Erin Patterson to face victims’ family: Live updates

Pastor Ian Wilkinson said he has forgiven Patterson.

‘I’m distressed that Erin has acted with callous and calculated disregard for my life and the lives of those I love,’ he said.

‘What foolishness possesses a person to think that murder could be the solution to their problems, especially the murder of people who had only good intentions towards her?

‘Erin has brought deep sorrow and grief into my life and the lives of many others.

‘The ripples spread out through family, friends, our church, congregation, the local community and beyond you.

‘In regard to the many harms done to me, I make an offer of forgiveness to Erin.

‘I have no power or responsibility to forgive harms done to others in regards to the murder of Heather, Gail and Don, I am compelled to seek justice.

‘However, I encourage Erin to receive my offer of forgiveness for those harms done to me with full confession and repentance. I bear her no ill will.

‘My prayer for her is that she will use her time in jail wisely to become a better person.

‘Now I am no longer Erin Patterson’s victim, and she has become the victim of my kindness.

‘Thank you for hearing me.’

Mr Wilkinson had to take a large pause while delivering his emotional tribute to his wife.

‘Heather had a great sense of humour, and it was a joy to be in her company,’ he said.

‘She loved learning and had a special interest in languages. She was wonderful wife.

‘We shared a very close marriage relationship for 44 years. Heather was always supportive and encouraging to me.

‘She was wise and had skills that made up for my shortcomings. Together, we faced life as a team, and we delighted in each other’s company.

‘We shared a lot of common interests and yet encouraged each other in our own particular interests.

‘Heather was a great mother to our four children. We decided together that she would be a stay at home mum.

‘She loved our children and believed her greatest work was to raise them to be good people with values of care for each other in the family, and for other people beyond the family.

‘I think that the way our children conducted themselves through the crisis of our illness, and the subsequent legal proceedings, is testament to her mothering skills.

‘Our children were thrown into an unprecedented situation in which they suddenly had to take medical responsibility for the lives of their parents.

‘The trauma that they experienced at their mother’s death, and at my near death, has left deep wounds.

‘I’m deeply grieved by their ongoing pain.’

The court is now hearing evidence from Corrections Victoria Sentence Management Division assistant-Commissioner Jennifer Hosking.

She said Patterson was placed in the Gordon Unit at Dame Phyllis Frost Centre after the then-accused murderer went into custody on November 3, 2023.

Ms Hosking said Patterson was given a ‘major-offender’ status due to the high profile media coverage of her then-alleged crimes.

The court heard Patterson was then transferred to Murray Protection Unit for the safety and for increased supervision.

Ms Hosking said prisoners inside the unit had access to kitchenettes.

‘There are small kitchenettes where some women can prepare their own food or supplement the food that that’s provided by the kitchen,’ Ms Hosking said.

Patterson was then transferred back to Gordon for seven days then back to the Murray Unit where she remained until June 9, 2024.

Ms Hosking said Patterson was then shifted back to Gordon where she has remained since.

Simon has taken aim at the legal system which helped find his estranged wife guilty of multiple murders.

‘The impact includes trauma caused by an abrasive legal system and an occasionally callous mainstream media,’ his victim impact statment read.

‘I’ve found both to be remarkably dehumanising. The inability to share openly with close family members prior to us giving evidence, to avoid influencing each other’s memories, has partly inhibited my healthy grieving.

‘My inability to follow or absorb the legal process that occurred before I gave evidence in the trial has distressed me.

‘The deplorable behaviour by some legacy media personnel has also substantially impacted my family and me.

‘My kids and I have suffered many days filled with strangers menacing our home, brandishing notebooks, phones, cameras and microphones.

‘We have faced people waiting in ambush at our front door, inches away, with TV camera and microphone at the ready after ringing our doorbell; strangers holding notebooks have banged aggressively on our windows in the early morning trying to peek into my children’s bedrooms, always skulking away before the police arrived.

‘I’ve been ambushed by strangers with cameras and microphones waiting by my car when I’m parked in public. The children and I have been filmed in cafes and in the street by opportunistic individuals.

‘I doubt I’ll get used to being treated in such dehumanising ways by these creepy strangers who regard humans as merely content to further their media careers.

‘The kids and I establish a routine for when we stay away at short notice to avoid the immediate circus suddenly gathered outside our home.

‘When we’re at a cafe, if I suddenly say, time to go now, the kids know we immediately leave quietly because I’ve spotted someone serendipitously recording us.

‘The need to perpetually watch for strangers who are showing a threatening interest has introduced a new strain on our lives.’

