Ian Wilkinson addresses media: ‘I’d like to encourage everybody to be kind to each other.’
Ian Wilkinson has just addressed media outside the Victorian supreme court.
He thanked Victorian police for a “professional, efficient and effective investigation as to what happened at the lunch”.
“They brought to light the truth of what happened to three good people,” he said.
Ian Wilkinson speaks to media as he leaves the supreme court of Victoria in Melbourne, Monday, 8 Sept, 2025. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AP
He also extended gratitude to the office of public prosecutions led by senior counsel Nanette Rogers:
The court processes are a little bewildering to lay people like me and we are grateful for their expertise, their hard work and their perseverance that has secured this conviction.
He continued:
We’re thankful that when things go wrong, there are good people and services and systems available to help us recover. I would like to encourage all those involved to keep turning up and serving others. Our lives and life [of] our community depends on the kindness of others. I’d like to encourage everybody to be kind to each other.
Finally, 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. I thank the people of the Leongatha and Korumburra communities in particular. Your thoughtfulness and care has been a great encouragement to us.
Please respect our privacy as we continue to grieve and heal.
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Updated at 03.30 CEST
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Erin Patterson’s sentencing hearing this morning was historic beyond its immediate subject matter: it was also the first time news cameras have been allowed in Victoria’s supreme court to film a sentencing.
Here is Justice Christopher Beale’s sentencing of Patterson in full:
Watch in full: Erin Patterson sentenced to life in prison for Australian mushroom murders – videoShareCaitlin Cassidy
No staff bonuses and a consultants bill of $44m for UTS
The vice-chancellor of the University of Technology Sydney, Prof Andrew Parfitt, says senior staff will not be paid any bonuses as a result of the ongoing restructure at the institution. Late last year, UTS announced around 400 jobs will be lost to deliver $100m in annual savings.
Greens deputy leader and higher education spokesperson, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, pointed to Parfitt’s own salary of around $935,000 last year.
Does the operation sustainability initiative consider a cut to that salary or the salaries of any of the other very highly paid executives, or is it just staff who have to pay the price of the changes that you are proposing?
Parfitt said senior executives and the senior staff group “will not now be paid any bonus or performance components, which is a saving across the university of about $2.5m”. He also confirmed UTS had spent $44m on consultants last year.
Faruqi also pressed Parfitt on “fear and mistrust” among staff to speak openly, who were instead resorting to “closed door meetings and encrypted WhatsApp groups”.
He said “genuine and open consultation around challenging issues needs to occur”.
It’s part of our change process, and we have been attempting to release the document … which provides the basis for the changes that we might consider.
The change proposal will be released in the next fortnight, Parfitt said.
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Updated at 04.06 CEST
Caitlin Cassidy
‘Unprecedented’ amount of pressure on universities, says vice chancellor
Staying with the Senate inquiry into university governance, around 1,000 prospective students are expected to be impacted by the temporary suspension of enrolments at the University of Technology Sydney, its deputy vice chancellor has said.
Asked about the 120 courses that have been impacted until the end of the autumn 2026 semester, Prof Kylie Readman said 33 had fewer than 10 enrolments, and a further 31 had no students enrolled:
If I looked at these courses’ commencing students in 2025, it was less than 1000 out of about 38,000 at the university. We did follow our policy and our process to identify these courses for temporary suspension, each dean noted the courses that they wanted to suspend, and they were approved by the provost.
In his opening statement, the vice chancellor, Prof Andrew Parfitt, said universities in Australia were facing an “unprecedented” amount of pressure:
In my 30 years in the sector … I have never witnessed such a confluence of challenges currently facing our institutions … constraints on revenue leading to financial stress and job losses … the underpayment of wages, campus safety concerns … antisemitism and other forms of racism, foreign interference … debates around academic freedom and freedom of speech, rapid impact of emerging technologies. It’s a long list, senators.
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Mourners arrive to pay respects to Porepunkah shooting victim
Family, friends and colleagues are coming together to salute a veteran police officer who was gunned down just days away from retiring, as the hunt for his alleged killer continues.
