CCTV, body-worn camera footage provides window into mass murderer’s daily life inside prison

At one point in the newly released footage, a prison officer asks the mass murderer directly ‘Did you flip all his coffee up over him and what not?’ Watch the video and judge for yourself.

A court has released footage of notorious Darwin murderer Ben Hoffmann allegedly splashing coffee on another inmate and being questioned by guards at Holtze Prison in the aftermath.

The closed-circuit television and body-worn camera footage was tendered to the Darwin Local Court during Hoffmann’s trial for allegedly splashing coffee on fellow inmate Jason Doyle.

Hoffmann pleaded not guilty to assaulting Mr Doyle, with judge Ray Murphy due to hand down his verdict in September.

Captured in November 2021 — more than a year after he gunned down four people in a bloody, homicidal rampage in 2019 — the CCTV footage shows Hoffmann walking over to a table tennis table inside the prison where Mr Doyle is sitting and gesticulating as the pair talk.

At one point Hoffmann appears to form a fist and threaten to punch Mr Doyle before swiping his left hand towards him, sending his coffee cup flying and splashing its contents over him.

Mr Doyle then stands up and takes his shirt off and two prison officers approach him and escort him to his cell.

The next clip is taken from a corrections officer’s body-worn camera and shows Hoffmann telling the guards he doesn’t “want to be involved in it”.

“I did have someone mouthing off at me yesterday when I was talking to the officers, pretty badly, calling me a f***head and all the rest of it,” he says.

“I said ‘What, have you got a f***in’ problem with me? What have I done to you? I’m supposed to be you’re f***in’ mate’.

“I asked him if there was an issue because he was, what’s the word, like belligerent or whatever, yesterday, I was like ‘What was the go with that?’ you know, I thought we were supposed to be mates.

“He carried on, he called me a f***head and all the rest of it.”

At one point the prison officer asks Hoffmann directly “Did you flip all his coffee up over him and what not?” to which the mass murderer replies that he “was upset”.

“I might have hit his coffee, I don’t know,” he says.

“I was upset because he started yelling and carrying on at me.

“If I’ve knocked his coffee over, I don’t know … I might have done it by accident, I’ll say sorry if you want.

“It’s not going to go any further is it?”

In the footage, shot just days after he fired the legal team that had defended him at his triple murder trial before he changed his pleas to guilty, Hoffmann grumbles about having “lost” them.

“At this stage you’re going to be locked down as well, I’m going to have a view of the CCTV and whatever’s shown there and we’ll go from there,” the guard tells him.

“I’ll have a look at the footage but at this stage you’re going to be secured in your cell.”

A short time later, the guard returns and tells Hoffmann he has now “seen the footage and I know exactly what happened”, saying “this is your time to tell me the truth”.

Ben Hoffmann and Jason Doyle (top right hand corner) at Holze Prison before Hoffmann allegedly splashed coffee on Mr Doyle in November 2021. Picture: NT Courts

“I’ve got nothing to say sir, he went off at me,” Hoffmann replies.

On Thursday, Hoffmann’s lawyer Michael Drury told the Local Court “consent is what we are arguing here”, which was “based on threats and aggressive behaviour” of Mr Doyle.

“Your honour heard numerous witnesses give evidence about threats to kill, aggressive behaviour towards (Hoffmann),” he said.

“(A witness) said that he heard the complainant say that he would go there if he needed to go there, the implication being he would fight the defendant if he had to.”

Mr Drury said Mr Doyle could be seen pointing his finger at Hoffmann prior to the alleged assault, saying “that’s not the actions of a meek, scared man”.

“We accept the application of force in relation to the coffee cup being spilt but there was no physical violence in the sense of no punching, nothing like that,” he said.

“Ultimately, defence submits that there was consent on behalf of the complainant and that the Crown has not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the complainant did not consent to the interaction.”

Mass murderer Ben Hoffmann reveals fear of fellow inmate

Mass murderer Ben Hoffmann has recounted his fear and panic after a fellow inmate he thought was his friend threatened to kill him, causing him to accidentally splash coffee on the other man.

Hoffmann has pleaded not guilty to assaulting Jason Anthony Doyle after the pair apparently fell out when Mr Doyle accused Hoffmann of cutting in in the prison’s “buy” line in November 2021.

On Thursday, Hoffmann gave evidence in his own defence in the Darwin Local Court, telling judge Ray Murphy he “felt very vulnerable” when his former gym buddy started hurling insults at him.

“They were handing out, it’s called ‘buys’, where you get your weekly buys handed to you through the office and prison officers had called off the weekly buys to call me to the office to speak to a prison support officer,” he said.

“I was trying to listen to her and all I could hear was ‘Oh Hoffy you f***head, what a f***head, now we can’t get our buys, you f***head, I’ll smash you, you f***head’.

“I felt very vulnerable, I have been bashed badly in prison before without people threatening me, I thought I was going to be king hit, I’ve been king hit in prison, I’m on protection for a reason.

“The rest is a bit of a blur but I do remember feeling frightened at the time.”

Hoffmann said the falling out had particularly stung because Mr Doyle had “made me believe like he was a sort of friend of mine”.

Ben Hoffmann was sentenced to life without parole for killing four men in a drug-fuelled rampage in 2019. Sketch: Stuart Thornton

The following day, Hoffmann said he was “still expecting to be attacked” when he approached Mr Doyle in “a bit in shock, if not in fear of Jason Doyle and the few lads that sat at his table”.

“I basically said ‘What’s the go mate, what happened yesterday?’ and he said ‘F*** off Hoffy I don’t want to f***in’ talk to you’, I said ‘We’re supposed to be mates’, he goes ‘I’m not your f***in’ mate’.

“He said to me, ‘I can fight Hoffy, I’ll kill you if I can’ and he said that straight to me.”

Hoffmann said he then “panicked” as he was “in enough trouble as it is” and was gesticulating towards Mr Doyle when he accidentally knocked the cup over with the back of his hand.

“I didn’t fill up any cup and take it over to a table to tip over Doyle or anything like that, I probably wasn’t aware of whose cup (it was) or what was in that cup at the time,” he said.

“I had no intention at all to fight him when I went over there, I actually just wanted to talk out what had happened the day before and as it came out, the threats were real, he did say to me ‘I can fight Hoffy, I’ll kill you, you f***head.”

Mr Murphy will deliver his judgment on September 8.