The dinner guest who survived the deadly beef wellington lunch cooked by triple killer Erin Patterson has revealed how he was “happy and excited” about being invited for the meal. Ian Wilkinson, the pastor at the Korumburra Baptist church, was also poisoned by6 the 50-year-old killer’s death cap mushroom recipe but miraculously survived her attempt on his life. The pastor told the trial at Latrobe Valley law courts in Morwell how Patterson had attended a church service when she invited his wife, Heather, to lunch less than a fortnight before the lethal death cap mushroom lunch in July 2023.
Patterson, 50, was today convicted of three charges of murder and one charge of attempted murder relating to the mushroom dish she served at her house in Leongatha, after a jury ruled she had murdered the relatives of her estranged husband Simon Patterson. Simon’s parents, Don and Gail Patterson and his aunt Heather Wilkinson all perished after eating the toxic dish whilst Mr Wilkinson, Simon’s uncle and Heather’s husband survived after emergency hospital treatment. Mr Wilkinson said that his and his wife’s relationship with the killer “was friendly, amicable, [but] it didn’t have much depth”.
He said: “I think we were more like acquaintances, we didn’t see a great deal of each other.
“Heather would have seen Erin more than me, talked to her more than me, but we didn’t consider that the relationship was close.”
Mr Wilkinson said Patterson had seem “just seemed like a normal person to me” and revealed there had never been arguments or signs of animosity over his nephew’s failed marriage.
He added: “When we met, things were friendly. We never had arguments or disputes. She just seemed like an ordinary person, I don’t know how to describe it.”
The survivor revealed that he and Simon had discussed the relationship issues the estranged couple were having, but says he never discussed these with Patterson.
He had never been for a meal at Patterson’s house, nor been inside any house she lived in prior to the fatal lunch and said no reason was given for the invitation.
But he said he and Heather were “very happy to be invited”.
“It seemed like maybe our relationship with Erin was going to improve,” he added.
Don and Gail Pattersons collected the Wilkinsons about 30 minutes before they were due at Erin Patterson’s home but they noticed when they arrived that Simon’s car wasn’t there, and one of his parents confirmed he would not be attending lunch.
Mr Wilkinson said Patterson met them outside, and they continued into the open-plan kitchen, dining and living room of the newly built house.
He said Heather and Gail then went to inspect the pantry, but the pastor felt Patterson was reluctant for them to see it, so he stayed speaking with Don near the dining table.
He said they went outside soon after, before heading back inside for lunch where Heather and Gail asked their killer if she needed help plating up, but she rebuffed the offer.
He noticed that there were four large grey plates and a smaller plate that was “orangey, tan” colour.
Each plate had a beef wellington, which he described as “looking like a pastie, green beans and mashed potato.”
He sat at the head of the table, with Don next to Gail, to his right, and Erin opposite Don to his left.
After lunch, Wilkinson said, Patterson “announced that she had cancer”.
He said: “She said that she was very concerned, because she believed it was very serious, life threatening, she was anxious about telling the kids, she was asking our advice about that, should I tell the kids or should I not tell the kids about this threat.
“At that moment, I thought, this is the reason we’ve been invited to the lunch.”
The conversation ended when someone noticed one of Patterson’s children and a friend arrived home.
Before leaving the clergyman noticed they had not prayed for Patterson, so he suggested they did so.
He asked “God’s blessing on Erin, that she would get the treatment that she needed, that the kids would be OK, that she would have wisdom about how she told the kids.”
Later that evening, Mr Wilkinson said, Heather left bed to be sick. He felt alright at this stage but vomited for the first time soon after.
He was taken to hospital by Simon the following morning after his nephew came to their house, and insisted that they go to hospital.
Mr Wilkinson admitted he and Heather initially resisted and thought it was “a case of gastro, a few hours we’ll be right”.
But the morning after that he was “abruptly woken up” and told there were fears he and Heather were suffering mushroom poisoning.
Ambulances arrived and the Wilkinsons were taken to Dandenong hospital where Mr Wilkinson was given a charcoal substance to drink, and agreed he had “no memory” from this point regarding his treatment.
The court heard he was sedated and intubated, taken to the Austin hospital, and was treated in the intensive care unit there until 21 August 2023, before he was moved to a ward, discharged to a rehabilitation ward, and then eventually discharged home about a month later.
