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Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Daily Mail
Sole survivor of the deadly mushroom lunch makes first public appearance since triple murderer Erin Patterson was found guilty
The sole survivor of the ill-fated beef Wellington lunch that killed his wife and two relatives has broken cover for the first time since Erin Patterson was found guilty. Local church pastor Ian Wilkinson received a round of applause from the congregation as he delivered a message of hope during a rare address at Korumburra Baptist Church on Sunday. It was his first public appearance since Patterson was found guilty of killing her parents-in-law, Don and Gail Patterson, along with Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, at her Leongatha home in Victoria's Gippsland region on July 29, 2023. The mother-of-two was also found guilty of attempting to murder Heather's husband, Mr Wilkinson, who spent weeks fighting for life in hospital and underwent a liver transplant. As the two-year anniversary of the ill-fated lunch looms, Mr Wilkinson made a much-anticipated return to the church, where he's been the local pastor for two decades. 'My name is Ian. I used to lead services here a lot and I'm pleased to be back with you again,' he told the congregation. Mr Wilkinson delivered a poignant message of hope by citing an often-quoted verse from Psalm 23:4 in the Bible, Nine News reported. 'Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil,' he said. Erin Patterson was recently found guilty of murdering three in-laws with death cap mushrooms in a Beef Wellington that she served them for lunch at her home The congregation led special prayers for the Wilkinson and Patterson families during the service as they prepare to mark two years since losing their loved ones. Simon Patterson had also been invited to the ill-fated lunch that claimed the lives of both of his parents and his aunt. It was Mr Wilkinson's first public sighting in three weeks, apart from a personal statement shared in a noticeboard message outside the church the day after Patterson was found guilty. 'Life can be hard, but God is faithful,' he was quoted in the message. The notice from the church leadership team also requested privacy during this 'difficult time'. 'We all greatly miss Heather, Don and Gail, whether we were friends for a short time or over 20 years. They were very special people who loved God and lived to bless others,' it began. 'It's been a long journey, and we continue to lovingly support Ian, Simon and all the Wilkinson and Patterson family members through this difficult time. 'We appreciate all the care from our local communities, special support from individuals and from the Baptist Union of Victoria, and the churches and people from all over the world who have been praying for us.' Mr Wilkinson attended almost every day of Patterson's 10-week trial, where he gave powerful and compelling evidence. More details about his miraculous recovery could be revealed if he takes up an invitation to make a victim impact statement ahead of Patterson's pre-sentencing hearing later this year. A 12-person jury found Patterson guilty of three murders and one attempted murder at Latrobe Valley Magistrates' Court a fortnight ago following a week of deliberations. Patterson had invited the group to her home, where she served them individually wrapped beef Wellingtons containing lethal mushrooms. The killer initially feigned grief as the fatal lunch made headlines around Australia, and Victoria Police charged her over the deaths in November 2023. Patterson faces a maximum sentence of life behind bars.
The Guardian
09-07-2025
- The Guardian
After the mushroom murders media circus, will ‘dark tourism' be next for a small Victorian town?
On foggy, freezing mornings for the past two and half months, members of the public have queued outside the Latrobe Valley law courts, hoping to catch a glimpse of proceedings in courtroom four. The murder trial of Erin Patterson and her beef wellingtons laced with death cap mushrooms has gripped the imagination of the public. Media in Australia and around the world has focused its lens on Morwell in Victoria's Gippsland region, which has embraced the attention. One local cafe even served mushroom soup throughout the proceedings. It's far from the first time a small Australian town has found itself at the heart of a crime that has captured the world's attention. But what happens when the media circus moves on? On Monday, when a jury found Patterson guilty of murdering three relatives and attempting to murder a fourth, Det Insp Dean Thomas of the Victoria police homicide squad urged people not to forget the victims of the crime. At times, it has almost been lost amid the frenzy that three people died – Gail and Don Patterson and Heather Wilkinson – and a fourth, Ian Wilkinson, only just survived after falling into an induced coma, all after attending a family lunch. Public interest in disturbing crimes is not new, says Prof Lisa Waller, the associate dean of communication at RMIT, but the Patterson case may be 'the first really intense Australian example of it'. Sometimes, heightened public attention can develop into 'dark tourism' – travel specifically to places historically associated with death, tragedy or the macabre, and, often, commercial ventures set up to profit from it. Will Morwell, where the Patterson trial was held, or Leongatha, where Patterson lived and served the fatal lunch, be next? And would that be fair to the family, who have requested privacy, and the people for whom these towns are home? The fascination with justice occurring in the public eye 'harks back to that almost medieval idea about crime and punishment being a very public thing', Waller says. 