Erin Patterson was ‘very reluctant’ for fatal mushroom lunch guests to look in her pantry, court hears

The only surviving member of the fatal mushroom lunch that Erin Patterson served her guests in July 2023 told the court that the accused was “very reluctant” for her guests to see the pantry.

Ian Wilkinson told the court that when the guests arrived at Ms Patterson’s home, they were led into the open-plan kitchen, dining and lounge area.

“There was general conversation. How are you, and that sort of thing,” he said. “Then we started conversing about the house.”

During the conversation, Ms Patterson mentioned there was a pantry behind the wall in the kitchen area.

“Heather was very interested in pantries at that time, because we’d just built one at home,” Mr Wilkinson told the court on Tuesday.

“Whenever we went to somebody’s house where they said we have a pantry, she wanted to look at it because she wanted to get ideas for setting up her pantry.

“So on hearing about the pantry, she just immediately started walking towards it, calling out: ‘Can I have a look at your pantry?’”

“I’d noticed that Erin was very reluctant about the visit to the pantry, and had not yet started following [Heather and Gail],” Mr Wilkinson said.

“And so I thought, maybe the pantry is a mess. It’s going to be an embarrassment. So I won’t add to the embarrassment by joining the party.”

Mr Wilkinson became seriously ill after the meal in July 2023, which claimed the lives of his wife, Heather, and two other family members, Don and Gail.

Ms Patterson, 50, is on trial for serving a meal laced with deadly mushrooms that killed the relatives of her former husband and left Mr Wilkinson critically ill.

Prosecutors allege that she fabricated a cancer diagnosis to lure her estranged husband Simon Patterson’s parents and his uncle and aunt to lunch at her home in July 2023 and poisoned their food. They claim Ms Patterson then disposed of a dehydrator containing traces of the toxic mushrooms at a rubbish site.

Ms Patterson, who is from Victoria, denies the charges of murder and attempted murder brought against her.

She insists the poisoning was a tragic accident.

Mr Wilkinson said he and his wife were close with Don and Gail Patterson, seeing them around three times a week. He described his relationship with Ms Patterson as friendly and amicable.

He said Ms Patterson “seemed like a normal person”.

“As I said, when we met, things were friendly,” he said, adding that they never had any arguments or disputes.

“Seemed like an ordinary person. I don’t know how to describe it,” he said.

Mr Wilkinson told the court he wasn’t at church when Ms Patterson invited his wife Heather to lunch on 29 July 2023, but that Heather was excited about it.

They weren’t given a reason for the invitation and wondered why it had come about, he said. “There was no reason given for the lunch, and I remember talking to Heather, wondering why suddenly [there had been an] invitation,” he says.

They hoped the lunch might help improve their relationship with Ms Patterson. Mr Wilkinson also said they later learned Don Patterson and Gail Patterson – Ms Patterson’s estranged in-laws – and her former husband Simon had been invited too.

“I think Heather had some conversation with either Don or Gail, and we became aware that they had also been invited. And that Simon, too, was invited,” he says.

At the lunch, Mr Wilkinson said that Ms Patterson said she had some medical news. “She believed it was very serious, life-threatening,” Mr Wilkinson said.

“She was anxious about telling the kids. She was asking our advice about that.

“That moment I thought: ‘This is the reason we’re being invited to the lunch’.”

The conversation ended, the jury heard, when the guests saw Ms Patterson’s son and his friend arriving at the house through a window.

“I suggested that we pray, and I prayed a prayer, asking God’s blessing on Erin that she’ll get the treatment that she needed, that the kids would be OK, but she’d have wisdom in how she told the kids. Then the prayer concluded as the boys arrived in the room,” Mr Wilkinson told the court.

On Monday, three of Ms Patterson’s online friends from a true crime Facebook group told the jury she had a reputation as a “super sleuth”.

They also said she spoke about her love of mushrooms, her excitement over buying a dehydrator, and had sought advice on preparing a beef Wellington in the weeks leading up to the lunch.