Erin Patterson’s pre-sentencing hearing has begun with widower Ian Wilkinson starting his victim impact statement with a devastating tribute to his wife.

Heather Wilkinson was one of three people who died after Patterson served four members of her estranged husband’s family a meal laced with death cap mushrooms in 2023.

Don and Gail Patterson, who is Heather’s sister, were also killed by the meal.

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Ian, Heather’s husband, survived but spent months in hospital recovering.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Erin Patterson arrives at court

Patterson, now a convicted mass murderer, arrived at the Supreme Court in Melbourne on Monday morning for the first day of her pre-sentencing hearing.

She will spend two days listening to how her horrific crime have impacted the families.

Ian Wilkinson pays tribute to his wife: ‘I only feel half alive without her’

Ian Wilkinson was the first to step up and deliver his victim impact statement, starting with a tribute to Heather.

“Your honour, I would like to begin with a few words about my beautiful wife,” he told the court.

“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 she could live peacefully and constructively with all people.

“She was generous with her attitude and resources. If she could help someone, she could.

“She had a great sense of humour.

“She loved learning and had a special interest in languages.

“She was a wonderful wife, we shared a very close relationship for 44 years.

“She was supportive. She was wise and had skills that made up for my shortcomings.

“We faced life as a team.”

Wilkinson said together he and his wife had decided she would be a stay-at-home mother to parent their four children.

“I think the way our children conducted themselves through the crisis of our illness, and through the following proceedings, is a testament to her mothering skills,” he told the court.

Wilkinson said his wife’s death had left “deep wounds”.

“Family events are no longer the same. A very important member of our family is missing,” he said.

“Erin’s actions have deprived me of Heather’s company and of her place in our family.

“The silence in our home is a daily reminder. I continue to carry a burden of her early death.”

Wilkinson broke down when he spoke about how deep an impact his wife’s death had had on him.

“I only feel half alive without her,” he said.

He also spoke about their faith and how his only “consolation” was that they would one day be reunited.

“(Heather) took her faith very seriously. Heather was full of love, peace, joy, kindness, faithfulness and self-control,” he said.

“All of the fruits of Jesus living in her.”

Wilkinson also spoke about his ongoing health issues — more than two years after the toxic lunch.

“I have suffered severe personal impacts form Erin’s actions. I nearly died,” he said.

“It has taken me nearly two years to recover to the point I have. I thank the many medical professionals who strived to save us.

“I have reduced energy, kidney function. I have had to face the many challenges of facing life without Heather.

“I am suddenly single ... returning to work without her sage advice

“No one to share in life’s daily tasks, which has taken out much of the joy of tasks.”

Wilkinson finished his victim impact statement by revealing he had forgiven Patterson for what she had done to him but not for what she had done to Don, Gail and Heather.

“In regard to the many harms done to me, I am compelled to forgive Erin,” he told the court.

“In regards to the murders of Don, Gail, and Heather, I am compelled to seek justice.

“I encourage Erin to receive my offer of forgiveness with full confession and repentance.

“Now I am no longer her victim, and she has become the victim of my kindness.”

Simon Patterson reveals the toll his estranged wife’s crimes has taken on him and their children

Simon’s victim impact statement was read to the court by his cousin, Naomi Gleadow.

“I miss my parents and aunt more than words can express and I think of them often,” Simon’s statement began.

“I am thankful they are with god and I will see them again.”

Simon said Gail and Heathers’ parents and Don’s mother outlived them.

He said his maternal grandparents and paternal grandmother all lived until they were in their 100s - healthy and with sharp minds.

He said he was left to wonder how his parents would have continued to contribute to the world had their lives not been cruelly cut short.

Simon said he was relieved his uncle, Ian Wilkinson, had survived the lunch, but he feels “incredibly sad the others cannot reach their potential to keep making the world a better place”.

“My life now faces the melancholy without my mum and father,” he said.

Simon then turned to the impact Patterson’s crimes had taken on their two kids.

“My kids have been robbed of the kind of relationship with their mother that every child naturally hopes for,” he said.

“Like others, they face trying to comprehend what she has done.”

Simon said while his children are living safely with him and are well supported by family, friends, and the community, behind the scenes they “live in an irreparably broken home with everyone knowing what their mother did”

“Despite this, both children are incredibly strong and wise beyond their years and loved by their family and community,” he said.

Simon said he has been traumatised by the justice system and the large media attention the case has garnered.

However, he said he is thankful for the support he and his children have received from various parts of the community - including schools, government offices, and counsellors.

Despite his ordeal, Simon said he strives to continue his parents’ legacy through his relationship with God and serving the community.

“I am grateful for the opportunity to keep growing in God’s love in his strength - nothing can impact that,” he said.

Daughter of Heather and Ian Wilkinson speaks

Ruth Dubois — the daughter of Heather and Ian Wilkinson — has told the court about her mother as she delivered her victim impact statement.

“(Heather’s) love as a mother shone evidently in her actions, right up until she left us,” Dubois said.

“Her final conversations with us were not about herself, she was more concerned about us, our families, and our kids, than she was about her illness.

“Don and Gail were a constant in my life.

“They both cared deeply about those around them and were generous in their interactions with those around them.”

Dubois said the medical teams worked tirelessly to support them throughout the ordeal.

“I am forever thankful for their hard work and dedication,” she said.

