Ben Hoffmann will have to wait weeks to learn his sentence after killing four people

DARWIN mass murderer Ben Hoffmann will likely have to wait another few weeks to learn his ultimate fate after a sentencing hearing in the Supreme Court was adjourned indefinitely

UPDATE 7PM:

DARWIN mass murderer Ben Hoffmann will likely have to wait another few weeks to learn his ultimate fate after a sentencing hearing in the Supreme Court was adjourned indefinitely on Wednesday.

Hoffmann has pleaded guilty to the murders of Hassan Baydoun, Michael Sisois and Rob Courtney, as well as the manslaughter of Nigel Hellings, in a bloody shotgun rampage through the city in June 2019.

In giving evidence for the defence on Wednesday, forensic psychiatrist Kerri Eagle said she believed Hoffmann was “psychotic” and suffering “persecutory delusions” when he gunned the men down.

Dr Eagle said while Hoffmann had a paranoid personality disorder, his delusional beliefs on the day of the shootings “went beyond that”.

“There was no information that would have made him reasonably believe in the circumstances, for instance, that his girlfriend had been raped or that his drink had been poisoned and he maintained that view despite going to the hospital and getting checked out and speaking to various people who said that wouldn’t have happened,” she said.

“He was actually trying to track down this fellow, Alex, but there didn’t seem to be any information that was reasonably available to him that would have made him think that this fellow was pimping his girlfriend out or trying to harm his girlfriend or himself.”

But under cross examination by Crown prosecutor Lloyd Babb SC, Dr Eagle admitted other explanations for Hoffmann’s apparent delusions were possible, including that people really were after him, meth-induced paranoia and that “he made it all up”.

“I think its certainly possible that he made it all up, (but) I don’t think it’s likely that he made it all up,” she said.

“He doesn’t strike me as that sophisticated a liar, his attempts to feign appear to be quite self-evident and this seems to be more in keeping with a genuine belief that he was poisoned but that’s possible, it’s possible.”

UPDATE 4PM: AN expert psychiatric witness called for Ben Hoffmann’s defence has told a sentencing hearing it’s possible the mass murderer was making his “delusions” up.

Under cross examination by Crown prosecutor Lloyd Babb SC, forensic psychiatrist Kerri Eagle denied she had “taken up (Hoffmann’s) cause”, rather than testifying as an objective expert.

“I’m not sure why I would want to take up the cause of Mr Hoffmann, I certainly did not want to take up the cause of Mr Hoffmann,” she said.

“I was asked initially to give my absolute honest opinion before proceeding to prepare a report for the purpose of ensuring that my opinion was completely honest and transparent and that’s how I interpreted my instructions.”

But Dr Eagle also admitted other explanations for Hoffmann’s apparent delusions were possible, including that people really were after him, meth-induced paranoia and that “he made it all up”.

“I think its certainly possible that he made it all up, (but) I don’t think it’s likely that he made it all up,” she said.

“He doesn’t strike me as that sophisticated a liar, his attempts to feign appear to be quite self-evident and this seems to be more in keeping with a genuine belief that he was poisoned but that’s possible, it’s possible.”

Dr Eagle said she stood by her diagnosis, despite being aware Hoffmann had told a friend that “if any police or anyone says anything, tell them I’m delusional”.

“I think that Mr Hoffmann certainly tries to manipulate the situation for whatever purpose he thinks is going to be of benefit but I think there’s a lot of objective information that suggests he actually thought he was being poisoned,” she said.

“You can be antisocial and you can lie about things and you can also be mentally ill.”

Hoffmann will now likely have to wait another few weeks to learn his fate after the court was adjourned indefinitely while further psychiatric evidence is considered by the experts.

UPDATE WEDNESDAY: DARWIN triple murderer Ben Hoffmann was “psychotic” and suffering “persecutory delusions” when he gunned down four men in a bloody rampage in June 2019, a court has heard.

Hoffmann pleaded guilty to murdering three of the men and to the reckless manslaughter of the fourth on Tuesday, bringing his as of then six week trial to an abrupt end.

In giving evidence for the defence in a sentencing hearing on Wednesday, forensic psychiatrist, Kerri Eagle, said while Hoffmann had a paranoid personality disorder, his delusional beliefs on the day of the shootings “went beyond that”.

“There was no information that would have made him reasonably believe in the circumstances, for instance, that his girlfriend had been raped or that his drink had been poisoned and he maintained that view despite going to the hospital and getting checked out and speaking to various people who said that wouldn’t have happened,” she said.