Detective leading senior constable Neal Thompson will be farewelled with full police honours at a funeral at the Victoria Police Academy today, reports AAP.
The 59-year-old was one of two Victoria Police officers killed on 26 August while serving a warrant on Dezi Freeman on a property in Porepunkah, about 300km north-east of Melbourne.
The officer was looking forward to spending more time with the love of his life, Lisa, and already had a list of tasks to tackle in his free time.
His partner, with whom he built a home, will be among the mourners expected to pack the onsite chapel at the academy in Melbourne’s east to remember the man affectionately known as Thommo.
Thompson deserved the life he had planned for after his policing career, state police union boss Wayne Gatt said.
“That, after 38 years in the job and on the cusp of retirement, he made the decision to put others before himself, is a measure of the man we’ve lost,” Gatt said.
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Updated at 03.47 CEST
Erin Patterson has left Victoria’s supreme court after her sentencing hearing this morning.
The convicted murderer left as she arrived – in a secure prison truck with a crowd of onlookers.
Erin Patterson (centre) leaves the supreme court of Victoria in Melbourne, Monday, 8 September, 2025. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAPA prison van carrying Erin Patterson leaves the Supreme Court of Victoria in Melbourne, Monday, September 8, 2025. (AAP Image/Joel Carrett) Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAPShare
Updated at 03.41 CEST
Video: Erin Patterson sentencing
Erin Patterson has been sentenced to life in prison with a non-parole period of 33 years after murdering three people and attempting to murder a fourth with a lunch laced with death cap mushrooms.
Here’s footage of the moment Patterson was this morning sentenced by Justice Christopher Beale:
Erin Patterson: Australia’s mushroom murderer sentenced to life in prison – videoShare
Updated at 03.24 CEST
Caitlin Cassidy
‘Stressful’ time for UTS staff as SafeWork removes prohibition notice on change plan
SafeWork NSW has removed a prohibition notice that prevented the University of Technology Sydney’s from pushing ahead with its change proposal.
Fronting a Senate inquiry into university governance, the vice-chancellor, Prof Andrew Parfitt, said on Friday the notice was removed based on the work the university had done with health and safety representatives and would plan future meetings with staff today to consult on changes.
Last week, UTS was forced to pause a plan to slash hundreds of jobs after a rare intervention by SafeWork NSW, which said workers would be subject to a “serious and imminent risk of psychological harm” if management pushed ahead.
Under the ruling, UTS cancelled all meetings and paused the release of its change proposal.
Parfitt said he recognised it was a “stressful time” for staff.
We’re balancing two stressful circumstances, the stress of people who want to know what the proposal is so that they can engage in a conversation around it, and the stress of those who are potentially uncertain about the process. So we engaged with the Safe Work inspector on Friday to adjust the timing and the nature of the communication … We had thought that we had adequate provisions in place, but the SafeWork inspector thought otherwise.
The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) has also been investigating UTS since last month as a result of the temporary suspension of enrolments.
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Updated at 03.09 CEST
Caitlin Cassidy
Cyber-attacks push university’s spending on consultants to $36m
Western Sydney University spent $36m on consultants in 2024, largely due to a significant cyber-attack on campus, the vice-chancellor has revealed.
Appearing before a Senate inquiry into the quality of governance in the higher education sector, Prof George Williams confirmed $36m was spent in 2024 and $17m in the year to date on consultants. He said the figure was predominantly related to cybersecurity.
The university has been badly impacted by a number of attacks. I can’t say too much because the threat actor is currently before the courts and has been arrested by the police, but we needed to engage high levels of consultant support for forensic cyber work in many millions of dollars.
Late last month, Williams confirmed previously stolen personal information had been published online, including on the dark web, after the university had been “relentlessly targeted in a string of attacks on our network”.
The information included name and date of birth, email addresses and phone numbers, identity documents, tax file numbers and student admission and enrolment information.
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Updated at 02.58 CEST
Ian Wilkinson addresses media: ‘I’d like to encourage everybody to be kind to each other.’
Ian Wilkinson has just addressed media outside the Victorian supreme court.
He thanked Victorian police for a “professional, efficient and effective investigation as to what happened at the lunch”.
