At 10:18 on Monday, Erin Patterson was led from courtroom four inside Melbourne's Supreme Court building to begin a life sentence in prison. Her slow shuffle took her directly past two rows of wooden benches squeezed full of journalists, each scrutinising Patterson's exit for any final detail. Upstairs in the public gallery, observers craned their necks to get a last glimpse – possibly for decades, perhaps ever – of the seemingly ordinary woman who is one of Australia's most extraordinary killers.
Also watching her was Ian Wilkinson, the only survivor of Patterson's famous mushroom meal in 2023, a cruel murder plot the judge decried as an enormous betrayal. Mr Wilkinson had for months walked in and out of court without uttering a public word. He always wore a black sleeveless jacket to keep warm in the winter chill, having never fully recovered from the death cap mushrooms that took his wife and two best friends.
But on Monday he paused on the courthouse steps to speak to media for the first time. He calmly thanked police who brought to light the truth of what happened to three good people and the lawyers who tried the case for their hard work and perseverance.
There was praise too for the medics who saved his life and tried desperately to halt the other lunch guests' brutal decline. For the 71-year-old, it is now back to the house he had shared with Heather, his wife of 44 years. The silence in our home is a daily reminder, he told the court a fortnight ago, as he gave an emotional victim impact statement.
To most, Heather Wilkinson will be remembered as one of Patterson's victims - an unfortunate lunch guest in a murder with no clear motive. But to her husband, the pastor at a Baptist church, Mrs Wilkinson was his beautiful wife - not perfect, he said, but full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control and also sage advice.
Justice Christopher Beale on Monday said Patterson had traumatised four generations of the Patterson and Wilkinson families and wrought indescribable sorrow on the communities that clearly adored them.
Erin Patterson now has until midnight on 6 October to appeal against her conviction or sentence.