“It might have been, for instance, in keeping with his paranoid beliefs to think that people were generally out to get him and he might have been hyper vigilant in relation to that but this went beyond that.

“He was actually trying to track down this fellow, Alex, but there didn’t seem to be any information that was reasonably available to him that would have made him think that this fellow was pimping his girlfriend out or trying to harm his girlfriend or himself.”

Dr Eagle said she disagreed with other expert testimony that Hoffmann had an anti-social personality disorder, rather than a paranoid personality disorder, as per her own diagnosis.

“He has anti-social beliefs and attitudes and that’s relevant to his behaviour, but his prominent presentation does appear to be this pervasive paranoia, distrust, suspiciousness, hypervigilance, grudges and perceived antagonism,” she said.

“He reads hidden meanings into benign remarks, he bears grudges, he’s quick to perceive attacks on his character, he’s quick to react in response to perceived antagonism, he questions the fidelity of his sexual partners and these all seem to be from information provided by people who have known him through the course of his life.”

Earlier, Hoffmann addressed Justice John Burns directly to complain that he’d heard on the news that he would “never be released” and questioned whether he had been “tricked” in negotiations with the prosecution.

“The two factors I considered were that the prosecution would accept that I am genuinely sorry and remorseful for my actions and that the court would consider giving me a non-parole period, a bottom – these are the two factors I considered when pleading guilty,” he said.

But Justice Burns reassured Hoffmann that while he had not seen the report in question, he had “no fixed idea” as to what sentences he would impose “other than the mandatory sentences”.

Hoffmann faces a mandatory life sentence for each count of murder with a non-parole period of at least 25 years.

UPDATE 3PM: THE gunman who shot dead four men in a Darwin killing spree showed signs he was faking mental illness in the wake of the shootings, including by claiming Karl Stefanovic was “giving him messages”, a court has heard.

Ben Hoffmann faced a sentencing hearing in the Supreme Court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to the murders of Hassan Baydoun, Michael Sisois and Rob Courtney along with the manslaughter of Nigel Hellings in June 2019.

In giving evidence for the prosecution, forensic psychiatrist David Greenberg told the court there was “definitely an element of malingering” in Hoffmann’s presentation during an interview with him last month.

Prof Greenberg said the symptoms Hoffmann described were “inconsistent” with his prior history of never having been diagnosed with a mental illness.

“He claimed delusions of reference that Karl Stefanovic, from TV fame, was talking to him and giving him messages,” he said.

“Those sorts of symptoms were inconsistent with, first of all, the fact that he’d been seen by dozens and dozens of mental health professionals, over the years, but in particular since his offending behaviour.”

However, Prof Greenberg said Hoffmann’s 2019 rampage was consistent with his prior offending, including an incident in 2014 in which he hunted down a man and brutally beat him with a baseball bat in front of his young son.

“He had for some time believed that various enemies of his were interfering with his girlfriend, Kelly, and his lifestyle was also such that he believed that he was under threat of being assaulted and he reportedly made threats to harm a person called Alex prior to the offending behaviour,” he said.

“His behaviour was such that he was actively seeking out and pursuing his enemies, or (people) who he perceived were his enemies, in an extremely goal directed manner where he was purposeful and methodical.”

Prof Greenberg said there were multiple factors that likely led to Hoffmann’s 2019 blood lust, including his anti-social and paranoid personality.

“He has a pervasive, persistent pattern of maladaptive behaviour where he disregards the rights of others, disregards social norms, or lawful behaviours, he’s impulsive, he has a history of substance abuse, which is associated with this type of personality disorder,” he said.

“In terms of what triggered the offending, obviously, the intoxication was a significant factor.”

Under the legal doctrine of “diminished responsibility”, a murder conviction can be downgraded to manslaughter if the offender was mentally impaired by an “underlying condition” at the time.

Manslaughter attracts a maximum penalty of life in jail but unlike murder, there is no mandatory minimum term.

The sentencing hearing continues in the Supreme Court on Wednesday with the defence due to call its own expert psychiatric witness, Dr Kerri Eagle, within the week.

UPDATE 12PM: BEN Hoffmann has formally admitted to the wilful murder of three men and the reckless killing of another during a bloodthirsty rampage through the streets of Darwin in 2019.

Hoffmann pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court to the shooting murder of 33-year-old motel caretaker Hassan Baydoun, followed by the manslaughter of Nigel Hellings, 75, after prosecutors agreed to downgrade the second charge on Tuesday.

