Teddy Wesley sentenced over aggravated assault of Benjamin Hoffmann in Holtze prison

A 24-year-old man has been sentenced to more than two years in prison over a string of offences, including a prison assault targeting Darwin’s notorious mass shooter Benjamin Hoffmann.

Benjamin Hoffmann was assaulted in prison by Teddy Wesley in April 2021. Sketch: Stuart Thornton

The man who assaulted Darwin mass shooter Benjamin Hoffmann in prison has been sentenced to more than 27 months behind bars after pleading guilty to a string of offences.

Teddy Wesley, 24, was an inmate at Darwin Correction Centre on April 18 2021, when the aggravated assault took place.

Teddy Wesley was sentenced to more than two years in prison for a string of convictions.

During the father-of-two’s guilty plea and sentencing at Darwin Local Court on Monday, the court heard Wesley and two of his brothers had been in the prison yard, chatting to Hoffmann through the window of his cell.

Hoffmann was called to the medical office a short time later, requiring him to walk through the yard.

When he was about half way across the outdoor area Wesley approached him and Hoffmann – thinking it was a friendly gesture – reached out his arm to shake hands.

Instead Wesley threw a punch at his face, continuing to punch and kick him until guards intervened, leaving Hoffmann with cuts and bruises on his body and face.

Hoffmann is serving a life sentence with no chance of parole after taking the lives of four men in a drug-fuelled rampage in early 2019.

Defence counsel told the court Wesley accepted what he had done was wrong and explained “there were significant tensions in the prison”.

“(Hoffmann) is an extremely large man, he (Wesley) is a somewhat small male in his stature, (Hoffmann) was threatening him throughout the prison and essentially he reacted in a very bad way,” he said.

Meanwhile Hoffmann also faced the Darwin Local Court on Monday for an unrelated prison assault in November 2021.

Benjamin Hoffmann, convicted mass murderer, was assaulted by Wesley in Holtze prison.

Wesley was sentenced for a second incident after trespassing on an UberEats delivery driver’s car in July last year.

While delivering some food to a Nightcliff address, the driver was approached by an unknown man and told: “give me your keys or I’ll stab you”.

He handed over the keys and the car was stolen.

A few hours later the car was found abandoned and Wesley’s DNA was collected from the front seat.

He was not charged in relation to the theft of the car, but pleaded guilty to trespass.

Wesley was also found guilty of firing a gun, using a gun while unlicensed, unlawful entry and damage to property, in relation to what Judge Ben O’Loughlin described as a “crazy evening”.

“Crazy in the sense that the defendant was being crazy, drinking with firearms,” Mr O’Loughlin said.

The court heard Wesley had two young children and a troubled past, having entered the criminal justice system as a child and developing problems with alcohol as a young teen.

He was sentenced to a total of 27 months 14 days in prison backdated to September 22, with a non-parole period of 14 months.