May 6 (UPI) — The only surviving attendee of lunch where Australian woman Erin Patterson is charged with serving toxic mushrooms to her guests testifed in her trial on Thursday.

Ian Wilkinson, a retired pastor, who attended the dinner that ultimately led to the deaths of four people, including his wife Heather Wilkinson, was the sixth witness in the trial and described the dish as “a pastry case and when we cut into it, there was steak and mushrooms” before an Australian court.

“Each person had an individual serve, it was very much like a pasrty,” Ian Wilkinson, a retired pastor, told an Australian court Thursday.

He said he and his late wife, Heather Wilkinson, who died after consuming the meal were “very happy to be invited,” provided details of the lunch and described being ill and getting told the situation was “serious” by medical staff.

“It seemed like maybe our relationship was going to improve,” Wilkinson said Tuesday, saying Patterson invited them after a church service.

He described his relationship with Patterson as “friendly” and “amicable” but “it didn’t have much depth.”

“She just seemed like a normal person to me,” Wilkinson said.

The trial for Erin Patterson, 50, began in Morwell in the province of Victoria in southeast Australia, with the defense claiming Patterson did not intentionally plan to serve the poisonous lunch to beloved family members at her home on July 29, 2023, but “panicked” after the “terrible accident.”

The mother of two was accused of Heather Wilkinson, Gail and Don Patterson, the 70-year-old parents of her ex-husband, and Wilkinson’s nephew Simon Patterson.

Last week, Patterson’s estranged husband Simon Patterson who originally had been invited to the meal, likewise took the stand to testify that it was considered unusual for Erin Patterson to have people over to her home. He stated he felt “too uncomfortable” about the situation to attend.

“Heather would have seen Erin more than me, talked to her more than me but we did not consider that the relationship was close,” her husband told the court.

The jury was told how there was no dispute that Patterson served the victims a lunch of beef wellington, mashed potatoes and green beans that also contained death cap mushrooms, which led to the deaths of the three who died and illness suffered by Wilkinson, who survived but spent weeks in the hospital and later required a liver transplant.

Wilkinson says he and his wife “ate the entire meal.”

According to Wilkinson, at the lunch Patterson revealed that she had cancer which turned out to be a false claim.

“She said she was very concerned because she believed it was very serious, life-threatening,” he said, adding that Patterson was “anxious” about telling her two kids and was “asking out advice about that. ‘Should I tell the kids or not tell the kids about this threat to my life?'” he said.

The pastor said it was a “relatively short conversation” about 10 minutes before Patterson’s children arrived home.

He went on to testify that his wife got out of bed a night to vomit and was taken to hospital by his nephew, Simon Patterson, the next morning.

The court heard expert and witness testimony saying how Patterson purchased a dehydrator in April 2023 and told acquaintances she used it for mushrooms.

“I was concerned that this wasn’t just gastroenteritis caused by food poisoning,” said Dr. Beth Morgan, adding that at about 10:30 p.m. local time the day after the lunch is when she suspected it was more serious food poisoning.

Patterson has pleaded not guilty. The trial could last another four weeks or more.