which tracks where fungi, including death caps, grow.
They say she bought a dehydrator to prepare them and later dumped it.
And that Ms Patterson used two phones and told lies about buying mushrooms from an Asian grocer, when in fact, she was a forager.
Ms Patterson says the allegations are wrong.
That the lunch she cooked containing the poisonous mushrooms was “a terrible accident”.
This week, the fifth in this trial, could be the final roll call for witnesses.
Then, the prosecution and the defence will address the jury about the case for and against convicting Ms Patterson of a triple murder and attempted murder she says she did not commit.
Ms Patterson’s intent is the dividing line.
The closings are the last words the jury will hear from Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC and defence barrister Colin Mandy SC, other than the judge’s final instructions.
Then they will be sequestered as they deliberate their verdict.
Unfortunately for two of the 14 jurors who have listened to the evidence, they will be cut before deliberations begin.
For the 12 remaining, it will be their decision alone on whether Ms Patterson, on July 29, 2023, intended to seriously harm or murder her in-laws and extended family.
Family, church and money have been recurring themes since the first witness in this trial, Ms Patterson’s estranged husband, Simon, entered the witness box.
His evidence about the couple’s on and off again marriage, a separation that did not end in divorce, and a friendship that dissolved in 2022 as they bickered about child support re-emerged this week.
The court, which is sitting in Morwell for this trial, heard about messages from a Facebook account named “Erin ErinErin”, which were beamed onto the courtroom’s screens.
The messages labelled Simon a “deadbeat” and his parents a “lost cause”.
“So Don said they can’t adjudicate if they don’t know both sides and Simon won’t give his side (emoji) so he said all he can ask is that Simon and I get together to pray for the children (emoji) (emoji) this family I swear to f--ing god,” Erin ErinErin sent on December 6, 2022
“I said to him about 50 times yesterday that I didn’t want them to adjudicate. Nobody bloody listens to me, at least I know they’re a lost cause.”
Minutes later from the same account: "I’m sick of this sh-- I want nothing to do with them. I thought his parents would want him to do the right thing but it seems their concern about not wanting to feel uncomfortable and not wanting to get involved in their son’s personal matters are overriding that so f--- them.”
Seven months later she asked them to lunch.
The trial before Justice Christopher Beale will continue on Monday.
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Originally published as Doctor’s testimony in Mushroom Cook murder trial reveals how close Ian Wilkinson came to death
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