The plea has now broken for lunch and will resume shortly.

‘My two children are left without grandparents as a result of these murders,’ Simon said in his victim impact statement.

‘They have also been robbed of hope for the kind of relationship with their mother that every child naturally yearns for like all of us. They face the daunting challenge of trying to comprehend what she has done and then who she might be.

‘It is great that the children live continually with me in a safe, healthy and honest home within a supportive community.

‘The grim reality is they lived in an irreparably broken home with only a solemn, solo parent, when almost everyone else knows their mother murdered their grandparents. None of these hurdles that my children face are easy for them to overcome.

‘The fact these foreseeable hurdles were actively put in front of them by their own mother is an impact we will wrestle with for the rest of our lives.

‘Despite this, both children are incredibly strong, loving, intelligent, observant and wise beyond their years.

‘With much help, they are overcoming the hurdles. They both know they are always loved, supported and encouraged at home and upheld by our family and community.

‘With this ongoing love, they will continue to overcome, and ultimately thrive, especially if the wider public persists in letting them be the practical impact on our family and me, since the murders have been intense, added to the bewildering killing of special people we love dearly.’

Naomi Gleadow read Simon’s victim impact statement to the court.

‘I miss my parents in more than words can express, and I think of them often,’ Simon said in his statement.

‘I miss the opportunity to offer them more love, and I miss their great love. I’m thankful, however, that they are with God and I will see them again.

‘The extraordinary effect they had on so many of us means their brilliant legacies live on too.

‘I will be aware for roughly the next 30 years, presuming I live that long, that they could still be alive, had Erin not chosen to murder them.

‘My life now carries the melancholy of facing the absence of my parents and aunt, their incredible love, support, wisdom, knowledge, intelligence, warmth, gentleness, guidance, and humour in both spirit and truth are gone.

‘I have known mum, dad, Heather and Ian almost their entire adult lives, and they each constantly display those attributes in spades.

‘Praise God that at least Ian miraculously survived to continue to make the world a better place, living an exceptional life as he always has.

‘I feel incredibly sad that the others cannot continue to fulfil their potential to keep making the world a better place too.’

More of Tim’s victim impact statement was read to the court.

‘Why did Erin decide that she’d make her life’s work a portrait of death and destruction?

‘Why did she decide to focus her expertly hidden wrath upon the most selfless, loving group of people I’ve known?

‘Why would God choose such a violent end for those who gave their lives to him?

‘I guess that’s the final injustice in all of this: the lack of explanation, reason or remorse.

‘Since then, life has gone on. I still cry when I think about how we came to lose Heather, Gail and Don. It’s a strange thing, but for some reason, I still can’t fully accept that Don and Gail are gone.

‘Probably the greatest ongoing impact, however, is that I now find myself consciously trying to soak in every moment I get to bed with my amazing wife and our kids, the time I get with my parents, family and friends, chatting for hours with my 100-year-old grandmother, and just revelling in the life that we are so lucky to have.’

Naomi said Tim Patterson had struggled to put into words the emotional impact of Patterson’s crimes.

‘How do you measure or quantify such a deep sense of loss or injustice?’ Naomi read from his victim impact statement.

‘How do you answer the question, what is the emotional impact on you when the impact is on the very foundations on which you have modelled yourself?

‘Do the tears cried provide a measure in volume, perhaps, or the heart palpitations and resulting specialist appointments in the immediate aftermath, in dollars or hours?

‘What I do know is the week following the lunch was the worst of my life.

‘I am no stranger to anxiety, but that week was the most acutely anxious I’ve ever been. Driven by my worst fears, my nightmares made real.

‘Would Don Gail, Heather and Ian, the people who played central roles in shaping the person I am today, survive?

‘Would the police be engaged early enough to capture the evidence, and would she, the author of the carefully calculated and executed demise of these gentle and selfless souls, be held accountable?’

Family friend Naomi read the impact statements of Don’s mum Martha Patterson and Don’s brother Colin Patterson and Colin’s son Tim Patterson.

Naomi said Martha said her whole family was broken.

She spoke fondly about how Don had helped her learn to use a computer.

Naomi said Colin described the deaths as ‘a spiritual loss’.

‘I miss them keenly,’ he said.

The court heard Colin had the closest relationship with Don, who helped him with work and family.

Colin said Don had helped their elderly mother continue to live in her own home.

‘That effort had now been passed onto her other children,’ Colin said in his statement.

Dr Nanette Rogers SC read the victim impact statement of Lynette, sister of Heather Wilkinson and Gail Patterson.