“Dad has shown strength and courage throughout this. Despite the sudden loss of his wife, sister and brother and law, he continues to serve those around him.”

Dubois also addressed Erin Patterson’s crime, saying it was “difficult to comprehend”.

“For the offender to sit and watch, over casual conversation, (the families) eat a meal that would kill, is nothing I can put words to,” she said.

“It is difficult to comprehend how someone could spend months planning this out, collecting the items needed, making the meal, then continue though normal life knowing which harms she caused.

“There were multiple times through this processes that she could have stopped. Been honest. Helped medical staff. Instead, at every step of the way, she decided to continue through.”

She said the situation had harmed not only their family but the community, medical workers and taxpayers.

“I am horrified that our family is associated with such destructive behaviour to the community,” she said.

“This has changed every part of my life. My life will never been the same.”

Other family members speak out

Lynette Young, the sister of Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson, also shared a victim impact statement, which was read to the court by Senior Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC.

Young described her older sister, Gail, as “protective” and her younger sister, Heather, as “bright as a button” and “always happy to befriend anyone who came into her orbit”.

She said her father had to struggle with the death of his two daughters, before he passed away in May 2024.

“I felt I had to be three daughters for dad - it is a silly notion, but that is how I felt at the time,” she said.

Young said the tragedy had left the family suffering as they missed out on celebrating major milestones with Don, Gail, and Heather.

“It was Don’s birthday this week. (In my mind) I had to get him a chocolate eclair... I cried instead,” she said.

Naomi Gleadow also read out three other victim impact statements tendered to the court by her father, Colin Patterson, her brother Tim Patterson, and her grandmother Martha Patterson.

Martha Patterson said she was a mother of “four wonderful sons” but “one of them has been taken from us in such horrific circumstances”.

She said to think that Don and Gail spent so much time living as missionaries in Botswana and teaching English in China, only for them to later be murdered, was “painful for all who knew them”.

“God help me to heal from this tragedy,” she said.

Colin Patterson described how he always looked up to his older brother and how he met and became close to Gail, Heather, and Ian.

He said the frequency of how much they saw each other changed throughout their lives, but his relationships with the couple remained strong.

He said Don had also taken on the major responsibility of looking after their mother as she aged.

Colin said he could only describe the deaths of Don, Gail and Heather as a “spiritual loss”.

“Core relationships in my life have been severed,” he said.

Tim Patterson said he struggles with the “lack of explanation, reason, or remorse” of the crimes.

“I am not sure how to answer this question — ‘how has this crime changed your life?’” he said.

“How do you quantify such an injustice?

“Do the tears cried provide a measure?

“The week following the lunch was the worst of my life”

Tim said Don, Gail, Heather, and Ian had a profound impact on him and in the wake of the lunch he was left riddled with anxiety over whether the “people who shaped his life” would survive and whether the person responsible would face justice.

He said his uncle Don was his role model growing up and was “always interested in what people were doing” and “made you feel like you were the only person in the world”.

Tim said he questions how someone who was so good in his life could be taken away under such circumstances.

He said in his mind, when he thinks about Don, Gail, and Heather, they are not gone — but he will just not be able to see them for a while.

What to expect from Erin Patterson’s pre-sentencing hearing

Patterson spent almost 11 weeks on trial earlier this year with a jury eventually finding her guilty in the regional Victorian town of Morwell.

Dressed in a brown shirt and cardigan with her hands cuffed in front of her waist, Patterson was accompanied by police and prison officers as she was taken from Dame Phyllis Frost Correctional Centre to the court on Monday for a pre-sentencing hearing.

The Pattersons and Wilkinsons, who attended much of the trial, have not been seen in court since before the jury returned verdicts on July 7.

Prosecutors will argue how long Patterson should be jailed for over the murders and attempted murder and her defence team will explain any factors that should mitigate the length of her sentence.

Seven victim impact statements have been read out in court, while another bundle — containing at least 21 more — has been handed directly over to Justice Christopher Beale.

Among the papers the bundle — which will not be read out in court — is a group statement from the Korumburra Baptist Church, which counts Ian Wilkinson as a pastor and Don, Gail, and Heather as former parishioners.

Patterson deliberately served up the poisoned dish during lunch at her Leongatha home in 2023, to her former mother and father-in-law, Don and Gail Patterson, Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson and her husband Ian.

Her lunch guests were taken to hospital, with Don, Gail and Heather dying days after the meal.

She invited her estranged husband, Simon, to the deadly gathering, but he declined the night before.

Jurors were not told the reason he did not attend, with that information revealed weeks later after a suppression order was lifted.

Justice Christopher Beale allowed pre-trial evidence to be released for the first time.

Simon allegedly believed Patterson had been trying to kill him by poisoning meals since 2021, during or before camping trips the pair took together.

He claimed Patterson poisoned him with a penne, chicken curry and a wrap she had prepared, but she denied this and the allegations were never tested at trial.

She was charged with three counts of attempted murder, but they were dropped at the start of her trial after Justice Beale ruled they should be heard separately.

Other evidence ruled out of trial included an allegedly fake cat post to a poisoning help page, an appendix from a Criminal Poisonings book allegedly found on a tablet and an additional trip to the tip on the day of the lunch.

Patterson will be brought in person from prison to the plea hearing, which is expected to span two days.

She faces life in prison and a date for her sentence could be set at the hearing.

— With AAP