Melbourne, Australia — The sole survivor of a deadly lunch laced with toxic mushrooms said on Monday he felt only half alive following the death of his wife and he continued to grieve the loss of his two closest friends.

Ian Wilkinson read the first victim impact statement in at a sentencing hearing for Erin Patterson at the Victoria state Supreme Court.

The 50-year-old will be sentenced on Sept. 8 on three counts of murder and one of attempted murder. The prosecution argued for a life sentence without possibility of parole, while defense lawyers want her to become eligible for release after serving 30 years.

"The offending here is horrendous," Justice Christopher Beale told the court.

A jury convicted Patterson in July of murdering Wilkinson's wife Heather Wilkinson, her sister

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