SYDNEY: The lone surviving guest of a lunch where three others died after being served food laced with deadly mushrooms told an Australian court on Monday the actions of host and convicted murderer Erin Patterson had left him feeling “half alive.”
Patterson was found guilty last month of luring her mother-in-law Gail Patterson, father-in-law Donald Patterson and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, to lunch at her home and poisoning them with individual portions of Beef Wellington that contained toxic death cap mushrooms.
A jury also found the 50-year-old guilty of the attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson, Heather’s husband, who survived the 2023 meal at Erin Patterson’s home in Leongatha, a town of about 6,000 people some 135 km (84 miles) southeast of Melbourne.
The seriousness of her offenses meant Patterson’s sentence could only be life imprisonment, her own barrister said on Monday during a pre-sentencing hearing.
Earlier, Ian Wilkinson told a court in Melbourne that the death of his wife had left him bereft.
“It’s a truly horrible thought to live with that somebody could decide to take her life. I only feel half alive without her,” he said, breaking down in tears as he delivered his victim impact statement.
Wilkinson, a pastor in a local church, spent months in hospital recovering from the poisoning, and said on Monday he had only narrowly survived.
He called on Patterson, who said the poisonings were accidental and continues to maintain her innocence, to confess to her crimes.
“I encourage Erin to receive my offer of forgiveness for those harms done to me with full confession and repentance. I bear her no ill will,” he said.
“I am no longer Erin Patterson’s victim and she has become the victim of my kindness.”
‘Grim reality’
The court received a total of 28 victim impact statements, of which seven were read publicly.
Erin Patterson’s estranged husband Simon Patterson – who was invited to the lunch but declined – spoke of the devastating impact on the couple’s two children.
“The grim reality is they live in an irreparably broken home with only a solo parent, when almost everyone else knows their mother murdered their grandparents,” he said in a statement that was read out on his behalf.
The extraordinary media interest in the case, which gripped Australia for much of the 10-week trial, had been traumatic for the family, he added.
The current hearing will form part of presiding judge Justice Christopher Beale’s sentencing decision, which is due to be heard on September 8.
“This is very grave offending and we make no argument that the (longest possible) sentence should be anything other than life imprisonment,” Patterson’s barrister Colin Mandy said on Monday.
However, Mandy urged Beale to impose a non-parole period, meaning she would have the possibility of eventual release.
He said Patterson’s “notorious” reputation would make prison more onerous for her than the average offender, and that with a non-parole period of 30 years she would be 80 before she could even be considered for release.
The court earlier heard evidence from Jennifer Hosking, assistant commissioner of Corrections Victoria that runs the prison where she is being held. She said Patterson was currently being kept in isolation for her own safety, and was permitted contact with only one other prisoner, who is in jail for terrorism offenses.
The prosecution argues that Patterson should never be released.
Patterson has 28 days from the day of her sentencing to appeal, but has not yet indicated whether she will do so.
Australia mushroom murderer Erin Patterson left me ‘half alive’, lone surviving victim says
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Australia mushroom murderer Erin Patterson left me ‘half alive’, lone surviving victim says
- Patterson was found guilty last month of luring her in-laws to lunch at her home and poisoning them with individual portions of Beef Wellington that contained toxic death cap mushrooms
European leaders expected to cement support for Ukraine amid Washington pressure to accept deal
- After Sunday’s talks in Berlin between U.S. envoys and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukrainian and European officials are set to continue a series of meetings
BERLIN: European leaders are expected to cement support for Ukraine Monday as it faces Washington’s pressure to swiftly accept a U.S.-brokered peace deal.
After Sunday’s talks in Berlin between U.S. envoys and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukrainian and European officials are set to continue a series of meetings in an effort to secure the continent’s peace and security in the face of an increasingly assertive Russia.
Zelenskyy sat down Sunday with U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in the German federal chancellery in the hopes of bringing the nearly four-year war to a close.
Washington has tried for months to navigate the demands of each side as Trump presses for a swift end to Russia’s war and grows increasingly exasperated by delays. The search for possible compromises has run into major obstacles, including control of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, which is mostly occupied by Russian forces.
Zelenskyy on Sunday voiced readiness to drop his country’s bid to join NATO if the U.S. and other Western nations give Kyiv security guarantees similar to those offered to NATO members. But Ukraine continued to reject the U.S. push for ceding territory to Russia.
Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw its forces from the part of the Donetsk region still under its control among the key conditions for peace.
The Russian president also has cast Ukraine’s bid to join NATO as a major threat to Moscow’s security and a reason for launching the full-scale invasion in February 2022. The Kremlin has demanded that Ukraine renounce the bid for alliance membership as part of any prospective peace settlement.
Zelenskyy emphasized that any Western security assurances would need to be legally binding and supported by the U.S. Congress.
‘Pax Americana’ is over
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who has spearheaded European efforts to support Ukraine alongside French President Emmanuel Macron and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, said Saturday that “the decades of the ‘Pax Americana’ are largely over for us in Europe and for us in Germany as well.”
He warned that Putin’s aim is “a fundamental change to the borders in Europe, the restoration of the old Soviet Union within its borders.”
“If Ukraine falls, he won’t stop,” Merz warned during a party conference in Munich.
Macron, meanwhile, vowed Sunday on social platform X that “France is, and will remain, at Ukraine’s side to build a robust and lasting peace — one that can guarantee Ukraine’s security and sovereignty, and that of Europe, over the long term.”
Putin has denied plans to attack any European allies.
