Life with no parole for NT triple murderer
Aaron Bunch |
A “cowardly” gunman who murdered three people and killed another during a drug-fuelled shooting spree across Darwin will spend the rest of his life in prison with no parole.
Benjamin Glenn Hoffmann pleaded guilty mid-trial in November to intentionally killing Hassan Baydoun, 33, Michael Sisois, 57, and Rob Courtney, 52, and the manslaughter of 75-year-old Nigel Hellings, on June 4, 2019.
The 48-year-old was sentenced in the Northern Territory Supreme Court on Thursday to three life sentences for the murders and 15 years for manslaughter, with Justice John Burns refusing to set a parole date.
“You engaged in a deliberate course of seeking out those who you felt had wronged you with a view to killing them. As it turned out you killed four innocent people.
“These were men who had family and friends. People whose lives have been altered forever by your cowardly, egocentric behaviour … Your conduct was brazen with you committing these offences openly and in the vicinity of witnesses.”
The father-of-two was high on methamphetamine when he shot the four men while hunting a man named Alex Deligiannis, who he believed had stolen his girlfriend, Kelly Collins.
He shot Mr Baydoun four times from less than a metre away with a double-barrel shotgun at the Palms Motel in central Darwin.
Mr Hellings was gunned down through the front door of his apartment block about 800m away.
Hoffmann’s next victim was his mate, Mr Sisois, who he shot in the head in the car park at the nearby Buff Club bar and restaurant.
Mr Courtney was murdered at Darwin Recycling’s yard, about 2.5km away.
He was found with 69 injuries, including 36 stabbing and slicing wounds, multiple blunt force injuries and a gunshot wound.
One of his other victims was Damita Jerome, who Hoffmann shot in the legs after he killed Mr Baydoun as he moved through the Palms Motel searching for Mr Deligiannis, who had previously lived there.
Outside court, Ms Jerome said she hadn’t recovered from the incident but was “thankful” for the sentence Hoffmann had been given.
“I’ve been waiting such a long time and it’s finally been dealt with. I’m just glad justice has finally been served,” she said.
Hoffmann, who had a long history of drug abuse and criminal activity, was also sentenced for six other charges, including three counts of recklessly endangering life, drug possession and one of threatening to kill.
His lawyer Patricia Petersen said he was “visibly upset” and in shock over the sentence when she spoke to him after the hearing and would likely appeal against it.
Hoffmann and Ms Collins met in early 2019 in a drug rehab centre, where they made plans to move in together.
But two weeks before the shootings, Ms Collins sent Hoffmann a text message saying she was in love with her pimp Mr Deligiannis and had returned to prostitution.
“Things spiralled out of control,” he told the court previously.
On the day of the killings, Hoffmann, who suffers a personality disorder with anti-social and narcissistic features, said he believed Ms Collins was in danger and a group of men had drugged and raped her.
“I had full visions of Kelly being held against her will as a hostage,” he said.
“I tried to save her.”
Hoffmann’s mental state when he committed the offence was a key issue at trial and during sentencing submissions with multiple psychiatric experts called to provide reports and opinions.
Justice Burns said on balance he was not satisfied Hoffmann suffered from a chronic psychotic illness or that he was suffering from drug psychosis on June 4.
“Even if I was satisfied you were suffering from a methamphetamine psychosis that fact couldn’t reduce the moral culpability of these offences,” he said.
“You knew prior to June 3, 2019 that you were prone to violent acts and offences using weapons when you used methamphetamine. You knew this when you recommenced the use of that drug after leaving (rehab).”
AAP
