The only surviving guest of the deadly beef wellington lunch at the heart of a high-profile Australian court case has described being “run down the corridor to urgent care” after medical staff realised he had eaten toxic mushrooms. <\/p>\n
Ian Wilkinson was left seriously ill after the meal, which led to the deaths of his wife and two other relatives.<\/p>\n
Erin Patterson – who is charged with the murder of three relatives and the attempted murder of another, has pleaded not guilty and her defence team says she “panicked” after unintentionally serving poison to family members she loved.<\/p>\n
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Mr Wilkinson, a local pastor and Heather’s husband, survived after weeks of treatment in hospital. <\/p>\n
He told the packed courtroom that in the hours following the lunch, he and his wife had been unwell through the night after with vomiting and diarrhoea. <\/b>He added that Ms Patterson’s ex-husband Simon Patterson, who had not attended the lunch, had come to their house and insisted on calling an ambulance – as his own parents had done.<\/p>\n
Simon had driven the couple to a local hospital, and then to Leongatha hospital, because of a long wait for an ambulance, he added.<\/p>\n
At the hospital, they were treated as food poisoning cases and “suspicion was falling on the meat”, Mr Wilkinson said, adding that he could not recall mention of mushrooms at the time.<\/p>\n
But the next morning, they were “abruptly woken up by a group of nurses who literally ran us down the corridor in our beds to the urgent care area,” he said. A doctor then told the couple that “he’d had communication … saying it was suspected mushroom poisoning”.<\/p>\n
“He was very frank. He said it is a very serious situation . He said there was time critical treatment available.”<\/p>\n
The pair were then taken by ambulance to Dandenong hospital. Mr Wilkinson spent a total of seven weeks in hospital – including three weeks in intensive care at the Austin hospital in Melbourne.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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‘I ate the entire meal’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n\n
Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Wilkinson described the fatal lunch, saying Ms Patterson had plated “all of the food”, which included mashed potato, green beans, and beef wellington.<\/p>\n
“Each person had an individual serve, it was very much like a pasty,” he said. “It was a pastry case and when we cut into it, there was steak and mushrooms. It was completely pastry encased.”<\/p>\n
Mr Wilkinson also said that Gail and Heather picked up four grey plates with the food and set them on the table, while Ms Patterson ate from an “orangey tan” coloured plate. <\/p>\n
“Erin picked up the odd plate and carried it to the table. She took it to her place at the table.”<\/p>\n
He was shown a picture of the dining room table on an iPad and he marked where each of the five people at the lunch had been seated. <\/p>\n
He said that both he and Heather “ate the entire meal”, while Don ate his meal along with half of the beef wellington that Gail did not finish.<\/p>\n
“There was talk about husbands helping their wives out.”<\/p>\n
He said Ms Patterson was “definitely” eating but couldn’t say “with certainty” how much she ate.<\/p>\n
There was a cake for dessert as well as the fruit platter but Mr Wilkinson told the court that not much was eaten because everyone was full from the main course.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
‘She seemed like a normal person to me’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n\n
Mr Wilkinson was also asked about his relationship and said: “I would say our relationship was friendly, amicable. It did not have much depth. We were more like acquaintances. We didn’t see a great deal of each other.”<\/p>\n
“She just seemed like a normal person to me,” he added. “When we met things were friendly. We never had arguments or disputes. She just seemed like an ordinary person.”<\/p>\n
“Heather would have seen Erin more than me, talked to her more than me but we did not consider that the relationship was close,” he said.<\/p>\n
The invitation was made to Heather Wilkinson at church, a week or two earlier, Mr Wilkinson recalled.<\/p>\n
“We were very happy to be invited. It seemed like maybe our relationship was going to improve,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We were very happy to accept.”<\/p>\n
The court was shown a copy of Mrs Wilkinson’s diary where she had written, “Erin for lunch” with a pencil. <\/p>\n
Written in blue ink: <\/b>“12:00” – which Mr Wilkinson said was the time they were to be picked up by Don and Gail Patterson. Another word “fruit” in the diary referred to a fruit platter they were taking to the lunch, he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
Reuters<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nErin Patterson sat emotionless as Mr Wilkinson testified<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n