“They brought to light the truth of what happened to three good people,” he said.
Ian Wilkinson speaks to media as he leaves the supreme court of Victoria in Melbourne, Monday, 8 Sept, 2025. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AP
He also extended gratitude to the office of public prosecutions led by senior counsel Nanette Rogers:
The court processes are a little bewildering to lay people like me and we are grateful for their expertise, their hard work and their perseverance that has secured this conviction.
He continued:
We’re thankful that when things go wrong, there are good people and services and systems available to help us recover. I would like to encourage all those involved to keep turning up and serving others. Our lives and life [of] our community depends on the kindness of others. I’d like to encourage everybody to be kind to each other.
Finally, 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. I thank the people of the Leongatha and Korumburra communities in particular. Your thoughtfulness and care has been a great encouragement to us.
Please respect our privacy as we continue to grieve and heal.
Share
Updated at 03.30 CEST
Adeshola Ore
Erin Patterson will be 82 when she becomes eligible to apply for parole in 2056.
The triple murderer has 28 days to lodge an appeal.
ShareAdeshola Ore
Patterson’s ‘harsh prison conditions’
Before handing down Patterson’s sentence, Beale said Patterson was in a management unit to protect her from other prisoners, not vice versa.
He said Patterson has “effectively been held in solitary confinement” for the past 15 months. Patterson is likely to remain in these conditions for years to come, Beale said.
The “harsh prison conditions” that Patterson has endured are relevant considerations for her sentencing, he said.
Patterson will have until 6 October to lodge an appeal against her conviction, sentence or both.
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Updated at 02.33 CEST
Adeshola Ore
Sentences for each victim
Patterson, 50, has been spared life in prison without parole.
Beale told the court Patterson had already served 676 days in pre-sentence detention.
Beale delivered the following sentences:
Attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson – 25 years in prison
Murder of Heather Wilkinson – life in prison
Murder of Don Patterson – life in prison
Murder of Gail Patterson – life in prison
Fixing a non-parole period means Patterson will need to serve at least 33 years before she can apply to be released into the community.
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Updated at 02.39 CEST
Erin Patterson sentenced to life in prison with a non-parole period of 33 years
Adeshola Ore
Erin Patterson has been sentenced to a minimum of 33 years in prison.
The prosecution and defence both agreed Patterson should receive a life sentence for her crimes. But the defence argued Justice Christopher Beale should impose a minimum term when she could apply to be released.
Justice Christopher Beale addresses the court as he reads the sentencing for triple-murderer Erin Patterson, Monday, 8 Sept, 2025. Photograph: AuBC/APShare
Updated at 03.30 CEST
Adeshola Ore
Patterson in separation for more than 15 months
Beale says UN guidelines stipulate a prisoner should not be in separation for more than 15 days.
“But you have now been in separation, continuously, for more than 15 months,” he says.
He says given the intense media interest in the case, Patterson is likely to “remain a notorious prisoner for many years to come” and remain at “serious risk” from other prisoners.
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Updated at 02.14 CEST
Patterson’s offending the ‘worst category’ of murder and attempted murder
Adeshola Ore
Beale says he has no hesitation in finding Patterson’s offending falls into the “worst category” of murder and attempted murder.
He says Patterson’s legal team provided no character witnesses or psychiatric report during the pre-sentencing plea hearing. Beale says this means he has limited information to draw on.
He says Patterson has been in custody since November 2023.
Jenny Hosking, the assistant commissioner for the sentence management division at Corrections Victoria, provided information about Patterson’s custody arrangements at the plea hearing.
Hosking said Patterson was not permitted to mix with other women in the Gordon unit – a protected area. Patterson has spent about 22 hours a day alone in her cell since she was placed in the unit.
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Updated at 02.13 CEST
Nino Bucci
Wilkinson and Patterson family members attend hearing
Ian Wilkinson is listening intently to the sentence in court, sitting next to his son-in-law, Bradley Dubois.
He is one of a large number of family members to attend the hearing.
Simon Patterson, Erin’s estranged husband, is not in court.
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Updated at 02.10 CEST