Dr Rogers said Lynette said ‘Heather was my little sister, bright as a button, always happy to befriend any person that came into her orbit’.

‘We all had to suffer with our father, grandfather, knowing two of his daughters had been poisoned, then his son in law, Don died, dad was watching and waiting as Ian struggled for his life,’ Lynette said in her victim impact statement.

Dr Nanette Rogers SC read the victim impact statement of Don’s mum Marsha Patterson.

Dr Rogers told the court Marsha said her ‘whole family was broken’.

She spoke fondly about how Don had helped her learn to use a computer.

Seated in a wheelchair next to her father at the front of the court, Ms Dubois condemned Patterson for taking away her mother.

Ms Dubois went into detail about the kind and caring relationship she had with her mother.

‘Her final conversations with us were not about herself she was more concerned about our family,’ she said.

Ms Dubois said Don and Gail had been a constant in her life too, and paid tribute to their kindness and to her father and his strength in his recovery.

She described her horror at Patterson’s efforts to lure in her family and kill them the way she did.

She described her ordeal as an ‘endless nightmare’, saying she struggled to work out how Patterson had gone to such lengths to kill her family.

‘Followed up by the extraordinary lies and the absolute lack of care for the victims,’ she said.

‘She could have stopped, she could have cancelled the plans.’

Ms Dubois condemned Patterson for following through with her evil plans.

In the prison dock, Patterson showed little emotion as Ms Dubois delivered her the grim truth of her actions.

Mr Wilkinson praised God and medical staff for his ‘miraculous healing’.

‘I very, very nearly died,’ he said.

‘It has taken me the best part of two years for my health and strength to recover to the point that they have.

‘I praise God for my miraculous healing, and I thank the many medical professionals who strive to save all four of us. They threw everything into our care.

‘I joke that I know this because I have a bump on the back of my head from the kitchen sink.’

Mr Wilkinson said he now only feels ‘half alive without’ Heather.

‘My consolation is that we will be reunited in the resurrection and the age to come,’ he said.

‘In a similar vein, the second heaviest impact on me has been the loss of Don and Gail (pictured).

‘They were the next two closest people to me, after Heather and our family, and again, they were good and solid people.

‘No doubt, their families will say more about them, but I would like to acknowledge their good character and their constructive influence on my life.’

Pastor Ian Wilkinson has tearfully commenced reading his victim impact statement to the court.

‘Your Honour, I would like to begin with a few words about my beautiful wife, Heather,’ Mr Wilkinson said.

‘She was a compassionate, intelligent, brave, witty, simply a delightful person who loved sharing life with others like everyone else.

‘She had faults, but she actively sought to overcome them so that she could live peacefully and constructively with all people.

‘She was generous in her attitudes and with her resources. If she could help somebody, she would.’

Justice Beale has opened the plea hearing.

Patterson, who is wearing black pants and a paisley top, confirmed her age and told the court she worked as an administrative clerk.

Prosecutor Dr Nanette Rogers told the court a portion of Ruth Dubois’ victim impact statement, pastor Ian’s Wilkinson’s daughter, was problematic.

The court heard Mr Wilkinson will read his impact statement first.

Patterson’s defence team, led by Colin Mandy SC (pictured), will have an opportunity to make submissions on behalf of their client in an attempt to mitigate the jail term.

These submissions can include Patterson’s personal circumstances, including her upbringing.

However, as Patterson has denied killing her victims she cannot use remorse as a mitigating factor, nor is she entitled to a sentence discount for pleading guilty.

The plea will commence at 10.30am.

Patterson (pictured) is today facing a plea hearing which is expected to last for two days, but could go longer.

In Victoria a plea hearing is a pre-sentence hearing where the prosecution have the opportunity make submissions on the gravity of Patterson’s offending and the grade of the severity of her murders.

Her sole surviving victim, and other family of the deceased, will also be given the opportunity to read out victim impact statements.

The victims and family have the choice on whether to make a statement, whether they or the prosecutor reads out the statement to the court, or the statement is handed directly to Justice Christopher Beale who will read it privately.

Erin Patterson, 50, will return to court today for the first time since she was found guilty of murdering three in-laws and attempting to murder a fourth victim.

Patterson, who was found guilty on July 7, murdered in-laws Don and Gail Patterson and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, wife of lone lunch survivor Pastor Ian Wilkinson (pictured).

Patterson murderd her victims by poisoning their beef Wellington lunch with death cap mushrooms at her Leongatha home on July 29, 2023.

The killer is expected to come face-to-face with her Pastor Wilkinson at today’s hearing.