Former Bandido bikie Lionel Patea killed Gold Coast drug runner Greg Dufty over $32,000 debt
FORMER bikie enforcer Lionel Patea, his brother Nelson Patea and Aaron Crawford pleaded guilty to Greg Dufty’s death yesterday. The reasons behind the brutal murder have now come to light.
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FORMER bikie enforcer Lionel Patea brutally bashed Gold Coast drug runner Greg Dufty over a $32,000 marijuana debt.
The next day he phoned a co-accused to ask about the father of two and whether he had come clean on the drugs.
The former Bandidos kingpin was unaware the 37-year-old had died from the beating with a shift spanner and tyre iron, or that his body had been disposed of and burnt.
LIONEL PATEA HAD BLOODIED HAND ACCORDING TO WITNESS STATEMENT
Patea yesterday pleaded guilty in the Queensland Supreme Court in Brisbane to the July 2015 murder in the Gold Coast Hinterland.
Just two months after Mr Dufty’s death, Patea viciously beat his girlfriend Tara Brown to death with a fire hydrant cover after running her car off the road. He is serving a life sentence for her death.
Patea’s brother Nelson Andrea Patea and Aaron John Crawford both pleaded guilty yesterday to one count each of manslaughter for Mr Dufty’s death.
Crawford also pleaded guilty to interfering with a corpse.
In February, two other men, Liam Bliss and Clinton Stockman, pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Bliss was given five years jail, suspended immediately. Stockman, who also admitted to interfering with a corpse, was sentenced to six years prison with immediate parole eligibility.
PATEA BROTHERS AND AARON CRAWFORD PLEAD GUILTY TO KILLING GREG DUFTY
Moments before pleading guilty in the court, the Patea brothers laughed and joked with each other in the dock.
Lionel Patea, once on $250,000 a year as a Bandido bikie enforcer, smiled as he stood to enter his guilty plea.
“Guilty,” he said in a bored tone.
When asked if there any reason why a sentence should not be passed on him, he replied: “Nah.”
Mr Dufty’s family, including his mother Margaret, watched as the three men entered their pleas. Mr Dufty’s former partner, Sharni Mill, cried during the proceedings.
Across the courtroom, the Patea brothers’ family sat silently in support of the two boys.
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Crawford was separated from the pair by a glass security screen and a large number of corrective services officers surrounded the dock.
Not too long ago, however, the trio were inseparable.
The Gold Coast Bulletin can reveal Crawford and Mr Dufty grew cannabis together on the Gold Coast and Mr Dufty would run the drugs up to Darwin.
When about half of that crop, about $32,000 worth, went missing Crawford called on Pateas and Stockman to question Mr Dufty about its whereabouts.
Mr Dufty disappeared in mid-2015 after spending the day dancing and “being silly” with his two young daughters.
He was last seen on security camera footage parking at Ashmore Steak and Seafood restaurant before being picked up by a Mack truck on Ashmore Road.
He was driven to a remote location in the Gold Coast hinterland when the men set upon him to question him and where the missing cannabis had gone.
LIONEL PATEA SENTENCED TO PRISON FOR MURDERING TARA BROWN
Crawford and Stockman disposed of Mr Dufty’s body the next day, burning it while both high on ice.
Defence lawyer Campbell MacCallum, of Moloney MacCallum Abdelshahied Lawyers, said Lionel Patea was coming to terms with having to plead guilty to murder when he was not involved in the planning of the attack.
His hair is now almost completely shaved with a small patch on the back of his head which he has grown past his shoulders and plaited into a rat’s tail.
The elder of the two Patea brothers has been serving his time for Ms Brown’s murder in Lotus Glen in far north Queensland, the other side of the state to Nelson Patea who has been in Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre.
GUILTY PLEAS FROM LIAM BLISS AND CLINTON STOCKMAN FOR MANSLAUGHTER
Both brothers have converted to Islam while behind bars.
The Pateas and Crawford will be sentenced in the Brisbane Supreme Court today.
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