‘Half alive’: sole survivor of Australia’s mushroom murders tells court of grief

The only guest to survive a toxic mushroom lunch with Australian murderer Erin Patterson said on Monday he felt “half alive” without his wife, who was one of the three victims.

Pastor Ian Wilkinson wept in court as he spoke of the loss of his wife, Heather, after she ate a beef Wellington dish laced with death cap mushrooms – the world’s deadliest fungi.

Patterson, 50, was convicted last month of serving the poisonous fare to her husband’s parents, aunt and uncle at a sumptuous lunch in her rural home in the state of Victoria in 2023.

Within days, the parents and aunt were dead, but the uncle – Ian Wilkinson – survived after weeks in hospital to give testimony at his host’s murder trial, which became a global media sensation.

Patterson was present in the Supreme Court of Victoria in Melbourne for the two-day hearing, set aside for relatives to testify to the impact of her crimes and for lawyers to argue over the severity of her sentencing.