Well, first of all, this is the
pre-sentence hearing. So, we have about
seven of these victim statements that
have been heard so far. There will be
28. And we heard from Ian Wilkinson. He
was very emotional. He broke down uh
during his statement. He spoke about his
wife, Gail Wilkinson. He said that she
was compassionate and brave. And just to
read to you some of that victim
statement, it was very strong. He said,
"It is a truly horrible thought to live
with that somebody could decide to take
her life. I only feel half alive without
her. I encourage Erin to receive my
offer of forgiveness for these harms
done to me with full confession and
repentance. I bear her no ill will." And
it was that last statement about
forgiveness that that really got quite a
reaction in the court, as you can
imagine. And just to remind people, Erin
Patterson was found guilty around about
a month ago uh for the murders of three
people and an attempted murder. People
she had invited over for dinner fed a
beef Wellington pie that was laced with
toxic death cap mushrooms. We also had a
victim's statement read out by her
aranged husband, Simon Patterson. He
didn't appear. It was read out by
somebody else. And in it, he spoke about
the impact of all of this on the
couple's two children. He's now a sole
parent, and these children will have to
grow up knowing that people in the
community know that their mother killed
their grandparents. So, a a very mo
emotional day in the court. Aaron
Patterson was also there. It was the
first time she had been back in court
since the guilty verdict. And there'll
be a number of days of these victim
statements and we should get some
indication over the next few days of
exactly what the date will be for the
final sentencing.
>> We're just hearing uh that the
sentencing will take place on September
8th. That was Nicole Johnson reporting
there live from Sydney on the the case
of Erin Patterson who poisoned members
of her family with mad death cap
mushrooms.