In Melbourne, Erin Patterson was convicted of murdering Heather Wilkinson, Gail Patterson and Don Patterson by poisoning them with beef Wellington pastries containing foraged death cap mushrooms in July 2023, and convicted of attempting to murder Ian Wilkinson. Patterson will be sentenced on Sept. 8 on three counts of murder and one of attempted murder. The prosecution seeks life without parole while defense lawyers seek eligibility for release after 30 years. Ian Wilkinson, who spent weeks in hospital and survived after a liver transplant, read a victim impact statement and said he feels only half alive without his wife. Justice Christopher Beale described the offending as horrendous.
Ian Wilkinson read the first victim impact statement in at a sentencing hearing for Erin Patterson at the Victoria state Supreme Court. The 50-year-old will be sentenced on Sept. 8 on three counts of murder and one of attempted murder. The prosecution argued for a life sentence without possibility of parole, while defense lawyers want her to become eligible for release after serving 30 years.
A jury convicted Patterson in July of murdering Wilkinson's wife Heather Wilkinson, her sister Gail Patterson, and her husband Don Patterson with a lunch of beef Wellington pastries and foraged death cap mushrooms in July 2023. Erin Patterson was also convicted of attempting to murder Ian Wilkinson, who spent weeks in the hospital and survived after receiving a liver transplant.
Wilkinson, a Baptist pastor, described his wife as a woman who took her faith seriously and was full of love, kindness, and self-control. "I only feel half alive without her," Wilkinson said before weeping. "It's one of the distressing shortcomings of our society that so much attention is showered on those who do evil and so little on those who do good," he added.
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