{"id":126970,"date":"2025-09-08T04:18:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T04:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/126970\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T04:18:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T04:18:08","slug":"eyes-wide-shut-as-a-mushroom-cook-is-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-non-parole-period-of-33-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/126970\/","title":{"rendered":"Eyes wide shut as a mushroom cook is sentenced to life in prison; non-parole period of 33 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mushroom lunch survivor Ian Wilkinson spoke outside the court after Erin Patterson was sentenced to life in jail. Here\u2019s what he had to say:<\/p>\n

\u201cMy purpose here today is to give some well-earned thanks. Firstly to Victoria Police, in particular the homicide squad, and the team led by Detective Stephen Eppingstall.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey made a professional, efficient and effective investigation into what happened at the lunch.
They brought to light the truth of what happened with the death of three good people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ian<\/p>\n

Ian Wilkinson speaks to the media after Erin Patterson was sentenced to life in prison.Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re grateful for their skills that brought this truth to this light.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m also very grateful for the kindness and compassion they showed us, me and my family, throughout the long process that has brought us to this day. They\u2019ve done a wonderful job.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to extend gratitude to the office of public prosecutions, led by senior counsel Nanette Rogers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCourt processes are a little bewildering to lay persons like me, and we\u2019re grateful for their expertise, their hard work, and their perseverance that have secured this conviction.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d also like to commend them for their kindness and compassion shown to us through this long process. They have also done a wonderful job.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re also grateful for the staff of the various public health services that played an important role in dealing with the aftermath of the lunch.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many services and agencies and people involved that I can\u2019t start naming names, but please, each one accept my sincere gratitude for the part that you have played in this process.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re thankful that when things go wrong, there are good people and services and systems available to help us recover.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to encourage all those involved to keep turning up and serving others. Our lives and the life of our community depend on the kindness of others.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to encourage everyone to be kind to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFinally, I want to say thank you to the many people from across Australia and around the world who, through their prayers and messages of support, have encouraged us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ian<\/p>\n

Ian Wilkinson leaves the court after the sentence.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui<\/p>\n

\u201cI thank the people of the Leongatha and Korrumburra communities in particular, your thoughtfulness and care have been a great encouragement to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s all I wish to say for now, please respect our privacy as we continue to grieve and heal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you for listening. I hope you all have a great day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mushroom lunch survivor Ian Wilkinson spoke outside the court after Erin Patterson was sentenced to life in jail.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-126970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}