Australian mushroom meal survivor says he's 'half alive'

Pastor Ian Wilkinson weeps in court as he speaks of losing wife

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The only guest to survive a toxic mushroom lunch with Australian murderer Erin Patterson said yesterday he feels "half alive" without his wife, one of the three victims.

Pastor Ian Wilkinson wept in court as he spoke of the loss of his wife Heather after she ate a beef Wellington dish laced with death cap mushrooms — the world’s deadliest fungi.

Patterson, 50, was convicted in July of serving the poisonous fare to her husband’s parents, aunt and uncle at a sumptuous lunch in her rural home in the state of Victoria in 2023.

In days, the parents and aunt died, but the uncle — Wilkinson — survived after weeks in hospital to give testimony at his host’s trial, which became a global media sensation.