Hoffmann trial: Jurors view CCTV of Rob Courtney’s neighbours running for their lives

Jurors have witnessed the tense moments in the lead up to the end of Rob Courtney’s life as his neighbours run for their lives and desperately seek cover as gunshots ring out across the property.

UPDATE5PM: JURORS have witnessed the tense moments in the lead up to the end of Rob Courtney’s life as his neighbours run for their lives and desperately seek cover as gunshots ring out across the property.

The CCTV footage from Darwin Recycling in Woolner was played for the court on day six of Ben Hoffmann’s murder trial after he pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Courtney and three other men on June 4, 2019.

Prosecutors allege the footage shows Hoffmann arriving in a white HiLux armed with a gun before a number of men who live and work at the facility catch sight of him and the deadly game of cat and mouse begins.

The recycling centre’s owner, Gerard French, wasn’t present at the time but provided the CCTV to police, telling the court the area where Mr Courtney was killed was not covered by the cameras.

Darwin Recycling owner Gerard French. Picture: Jason Walls

Mr French said he had known Mr Courtney for about four years at the time of the shooting and had seen him earlier that day, saying he noticed nothing unusual.

“He come and paid his rent and went to bed because he’d just done nightshift (at the casino),” he said.

The footage shows employee Peter Boden, who also lived at the recycling centre, “ducking and weaving” to try and see what was happening without getting shot before he told the court he heard “agonising screams”.

Mr Boden said he managed to get away to a neighbouring business and call police before later returning to the recycling centre where he made the grim discovery of Mr Courtney’s body.

Also on Tuesday, Laurence Gibson told the jury he was having his regular afternoon beers at the Buff Club with a few mates earlier in the evening when he saw a white ute collide with a Jeep outside the pub.

Mr Gibson said it was then he got a clear look at the driver of the white ute and Crown prosecutor Lloyd Babb asked if he could identify the man.

“It was Ben Hoffmann,” he replied. “I’d known him for a couple of years.”

The trial continues on Wednesday.

UPDATE, 12PM: THE first witness to positively identify Ben Hoffmann as the man in a white ute who prosecutors allege was in the process of murdering four people in 2019 has testified in the Supreme Court.

Hoffmann has pleaded not guilty to murdering four men in the alleged June 4 killing spree, including 57-year-old Michael Sisois in the Buff Club car park.

On Tuesday, Laurence Gibson told the jury he was having his regular afternoon beers at the club with a few mates shortly before 6pm when he noticed a police car drive past with its lights flashing.

A short while later, Mr Gibson said he then saw a white ute leave the pub’s rear car park and head towards the Stuart Hwy.

“I turned back around talking to Dutchy and then we heard a bang,” he said.

“We turned around where the bang was and the white ute had rear ended a black Jeep Cherokee at the intersection with the Stuart Hwy.”

Mr Gibson told the court he saw the Jeep driver get out and check on his passenger before trying to approach the white ute, which then reversed back and drove around him and off down the highway.

“I actually stood up and went to the fence, I was going to get the number plate and that’s when I noticed the driver,” he said.

Mr Gibson said it was then he got a clear look a familiar face and Crown prosecutor Lloyd Babb asked if he could identify the man.

“It was Ben Hoffmann,” he replied. “I’d known him a couple of years.”

“I turned back to my tea and continued a conversation with Dutchy and that over what we just witnessed.”

The court earlier heard CCTV had captured a gunman in a white ute fire a shotgun at Mr Sisois as he lay helpless on the ground in the car park, killing him instantly.

The trial continues.

UPDATE 1.30PM, MONDAY: WITNESS Sharon Ninham told the court on Monday a police officer was just metres away when Ben Hoffmann allegedly fired the shot that killed Mr Sisois.

Ms Ninham said she was on her way to play bridge at the Buff Club on June 4 when she passed a police car as she entered the car park and saw Mr Sisois lying on the ground.

“I thought he had been hit or hurt and so I was about to get out of my car to help but there was a man standing next to him talking to him,” she said.

“Then the man standing lent down to the man on the ground and he had a knife – I don’t know where that came from – and put it onto his neck and spoke to him.

“He said ‘I told you not to f*** with me c***’.”

Ms Ninham told the jury she then quickly reversed back out of the car park and flagged down the police officer she’d passed on her way in.

“I saw the police car with the flashing lights starting to drive off and I’m thinking to myself ‘Don’t go, don’t go, I need you, I need you’ and so I slammed down on my horn and kept driving parallel with him,” she said.

“I jumped out of the car, opened the police car (door), he was just on his own, opened the passenger door and just yelled at him that there’s a man being killed in the carpark out the back.

“He told me to get back into my car and just go and park and go into the club.”

The police officer, Senior Constable Merwan Kazem, also took the stand on Monday, telling jurors he had been asked to attend the Buff Club after reports of shots fired in the Darwin CBD.

Sr Const Kazem said he remembered Ms Ninham approaching him before hearing the shot that killed Mr Sisois but he had to wait for backup after being unable to find a bulletproof vest in his patrol car.

“She told me words to the effect that there were a couple of men fighting and she had to reverse the vehicle out of the rear of the Buff Club and she had to leave suddenly,” he said.

“From there I just assumed he might have been in the Buff Club.”

Sr Const Kazem said he did a U turn and parked about 60m away from the club where he radioed for backup and he and two other officers are later seen on CCTV approaching Mr Sisois’s body.

“We decided to go in basically with guns drawn and just walk through and just see what’s actually happened,” he said.

“It looked like some coloured blankets that were all bunched up but as we got closer we just noticed the deceased was there.”

By then, Hoffmann was on his way to Woolner where the prosecution alleges he would brutally murder his fourth victim, Rob Courtney.

The trial continues.

EARLIER: FOOTAGE of the moment Michael Sisois was allegedly murdered by his former friend, Ben Hoffmann, in the Buff Club carpark has been played to the jury in his Supreme Court trial.

The CCTV captures a man in a high-vis work shirt arriving at the rear of the Stuart Park watering hole in a white HiLux just before 6pm on June 4, 2019.

Mr Sisois approaches the man as he exits the vehicle and the pair have a short discussion before the man suddenly punches Sisois in the face, knocking him to the ground.

He then returns to the HiLux and retrieves a shotgun before walking back to where Mr Sisois is still lying helpless on the ground.

Moments later the quiet of a suburban Tuesday afternoon is shattered by a single blast of a shotgun before the man gets back in his ute and drives away.

Meanwhile, other cameras from inside the pub show after work drinkers continuing their conversations, seemingly oblivious to the tragedy unfolding outside.

Hoffmann has pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Sisois and three other men. His trial continues.