At 10:18 on Monday, Erin Patterson was led from courtroom four inside Melbourne's Supreme Court building to begin a life sentence in prison.
Her slow shuffle took her directly past two rows of wooden benches squeezed full of journalists, each scrutinising Patterson's exit for any final detail.
Upstairs in the public gallery, observers craned their necks to get a last glimpse – possibly for decades, perhaps ever – of the seemingly ordinary woman who is one of Australia's most extraordinary killers.
Also watching her was Ian Wilkinson, the only survivor of Patterson's famous mushroom meal in 2023, a cruel murder plot the judge decried as an 'enormous betrayal'.
Mr. Wilkinson had for months walked in and out of court without uttering a public word. He always wore a black sleeveless jacket to keep warm in the winter chill, having never fully recovered from the death cap mushrooms that took his wife and two best friends.
But on Monday he paused on the courthouse steps to speak to the media for the first time. He calmly thanked police who 'brought to light the truth of what happened to three good people' and the lawyers who tried the case for their 'hard work and perseverance'.
There was praise too for the medics who saved his life and tried desperately to halt the other lunch guests' brutal decline.
For the 71-year-old, it is now back to the house he had shared with Heather, his wife of 44 years, who raised their four children before becoming a teacher and mentor.
The silence in their home serves as a daily reminder of his loss. Wilkinson expressed how the absence of his wife has taken 'much of the joy out of pottering around the house and the garden.' In a poignant statement, he remarked that he only feels 'half alive' without her.
Wilkinson's emotional victim impact statement during the trial highlighted his anguish and frustration at how the media treated the tragedy, emphasizing that attention often focuses on the perpetrator rather than the victims.
Justice Christopher Beale remarked that Patterson's actions had traumatized four generations of the Wilkinson and Patterson families and inflicted indescribable sorrow on their communities.
As Erin Patterson begins her life sentence, the emotional fallout of her crimes continues to permeate through the families affected, underlining the need for kindness and understanding in the face of unimaginable tragedy.
