Survivor of Erin Patterson’s lethal mushroom lunch Ian Wilkinson testifies in court
Ian Wilkinson went from sole survivor to star witness as he told his version of what happened at mushroom cook Erin Patterson’s lethal lunch which left three people dead.
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If there is a God, he saved Ian Wilkinson.
As the only guest of four to survive the poison that took control of their bodies after breaking bread at Erin Patterson’s table, he told her Supreme Court murder trial a story only he can tell.
On Monday, almost two years after the lethal lunch that killed his in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, his wife, Heather, and almost killed him, Mr Wilkinson went from sole survivor to star witness.
The Korumburra Baptist Church pastor recalled the surprise invitation to lunch, the conversations, the seating arrangements and the individual beef wellingtons Ms Patterson cooked that tasted like a pastie.
They were served on grey plates, bar one.
That one was “smaller” and “orangey-tan”, Mr Wilkinson testified.
He said that was the one Ms Patterson ate from.
Mr Wilkinson didn’t even know, until the lunch was almost over, why he was even there.
The Wilkinsons never stepped inside any of the houses Ms Patterson had called home during the years they had known her.
Not the one she lived in with her husband, Simon, and their kids, in Korumburra, nor the houses she lived in after they separated in 2015 before the lunch gathering at her new home in Leongatha in July 2023.
“I would say our relationship was friendly, amicable, um, it didn’t have much depth,” Mr Wilkinson told the court.
“We were more like acquaintances. We didn’t see a great deal of each other.”
Mr Wilkinson’s evidence was punctuated by nervous laughter triggered by memories, including his brother-in-law Don Patterson finishing off his wife Gail’s serving.
“There was talk about husband’s helping their wives out by eating extra food,” Mr Wilkinson said.
“ … So that’s the reason I remember who ate what, because of that little exchange.”
Then came the grim news.
“After the lunch, Erin announced that she had cancer,” he said.
“She said that she was very concerned because she believed it was very serious, life threatening.
“She was anxious about telling the kids. She was asking our advice ….’should I tell the kids or not tell the kids about this threat to my life?’.
“In that moment, I thought, `This is the reason we’ve been invited to the lunch’.”
He would later learn Ms Patterson never had cancer.
That fact is not in dispute.
Nor is the fact that the beef wellington she cooked with mashed potatoes and green beans contained death cap mushrooms.
The toxins from the aptly named fungi took the lives of Gail Patterson and her sister Heather by the following Friday.
Don Patterson succumbed a day later.
Mr Wilkinson, though gravely ill, pulled through.
The question for the jury is simple – did Ms Patterson intend to kill or seriously harm them?
By the end of this trial the 15-person jury will have heard from 90 witnesses the prosecution has listed as it attempts to prove their allegation she intended to do just that.
It is not known if Ms Patterson will give evidence.
This week, after Mr Wilkinson testified, the prosecution called doctors and nurses to the stand who had treated the ailing couples who were admitted to hospital the morning after the lunch.
A day later, at 8.05am on July 31, Ms Patterson self-presented at Leongatha Hospital complaining of gastro symptoms.
Nurse Kylie Ashton told the court Ms Patterson was not prepared to be admitted, walking out five minutes later.
As she left, Ms Patterson was followed by Ms Ashton who attempted to convince her to stay.
She left after signing a form acknowledging she was discharging herself against medical advice.
“I implored her to stay,” Ms Ashton said.
Ms Ashton testified she told Ms Patterson, “her life was at risk”.
After the then 48-year-old left Leongatha hospital, Dr Chris Webster told the court he repeatedly called Ms Patterson to get her to return.
He also called Triple 0 to get police to check on her at her Leongatha property.
Ms Patterson returned to the hospital two hours later, but remained recalcitrant about getting her children to the hospital.
“Erin was reluctant to inform the children and I said ‘that it was important’ and she was concerned that they were going to be frightened and I said ‘they can be scared and alive or dead’,” Dr Webster told the court.
They trial of the King vs Erin Patterson has, so far, been largely a family affair.
The nine days of evidence thus far has been bookended by Ms Patterson’s estranged husband, Simon, and their children, aged nine and fourteen, who cannot be named.
The police interviews of the children, recorded in August 2023, a little over two weeks after the fatal lunch, drew tears from Ms Patterson.
Her daughter told the policeman she knew what the interview was about, answering, “the lunch”.
But she wasn’t there.
She answered questions with arms crossed as she sat on a blue couch, her legs unable to reach the floor.
Her mother had told her she would be going to the movies with her brother, who was joined by a friend, she said.
“She said that she wanted to talk to them at adults’ time,” the little girl said.
She also recalled eating the leftovers with her brother and mother and that her mother had felt sick on the Sunday.
“She just needed to go to the toilet a lot and felt sick in the guts,” she said.
Her older brother, the final witness before a three-day break in this trial, gave insights about their parents’ relationship, describing it as “very negative” before the lunch.
“I know dad does a lot of things to try and hurt mum,” he told the interviewer.
He knew about issues over school fees and added that he and his sister had stopped staying at their dad’s house.
“He kept trying to convince me to go to his,” he said.
“And I told him, I’m sorry I didn’t want to because he never did anything with us over the weekends.”
Ms Patterson has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.
The trial before Justice Christopher Beale continues.
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