Mushroom cook Erin Patterson hires lawyer who represented some of Australia’s most notorious gangland criminals to defend multiple murder charges
Accused mushroom killer Erin Patterson has hired one of Australia’s best-known criminal lawyers as she fights multiple murder charges.
Philip Dunn KC will represent Patterson, 49, as she prepares for a lengthy legal battle to defend herself on three charges of murder and five of attempted murder. The Australian reports.
Patterson is accused of preparing a luncheon at her Leongatha home on July 29, 2023, fatally poisoning her former parents-in-law Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, and Heather Wilkinson, 66, the aunt of estranged husband Simon Patterson.
She is also accused of trying to kill Heather’s husband Ian Wilkinson, who was at the lunch and became ill but survived, and her estranged husband four times.
During his 40-year career as a lawyer, Mr Dunn has defended figures including gang boss Carl Williams and Norman Lee, who was involved in The Great Bookie Robbery in Melbourne.
These cases and others on which Dunn has worked have been dramatized in popular books and television productions.
Erin Patterson is seen returning to her home in Leongatha on August 8, 2023, just weeks before she was hit with three murders and five attempted murders.
Melbourne lawyer Bill Doogue is acting as counsel for Patterson and junior counsel is Sophie Stafford, who previously worked as an associate to Judge Michael O’Connell SC of the County Court of Victoria.
Patterson was arrested on November 2 and appeared in court the next day.
Well-known and highly regarded barrister Philip Dunn KC (pictured) will defend Patterson
She has since been remanded in custody at the Dame Phyllis Frost Center in Melbourne’s west.
Simon Patterson and Ian Wilkinson, 70, live in Korumburra, a short distance from Leongatha, where they attend the local Baptist church.
Mr Wilkinson, a minister, delivered his first sermon since recovering from the deadly luncheon to a congregation at church in Victoria’s South Gippsland region on February 11.
An emotional Mr Wilkinson described the previous week as ‘pretty big’, citing six months since the deaths of his wife and friends, his own 70th birthday and what would have been his 45th wedding anniversary.
‘The roads are sometimes difficult, but God is good. He is with us,” Mr Wilkinson told his congregation.
“He promised never to leave… and I can say that’s true.”
Mr Wilkinson spent almost two months in a critical condition in hospital due to the alleged poisoning.
Patterson has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
A brief setting out the police case against Patterson will be completed this month and her case will return to the Latrobe Valley Law Courts in Morwell in May.
Don and Gail Patterson (left) died, as did Heather Wilkson (right), while her husband Ian Wilkinson (right) spent two months in hospital