AUSTRALIA-CRIME-COURT-MUSHROOMS

Defence legal team for Australian convicted murderer Erin Patterson, Sophie Stafford (L), Ophelia Holloway (C) and Barrister Colin Mandy SC arrive at the Supreme Court of Victoria in Melbourne on August 25, 2025, ahead of Patterson's sentencing. The only guest to survive a toxic mushroom lunch with Australian murderer Erin Patterson said on August 25 he feels "half alive" without his wife, who was 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. (Photo by WILLIAM WEST / AFP) (Photo by WILLIAM WEST/AFP via Getty Images)