Mushroom cook Erin Patterson’s murder trial: Disarming moment as survivor gives evidence
Ian Wilkinson, a church pastor, was polite as he gave evidence about what unfolded the day he and his wife, and in-laws, had lunch at Erin Patterson’s house.
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Ian Wilkinson looked directly at the accused, Erin Patterson, as he entered the courtroom to give evidence about the lunch that killed his wife, his in-laws, and almost killed him.
A church pastor, he was wearing a blue vest with a crucifix lying on top.
He is a veteran speaker, mostly on Sundays, when he gives the sermon at Korumburra Baptist Church.
His laid-back style belied the seriousness of the events that led him to Morwell’s court.
He would laugh, again and again, perhaps with nerves, through the gravest public appearance he will ever make.
Mr Wilkinson was here to talk about the little lunch which made world headlines. The little lunch which seemed entirely unremarkable until that evening, when the poisonings set in and three of the four guests embarked on their irreversibly terminal declines.
He was surprised – no, excited – about being invited to Patterson’s new home in Leongatha.
He and his wife Heather, he told the court, had never before been inside a home of Patterson’s.
But they didn’t get the grand tour.
Heather really wanted to see the pantry – the Wilkinsons had just got a new one themselves.
But he noticed that Patterson didn’t seem to like her guests’ scrutiny of the pantry, and chose not to join them, because she looked “reluctant”.
The group went to the garden, where the Wilkinsons inspected a plant which wasn’t doing well. They made suggestions about where it might thrive better.
Lunch was being served. Patterson declined offers of assistance.
She plated up the beef wellingtons – four separate pastry parcels on larger grey plates, served to the guests, and her own, on a smaller orange/tan plate.
“It was very much like a pastie,” he said.
The wives carried the guests’ plates to the table.
Patterson carried her own serving.
On an iPad, Mr Wilkinson marked where each of the guests sat. He sat at the table’s head, in front of a glass sliding door.
Each guest ate their entire portions of beef wellington, mashed potato and beans, except Gail, who gave what she could not finish to her husband Don.
As they finished, Patterson revealed that she had cancer.
She said she believed it was “very serious” and “life threatening”.
She wanted to know whether she should tell her kids.
Don Patterson suggested it was “best” she be honest. The guests agreed, in a conversation that went about 10 minutes.
At this point, one of Patterson’s children arrived home.
Wilkinson hastily led a prayer asking “God’s blessing on Erin”, that she’d get the required treatment and that both she and the children would be OK.
The Wilkinsons were gone by 2.45pm – Ian had a church meeting at 3pm and spent the evening preparing his sermon for Sunday’s service.
Mr Wilkinson would not deliver it.
The Wilkinsons’ fell ill after heading to bed some time after 10.30 that night.
Heather rushed to the bathroom first to be sick. Both would rush to the bathroom throughout the night.
Mr Wilkinson described the coming days as best as he could remember. But he was not asked about his sense of grief about the events, or the death of his wife.
At one point, he nearly fell off his chair after it appeared to collapse beneath him.
“We do this to all our witnesses,” Justice Christopher Beale joked.
It was a disarming moment given the gravity of his role as a star witness in a triple murder trial.
When asked about the woman in the dock, he was polite.
“Oh well, she just seemed like a normal person to me … ” he told the Supreme Court.
“She just seemed like an ordinary person.”
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