Court hears survivor of the death cap mushrooms lunch was on the brink as his wife and friends died

Mushroom lunch survivor Ian Wilkinson had to sit through emotional evidence of how his relatives died.

Mushroom meal survivor Ian Wilkinson, whose wife died of poisoning, at court on Friday. Picture: NewsWire / Ian Currie

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Ian Wilkinson has spent a lot of this week in the public seats of the Latrobe Valley Court.

He sits with family and others – often in the back row behind the prosecution – and has heard much of the evidence as the case ended its fourth week.

This week, witnesses rolled through everything from phone towers to digital evidence ­extraction from phones and ­computers to a mushroom lover walking in the country and spotting death caps.

By Mr Wilkinson’s side on ­Friday were his closest family members, and often in the row of seats in front of him have been relatives of Don and Gail Patterson.

Simon Patterson, the estranged husband of the accused Erin Patterson, has already given evidence but has spent little time in the court by comparison to his uncle Ian.

Friday took us back to the worst of it; the moments when Erin’s four guests succumbed or battled valiantly against the impact of death cap mushrooms, all suffering.

As the evidence was heard of Heather Wilkinson’s plight – she died on August 4 – Erin Patterson became emotional watching the video link of professor Stephen Warrilow of the Austin Hospital.

Warrilow detailed how on ­August 1 Heather Wilkinson was critically ill, facing multiple organ failure. Ms Patterson was watching Professor Warrilow’s evidence but could not contain her emotion as the result of the lunch was outlined to the court.

The court heard that Heather Wilkinson’s plight was much the same as the three others who were shifted to the Austin Hospital in a state of almost total disrepair. She died on August 4, 2023.

Throughout the evidence, Ian Wilkinson, 71 of Korumburra, was largely stoic but also clearly affected. He was sitting only a couple of metres from the gate to the dock that leads into the main courtroom.

As is the custom, the jury sits above all others except Justice Christopher Beale.

“She (Heather Wilkinson) was critically ill in a stage of multiple organ failure,’’ Professor Warrilow said of Mr Wilkinson’s late wife.

Other members of her family were in the court when the details emerged.

The jury also heard that Don Patterson, 70, who was Erin Patterson’s late father-in-law, had arrived at the Austin on July 31 at 2pm, vomiting and excreting blood. “There were many specialists involved in their care,’’ Professor Warrilow said.

The court has previously heard that Erin Patterson did not attend the local hospital until the morning of July 31 and had escaped the severe symptoms experienced by her guests.

Gail Patterson arrived the same day at the Austin: “She was also critically ill and in multiple organ failure.’’

The jury had already heard ­evidence from Mr Wilkinson but on Friday they were told how critically ill he had been. “We thought he was going to die,’’ Professor Warrilow said. “He was very close.’’

Erin Patterson has pleaded not guilty to all charges and has consistently maintained her innocence after the death caps were served on July 29, 2023, in a beef Wellington at her Leongatha home. Leongatha is 135km southeast of Melbourne.

Court 4, which can hold about 40 people in the public gallery, is increasingly becoming full on most days that witnesses are called to give evidence. This week it heard from technical experts including Victoria Police’s Shamen Fox-Henry, whose speciality is data ­extraction.

Evidence was heard of how there were allegedly factory resets performed on a phone provided to police by Erin Patterson.

A Facebook chat was also allegedly retrieved from the phone referring to her parents-in-law as a “lost cause” and her ­estranged husband a “deadbeat”. Another message allegedly read: “I want nothing to do with them.”

The case is continuing.