'People aren't thinking that they're part of the mob, out in the town square, looking at the person that's about to be burned at the stake or put into the stocks or whatever,' she says. 'But at some really kind of elemental level … it's powerful.' Overseas, dark tourism is a thriving industry: some of the best-known sites include the Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland, the ruins of Pompeii in Italy, Chornobyl in Ukraine, Ground Zero in New York City and the Paris Catacombs. In Japan, the dense and haunting Aokigahara Forest is notorious for its association with suicides. In London, there's Tower Green, where Anne Boleyn was executed, and in Washington DC, Ford's Theatre, where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion More than a century ago, the state of Victoria was transfixed by another figure: Frederick Deeming, later dubbed the 'Jack the Ripper of Australia'. After murdering his wife and burying her beneath a hearthstone in a Windsor home, he was tried and executed in a case that captured headlines around the world. These days, the Deeming case is the subject of a tour that winds through Melbourne to the sites of his crimes. It's not the only 'true crime' tour of its kind; the company that runs it also offers true crime tours in Adelaide, Brisbane, Fremantle, Fortitude Valley, Maitland, Newcastle and Perth. Associate Prof Jenny Wise, from the University of New England, says the fascination with the sites and ephemera associated with grisly crime is thought to come partly from society moving away from embracing death as an everyday part of life. 'We are seeking other ways to try to engage with death and to experience death, but in that safe way,' she says. 'Unfortunately, it's usually the sites where the most atrocious things have occurred [that dark tourism develops] … those really gory or sensational crimes that have almost become urban legends,' Wise says. The economic benefit to Morwell from the influx of journalists, podcasters, screenwriters and photographers has been considerable: Latrobe city council has spruiked the 'strong increase in external visitor spending', noting that in Traralgon, the biggest town in the region and where most visitors find a place to stay, external visitor local spend grew to $20.13m in the month of May 2025, a $2.56m increase on the previous year. In Morwell, home of Latrobe Valley courts, there was an increase from $5.88m in 2024 to $6.21m in 2025. 'The uplift in spend may also be partially attributed to increased foot traffic in the Morwell CBD associated with legal proceedings at the Latrobe Valley law court,' a council spokesperson said. But about 60km away, in Leongatha, as the jury's deliberations began, the town closed ranks. Black plastic tarps were put up around Patterson's home. Another 15km north, at the Korumburra Baptist church – where the lunch survivor, Ian Wilkinson, is pastor – journalists' questions were left unanswered. Signs have been posted outside the homes of the Wilkinsons, Patterson's estranged husband, Simon, and her sister, Ceinwen Scutter, pleading for privacy and warning journalists not to trespass. Wise says whether or not dark tourism industries are successful 'really depends on the community at the time, the type of crime, but also the vendors that are providing these opportunities and how willing they are to weather the storm'. She notes how guided ghost tours of the New South Wales forest where serial killer Ivan Milat buried his victims were swiftly cancelled after public backlash. 'The victims want their privacy, and I think that's a really important aspect of it. There are ways to be interested in these kind of cases while still being ethical about it, and that's really obviously very important,' Wise says. Waller's research has examined the media reporting of crime in small towns, such as Moe, where toddler Jaidyn Leskie died in 1997, and Snowtown, where bodies of murder victims were found in barrels in a bank vault. She says it can take a very long time for a community to rehabilitate after experiences like that, especially when their town's name becomes a byword for the crime itself. 'When the big media come to town, people feel exposed, and that somehow the crime is a spectacle, and that casts a bit of a shadow over everyone.'