Two more murders would conclude the killing spree, with guilty pleas entered for both, in the slaying of Michael Sisois and Rob Courtney — both aged in their 50s — who were also gunned down during the terrifying frenzy that shook the Top End capital to its core.

Hoffmann had initially pleaded not guilty to all charges but changed his plea at the last minute on Tuesday after a trial that had already lasted six weeks.

The case prosecutors had put to the jury was that Hoffmann had been searching for Alexandros Deligiannis, who had worked in Mr Baydoun’s role at the Palms Motel in the months prior to the shootings when he ended the caretaker’s life in the early evening of June 4.

Hoffmann’s rage was sparked, they said, by his own fanciful notions that Mr Deligiannis had been “pimping out” Kelly Collins, the woman he thought of as his girlfriend at the time. In giving evidence at the trial, both Mr Deligiannis and Ms Collins flatly rejected Hoffmann’s claims.

Next, prosecutors said, Hoffmann’s deranged, drug-fuelled crusade led him to an address in Gardens Hill Cres where Mr Deligiannis had also previously lived before Mr Hellings moved in prior to June 2019.

Mr Hellings would later be found by neighbours dead on the floor of his home in a pool of blood.

From there, Hoffmann proceeded to the Buff Club in Stuart Park where CCTV cameras captured him violently assaulting his one time friend, Michael Sisois, leaving him lying helpless on the ground.

The cameras then show Hoffmann retrieving a pump action shotgun from his vehicle, aiming it directly at Mr Sisois’s head and squeezing the trigger, killing him instantly.

The third and final murder to which Hoffmann finally confessed was that of 52-year-old Rob Courtney, who ultimately died in a Woolner recycling yard after a fierce, life and death struggle with the crazed gunman.

Speaking to the NT News one year on from the shootings last year, Mr Courtney’s best mate, Johnny Reid, said his “heart (was) still broken” over the senseless loss of his friend’s life.

“That day was so traumatic, I’ll carry it with me forever,” he said.

“I see things that remind me of Rob at home all the time. I keep a few candles lit for him at night time.”

Hoffmann also pleaded guilty to threatening to kill a woman and recklessly endangering the lives of three other innocent people caught up in the carnage left in the wake of his mindless violence.

Under NT law, he faces three mandatory life sentences for the murders of Mr Baydoun, Mr Sisois and Mr Courtney — with 25-year minimum non-parole periods attached to each.

In dismissing the jury on Tuesday morning, Justice Burns thanked them for their time and attention over the preceding weeks.

“Well, as you see, members of the jury, we no longer have a trial,” he said.

“The accused has pleaded guilty to a number of charges, the Crown has accepted those pleas in full satisfaction of the indictment, so as I say, we no longer have a trial.

“I am going to discharge you now but before I do I want to thank you on behalf of the community for taking part in this trial.

“It has been a fairly long and difficult process but I hope you don’t think that your time has been wasted because we have only been able to get to the position that we are now because of what has occurred during the trial so again, I want to thank you on behalf of the community.

“Your part is now over and you are free to leave.”

UPDATE 11AM: Ben Hoffmann has now entered his final guilty plea and the jury has been dismissed.

TUESDAY: DARWIN gunman Ben Hoffmann has pleaded guilty to three counts of murder after prosecutors agreed to downgrade one of the charges against him.

Hoffmann has pleaded guilty to the murders of Hassan Baydoun, Michael Sisois and Rob Courtney and jurors have retired while prosecutors and defence discuss the details of one of the lesser charges.

Hoffmann also pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Nigel Hellings, 75, who was gunned down in his Gardens Hill Cres home during a bloody rampage across Darwin on June 4, 2019.

The man prosecutors said Ben Hoffmann was looking for on the night, Alexandros Deligiannis, earlier told jurors he had previously lived at Mr Hellings’ address before moving to Stuart Park.

Last week, mental health social worker Kym Friese told the jury she spoke to Hoffmann in the days after the shootings when he admitted to her that he “may have got the wrong people”.

“I asked him ‘Do you think that your actions would have been appropriate had you got the right people?’,” she said.

“(He said) ‘No miss, it would still make it wrong but at least it would be the right people.”

Ms Friese said she again met with Hoffmann a couple of weeks later and he told her he was “furious” and had “acted on a suspicion” on the night in question.

“I might have had the wrong addresses, there might have been innocent people involved that night — although I went to the right addresses they might have been innocent people,” he told her.

The Crown is yet to accept a plea on a final count of reckless endangerment.