Whanganui brothers await fate over brutal death

Lionel Patea, left, with fellow Bandido gang member John Fahey.

Two brothers who grew up in Whanganui now sit in Queensland prisons as convicted killers.

Lionel and Nelson Patea met in the Brisbane Supreme Court on Monday and pleaded guilty, with their cousin Aaron Crawford, to the 2015 killing of Gold Coast pool builder Greg Dufty.

The father-of-two was bludgeoned to death with a spanner and tyre iron by Lionel Patea and his body dumped and set on fire by Crawford and another man.

Lionel Patea, 27, who spent his childhood in Whanganui, pleaded guilty to murder while Nelson Patea, 24, and Aaron Crawford pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

It is the second time Lionel Patea, a once talented rugby league player turned Bandido biker gang enforcer, has pleaded guilty to murder.

Last year he admitted the brutal killing of his former girlfriend and the mother of his young daughter, Tara Brown, and was given a life sentence.

Two months after murdering Dufty, Lionel Patea began terrorising Brown over custody of their daughter and her seeing other men.

After Brown dropped off her daughter at kindergarten she was chased by Patea in his 4WD.

The chase reached speeds of 100km/h before Patea rammed Brown's vehicle, forcing it off the road. He went to the wreckage carrying a steel fire hydrant and beat Brown 16 times, causing devastating brain injuries.

She died after her life support was switched off in September, 2015.

Lionel and Nelson's father Andrae and mother Vanessa are believed to have been in the Brisbane Supreme Court on Monday to hear their sons admit to being killers.

Just over a decade ago the couple were bringing up their sons, then aged 16 and 13, as the boys attended Keebra Park State High School.

Although born in Victoria, Lionel spent his early years with his family in Whanganui before moving to the Gold Coast where the brothers lived for sport.

Both brothers played age-group rugby league, though Lionel was more talented and made the South Coast Maori Rugby League side.

The Pateas lived in a modest house in the Gold Coast suburb of Arundel with their maltese terrier and Shi Tzu dogs, watched a lot of sport and mixed with other local Kiwi families.

New Zealander Tara Brown, the victim of a brutal attack.

As a teenager Lionel began to show signs of mental instability, reportedly self harming when rejected by a romantic interest.

In 2009, aged 18, Lionel finished school and immediately became involved with a "baby bikie" gang, the Mexican Soldiers, a feeder gang to the Bandidos.

He began to assemble a criminal record, was fined for public nuisance, was convicted of unlawful possession of suspected stolen property, of breaching a domestic violence order and of wilful damage.

He was elected the gang's Gold Coast chapter sergeant-at-arms and in 2011 received six months prison for fraud, unlawful use of a motor vehicle and driving without a licence.

Facebook photos from the time show happy father and daughter shots and affectionate posts from Patea to Brown.

Patea, however, was still connected to the Gold Coast drug trade.

His cousin, Crawford, was growing cannabis on the Gold Coast with a partner, Dufty.

In the middle of 2015, half of one cannabis crop worth about $32,000 went missing.

Crawford called on Lionel and Nelson Patea and two other men, Clinton Stockman and Liam Bliss, to question Dufty.

On July 6, 2015, Crawford lured Dufty to isolated Mt Nathan on the promise of a drug deal.

Lionel Patea was lying in wait with a shifting spanner, a tyre iron and a knife and emerged to assault Dufty.

For Dufty's death, Lionel Patea, Nelson Patea and Aaron Crawford await sentencing.

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