Daily Mail
09-07-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Staight-talking doctor whose key evidence helped bring mushroom lunch murderer Erin Patterson to justice reveals how he now faces losing his JOB
A quick-thinking doctor who gave key evidence at Erin Patterson 's trial fears that he will lose his job after he called her a 'crazy b***' and a 'disturbed sociopathic nutbag' in a newspaper interview following the verdict. Dr Chris Webster has been in the headlines since Patterson was found guilty on Monday of murdering her in-laws Don and Gail Patterson, and her sister, Heather Wilkinson, with death cap mushrooms hidden in beef Wellingtons on July 29, 2023. The straight-talking doctor has now been gagged from speaking to the media after his clinic received official complaints about the way he described Patterson. Dr Webster was a key medical witness early in the 10-week trial, telling the jury he first encountered Patterson at Leongatha hospital at about 8am on Sunday, July 31, 2023 - two days after her deadly lunch. At that stage, Don, Gail, Heather and her husband, Ian Wilkinson, were fighting for life in various hospitals. Dr Webster was already aware that her four guests may have been poisoned with death cap mushrooms when he first laid eyes on Patterson at the hospital. The experienced doctor, who now owns Leongatha Healthcare clinic, told the jury he apologised to Patterson before he recognised her as the lunch cook. 'I apologised (that) she had been kept waiting, I asked why she had presented and she said "gastro",' he said. 'I asked her where she got the mushrooms and she said, "Woolworths".' Dr Webster, who doubted Patterson's Woolworths claims, said he told her that he needed to commence treatment on her for possible death cap mushroom poisoning. The doctor later said he became aware Patterson had left the hospital. After the verdict, Dr Webster told the Herald Sun he thought Patterson was a 'crazy b***h'. 'If she said she picked them (the death caps), it would have been a very different mindset for me because there would have been an instant assumption it was all a tragic accident,' he told the newspaper. 'But once she said that answer (that she bought the mushrooms from Woolworths), my thoughts were, "holy f**king shit, you f**king did it, you crazy b***h, you poisoned them all." 'The turning point for me was that moment.' Dr Webster also described Patterson as a 'disturbed sociopathic nutbag'. The doctor, who serves the medically under-resourced Gippsland region of Victoria, now faces the possibility of losing his job. In an exclusive interview with Daily Mail, Dr Webster said his clinic has received numerous formal complaints which may need to be investigated by the medical board. The doctor said he will work to clear his name and get on with treating patients after numerous people accused him of being a 'misogynist'. 'I'm not that at all, that's not me,' Dr Webster told Daily Mail. 'I stand by what I've done, this is very important. I'm happy to do all the media but it's become all too much now and I have engaged a lawyer and now gagged from any future media (in the short term). 'It's one thing copping these accusations on social media and Instagram but now it's formal complaints. I need to get home and back to work and sort this out, and once things are sorted I will speak again.' Dr Webster said the complaints had drained his and his family's energy. 'One of the complaints accused me of talking about a "patient of mine", they referred to Patterson as a "patient of mine", not as a convicted killer,' he said. 'I go back to work next week and hopefully I'll be able to get back to the work required of a rural doctor.' Dr Webster also said he feared the medical board would need to investigate the complaints if they were 'substantiated'. An adverse finding by the board, if it got that far, could result in a suspension, or, in an extreme measure, disqualification for Dr Webster. During the trial, Dr Webster told the court that Patterson had discharged herself against medical advice. 'I was surprised, well, I had just informed (her) she had just been exposed to a deadly death cap mushroom and I thought hospital would be a better place to be,' Dr Webster told the court. 'I rang Erin's mobile three times and left three voicemails. 'I was apologetic, and I informed the voicemail that I would have to inform police for her health and safety to bring her back to hospital.' Dr Webster rang triple-0 and that call was played to the jury. The doctor later said he became aware Patterson had left hospital. 'Erin had discharged herself against advice,' he said. 'I was surprised, well, I had just informed (her) she had just been exposed to a deadly death cap mushroom and I thought hospital would be a better place to be. 'I rang Erin's mobile three times and left three voicemails. 'I was apologetic, and I informed the voicemail that I would have to inform police for her health and safety to bring her back to hospital.' Dr Webster rang triple-0 and that call was played to the jury. 'This is Dr Chris Webster calling from Leongatha Hospital and I have a concern regarding a patient that presented here earlier and has left the building and is potentially exposed a toxin from mushroom poisoning and I've tried several times to get hold of her on her mobile phone,' he commenced the call. The operator informed Dr Webster that police would drive to Patterson's home in Leongatha to perform a welfare check. Dr Webster said he encountered Patterson again just before 10am that same day after she returned to the hospital. At 10.04am, police called the hospital and said they had arrived at Patterson's house. 'I told them she was here (at hospital) but I asked them to grab some of the leftover Wellington,' Dr Webster said. 'I had no idea, but figured there was a chance, strike while the iron is hot.' Dr Webster said he became concerned about Patterson after warning her that her children could be in dire trouble. 'I stressed the importance of getting them to hospital,' he said. 'Erin was reluctant to inform the children and I said it was important, she was concerned they were going to be frightened. 'I said, "they can be scared and alive, or dead."' Erin's estranged husband, Simon Patterson, drove Ian and Heather Wilkinson to Leongatha Hospital on July 30 before the couple were transferred to the Austin ICU. Patterson's guilty verdict ended one of Australia's most intriguing homicide cases. The mother-of-two, who pleaded not guilty to the murders, sat defiantly throughout her 10-week trial, glaring at the media, members of the public and the family of the people she murdered with callous disregard. Only Pastor Ian Wilkinson survived her plot - a blunder Patterson would live to regret, and will now serve time for after also being found guilty of attempting to murder him. Patterson, who is on remand at Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, will be sentenced at a later date.
