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Accused mushroom killer Erin Patterson has hired one of Australia’s best-known criminal defense lawyers as she faces multiple murder charges.
Philip Dunn KC will represent Patterson, 49, as he prepares for a lengthy legal battle to defend himself against three counts of murder and five of attempted murder. The Australian reports.
Patterson is accused of preparing a lunch on July 29, 2023, at her Leongatha home that fatally poisoned her former in-laws Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, and Heather Wilkinson, 66, the aunt of her ex-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 also her ex-husband on four occasions.
Throughout his 40-year career as a lawyer, Dunn has defended figures such as underworld boss Carl Williams and Norman Lee, who was involved in the great Melbourne bookmaking robbery.
Those cases and others Dunn has worked on have been dramatized in successful books and television productions.
Erin Patterson is seen returning to her home in Leongatha on August 8, 2023, several weeks before she was charged with three counts of murder and five counts of attempted murder.
Melbourne lawyer Bill Doogue is acting as counsel for Patterson and junior counsel is Sophie Stafford, who previously worked as an associate to Victoria County Court Judge Michael O’Connell SC.
Patterson was arrested on Nov. 2 and appeared in court the next day.
Well-known and respected attorney Philip Dunn KC (pictured) will defend Patterson.
He 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.
Wilkinson, a pastor, delivered his first sermon since recovering from the deadly lunch to a church congregation in the South Gippsland region of Victoria on February 11.
An emotional Mr Wilkinson described the previous week as “quite a milestone”, 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 to never leave… and I can say that’s true.”
Wilkinson spent almost two months in hospital seriously ill from the suspected poisoning.
Patterson has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
A brief of evidence outlining the police case against Patterson will be finalized this month and his case will return to Latrobe Valley Justice 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.