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The sole survivor of a deadly mushroom meal has, for the first time, publicly revealed what happened after taking a seat at Erin Patterson’s lunch table.
Ian Wilkinson’s evidence started on Tuesday at Patterson’s triple-murder trial, where he said she’d rejected an offer by two of her guests to help her serve up a beef Wellington.
Patterson’s former in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, 70, and Gail’s 66-year-old sister Heather — Wilkinson’s wife — died from death cap mushroom poisoning in hospital after consuming the meal.
“Both Heather and Gail were offering to help plate up the food … the offer was rejected and Erin plated it,” Wilkinson told a jury of 15.
Patterson, 50, wearing a pink-and-white striped shirt, locked eyes with Wilkinson as he walked to the witness box.
She has pleaded not guilty to three murder charges, and to the attempted murder of Wilkinson.
The 71-year-old church pastor said he had been surprised to receive an invitation to Patterson’s home about two weeks before the lunch.
“I would say our relationship was friendly, amicable, it didn’t have much depth, more like acquaintances,” he said.
But in the end, he was happy about the invitation and hoped “maybe our relationship with Erin was going to improve”.
Don and Gail drove Heather and Ian to Patterson’s home in Leongatha, a small town in south-east Victoria, on 29 July 2023, he said.
When they arrived, he said Heather was keen to see the pantry, but Patterson was “very reluctant” to show her.
“I thought, ‘Maybe the pantry is a mess, it’s going to be an embarrassment,'” he said.
The group went to the back of Patterson’s home to see the garden, before returning to lunch preparations.
He said four grey plates were taken to the table by Heather and Gail, with Patterson carrying her own “orange or tan” plate across.
“Each person had an individual serve, it was very much like a pastie, it was a pastry case, and when we cut into it, it was steak and mushrooms,” he said.
Wilkinson remembered “banter or teasing” shortly after the meal, as Don had eaten one-and-a-half serves of his wife’s Wellington.
“There was talk about husbands helping their wives out by eating extra food,” he said.
A cake cooked by Gail and fruit platter prepared by Heather were served after, but not much was eaten as Wilkinson said “we were all fairly full from the main meal”.
Patterson then told them she had cancer, Wilkinson told the jury.
She asked for advice on how to deliver the news to her two children.
Wilkinson, who is the pastor of Korumburra Baptist Church, said he suggested a prayer.
“I prayed a prayer asking God’s blessing on Erin, that she’d get the treatment she needed … that she had wisdom and power when she told the kids,” he said.
After the meal, he said he spent the evening preparing for church service the next morning.
However, just after going to bed, he said Heather “abruptly” got up and ran to the laundry, where she started vomiting in the trough.
Both of them were unwell that night and believed they were suffering from gastro.
Patterson’s estranged husband Simon drove them to Leongatha Hospital, before they were told they had death cap mushroom poisoning and were taken to Dandenong Hospital in Melbourne.
Heather and Gail died at the Austin Hospital on 4 August, followed by Don on 5 August.
Wilkinson was also taken to the Austin Hospital, where he was treated in intensive care until 21 August.
He was transferred to a rehabilitation ward and discharged on 21 September.
Patterson claims she did not know the meal was poisoned, with her lawyers telling the jury it was “a terrible accident”.
The trial before Justice Christopher Beale continues at the Latrobe Valley Courts in Morwell.
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