The Guardian
09-07-2025
- The Guardian
Erin Patterson trial was Victoria supreme court's largest media matter in recent history, court data reveals
The Erin Patterson trial was the Victorian supreme court's biggest case in terms of media interest in recent history, with more than 250 journalists registering for court updates on the trial. On Monday a jury found Patterson guilty of murdering three relatives and attempting to murder a fourth with a deadly beef wellington lunch laced with death cap mushrooms almost two years ago. The media coverage has been consistent and extensive during the two-and-a-half months of the trial and has dominated media outlets this week. The cast of characters covering the trial included nine authors, seven podcast producers, seven documentary crews and a television drama series, a spokesperson for the court told the media on Wednesday. Sign up to get Guardian Australia's weekly media diary as a free newsletter The ABC announced last week that Toxic, 'a layered and intricate series' exploring the events surrounding the beef wellington lunch, had been commissioned from producer Tony Ayres. Hachette will publish Recipe for Murder, a book by Duncan McNab, in October, with Allen & Unwin releasing The Mushroom Murders by Greg Haddrick shortly after. The supreme court said 252 journalists' and outlets' emails were on the court's media list, while 190 journalists were provided the audio-only livestream details to listen to the hearing in the Latrobe Valley law courts in Morwell. After the verdict was handed down on Monday, an additional seven international media outlets made contact with the court as the story travelled to the UK, US, New Zealand and beyond. 'These figures make the trial the biggest matter media-wise the court has managed in recent history,' a spokesperson said in an unusual statement from the judicial system which also praised the coverage as largely fair and accurate. 'Given the significant volume of trial material published and broadcast, the court was overall pleased with the quality and diligence of media reporting during the trial.' However, there were some misfires in the reporting of R v Erin Patterson, which were only made public after the verdict. During the trial a small number of inaccuracies were corrected. The court was actively monitoring trial coverage, alongside the parties, to safeguard the trial's integrity, the spokesperson said. 'As with all matters, media were reminded they must report fairly and accurately and only report information that was presented to the jury.' Justice Christopher Beale issued 16 directions to remove content, including four against individuals on social media. Most of the directions were for alleged potential breaches of sub judice contempt law. The court was concerned by the media outlets, commentators, and individuals on social media who purported to be covering the case and providing 'updates' but who were not registered with the court, did not attend hearings and had not been warned of the legal responsibilities. They had 'no understanding of their legal responsibilities or the trial's complexities,' the spokesperson said. 'At least one such outlet has been referred to the Office of Public Prosecutions for contempt as a result.' Sign up to Weekly Beast Amanda Meade's weekly diary on the latest in Australian media, free every Friday after newsletter promotion The Kyle and Jackie O Show has been referred for possible prosecution for contempt after comments made on air during the trial, including Kyle Sandilands saying, 'Just lock that bitch up.' Beale also considered whether to take action for contempt against a 'Psychology of Serial Killers' event and Mamamia podcasters for statements allegedly made during the trial. 'I remind media and podcasters that ignorance of the law is no excuse, and I remind them that the court's media team will continue to monitor coverage of this trial to safeguard the trial's integrity,' Beale said last month in the absence of the jury. The supreme court said the fascination with the mushroom trial, which was 'dissected in popular culture', meant ensuring a fair trial was particularly challenging. '[It] should serve as a reminder why the principle of sub judice exists – to ensure every person who appears in court is afforded a fair trial,' the spokesperson said. In a personal note to journalists, the court acknowledged those who had attended who 'put your lives on hold as much as the jury and parties did'. 'I've never seen such a volume of work that you all produced every day – you should be very proud and I hope you're getting a well-deserved break soon.'
France 24
09-07-2025
- France 24
Celebrity chef dismayed over recipe used by Australia's mushroom killer
Patterson was found guilty this week of murdering her husband's parents and elderly aunt in 2023 by lacing their Saturday lunch with lethal death cap mushrooms. She based the dish -- poisonous fungi aside -- on a recipe by celebrity Australian chef Nagi Maehashi, the author of best-selling cookbooks. Maehashi said her recipe for the perfect beef Wellington had become "entangled in a tragic situation". "It is of course upsetting to learn that one of my recipes -- possibly the one I've spent more hours perfecting than any other -- something I created to bring joy and happiness, is entangled in a tragic situation," she said late Tuesday on social media. Throughout a trial lasting more than two months, Patterson maintained the beef-and-pastry dish was accidentally poisoned with death cap mushrooms, the world's most-lethal fungus. But a 12-person jury on Monday found the 50-year-old guilty of triple murder, a crime that carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. She was also found guilty of attempting to murder a fourth guest who survived.
