Hoffmann trial: First woman injured in alleged shooting spree tells court how her partner was forced to become a ‘human shield

The first person injured in Ben Hoffmann’s alleged shooting rampage has recalled how her partner was forced to use himself as a “human shield”.

Kylie Wilkins leaves court with her mother, Judith Wilkins, after giving evidence in day one of Ben Hoffmann’s murder trial. Picture: Glenn Campbell

UPDATE 5.50PM: The first person injured in Ben Hoffmann’s alleged shooting rampage in 2019 has recalled for a jury how her partner was forced to use himself as a “human shield” as shotgun blasts rang out around her.

Damita Jerome was asleep at the Palms Motel with her partner Cameron Elhing on the afternoon of June 4 when the pair were woken by a stranger banging at their door shortly before 6pm.

In giving evidence on Wednesday, Ms Jerome said Mr Elhing had gotten up to answer the door when she saw a man she didn’t recognise through the curtain before Mr Elhing raced back over to the bed.

“(He) ran over to me, told me to get on the ground, that there was a man at the door with a gun,” she said.

“I didn’t believe him, I thought he was pranking me and then he grabbed me, pushed me off the bed onto the ground with the blanket still wrapped around my legs.

“He then jumped on top of me like a human shield, trying to protect me, I could hear what sounded like, to me, glass shattering but I assume now it was most probably the bullets ricocheting off the tiles, the walls.”

Ms Jerome said what followed “sounded like fireworks going off” as the man at the door fired another three or four shots, forcing his way into the room before eventually walking away.

“(Cameron) then jumped up and said to me ‘We need to get out of here, can you move your legs?” she said.

“I said ‘I can’t move my legs properly, they hurt’ and he had a quick look and then he picked me up and carried me outside.”

Ms Jerome said Mr Elhing carried her out into the street where he eventually found help from a group of nearby police officers.

“He ran to the driveway of Alatai Apartments, asking for help, that our room had just been shot up and that there was a man there with a gun,” she said.

“Nobody came to our assistance until he called police over from the service station.”

Before telling the court Ms Jerome later had three shotgun pellets removed from her leg, Crown prosecutor Lloyd Babb SC asked her what the gunman had sounded like when he was in her motel room.

“He sounded very aggressive and very determined to get what he wanted,” she replied.

The court was also played two mobile phone videos of the attack, recorded by nearby residents Chu-Chen Pan and Joseph Puntoriero, who also reported hearing the gunshots and seeing Mr Elhing carrying the wounded Ms Jerome down the street.

Earlier, a woman who said she was once close friends with Hoffmann described being on the phone with him while she was in the car with the man the Crown alleges Hoffmann was searching for in the motel, Alex Deligiannis, earlier that afternoon.

Jasmine Benger told the court Hoffmann made repeated demands during the phone call that she “Bring him to me”.

In cross examination, defence barrister Jon Tippett QC asked her whether Mr Deligiannis had been “a big ice dealer in town” at the time but Justice John Burns ruled the line of questioning irrelevant.

Mr Tippett said he was acting on the instructions of his client and did not oppose Justice Burns’ ruling.

WEDNESDAY, 1.30PM: Witnesses in the murder trial of alleged Darwin shooter Ben Hoffmann have told jurors about the day a gunman turned up on their normally sleepy Rural Area street hunting “a dingo”.

Hoffmann has pleaded not guilty in the Supreme Court to a string of charges, including the murders of Nigel Hellings, 75, Hassan Baydoun, 33, Michael Sisois, 57, and Rob Courtney, 52, during the alleged rampage in 2019.

On the afternoon of June 4, Carol Robinson and her friend’s 14-year-old granddaughter were sticking diamante stars onto the walls of a backyard shed and listening to music when the girl stopped short.

“I hear footsteps,” she told the jury she said to Ms Robinson, in testifying in the trial on Wednesday.

“She said it was probably just the dog, I said ‘No they’re human footsteps’.

“Then I looked over where the bricks were on our property and I saw a high-vis shirt.”

The teenager said the man came over to where they were, holding a gun and told the pair he was looking for a dingo.

She said Ms Robinson told her to get the man’s registration number and she followed him as he drove towards the house.

“He just seemed really angry and just like he was like he was on a mission to do something,” she told the jury.

In her evidence, Ms Robinson described the man as wearing work boots, an ankle bracelet and a work shirt and carrying something, “a gun – a big one”.

“He turned and he was still searching, looking, like, under the bushes in the long grass and he started walking toward the backyard,” she said.

Ms Robinson said the man then got back in his car and drove towards the house before coming back the way he had come and then speeding off.

“He was driving up back towards me where I was standing roughly in the middle of the yard and he was accelerating,” she said.

“I put my hand up to stop him and he kept accelerating and was aiming straight for me and I jumped out of the way … he would have hit me.”

The trial continues.

TUESDAY, 4.30PM: THE series of alleged criminal acts in what prosecutors say was Ben Hoffmann’s murderous rampage through the streets of Darwin in 2019 have been laid out in detail for the 12 men and women who will decide his fate.

THE JEFFERIS RD INCIDENTS

In his opening address on Tuesday, Crown prosecutor Lloyd Babb SC told the jury Hoffmann had consumed a quantity of methamphetamine when he armed himself with a shotgun and bowie knife before driving to an address on Jefferis Rd in Humpty Doo.

Mr Babb said Hoffmann had been to the property before and knew two women who lived there, Kylie Wilkins and Kelly Collins, “a woman whom Mr Hoffmann believed was his girlfriend”.

After Ms Wilkins told Hoffmann Ms Collins wasn’t home, he allegedly followed up by threatening to kill her, saying “if you call the cops I’ll blow your head off, or words to that effect”.

Mr Babb said Hoffmann then left and went to a neighbouring property, still armed with the shotgun, where Carol Robinson and a 14-year-old girl were doing arts and crafts projects.

Hoffmann told them he was “looking for a dingo” before Mr Babb said he drove towards Ms Robinson “at speed” and “narrowly missed hitting her as she jumped out of the way”.

THE PALMS MOTEL INCIDENTS

Mr Babb said it was the prosecution case that Hoffman then drove to the Palms Motel in Darwin where he arrived at about 5.38pm and let himself in, shortly before shooting its 33-year-old caretaker Hassan Baydoun.

His body was later found slumped in the shower after being shot “at very close range”.

Also living there at the time was Wayhu Santosa, who Mr Babb said was trying to sleep when he “heard a series of loud bangs which prompted him to open his bedroom door”.

“I expect the evidence from Mr Santosa will be that he saw a man with a long black gun standing in front of his room and that that man said to him ‘You stay there’ or similar words,” he said.

“Mr Santosa followed those instructions and sat down on his bed and stayed there, he heard more bangs and shortly afterwards the man with the shotgun, who the prosecution say was the accused, came back to Mr Santosa’s door and asked him ‘Where’s Alex?’.”

Mr Babb said it was the Crown case that “Alex” was a man named Alex Deligiannis, who had been the previous caretaker at the Palms, with whom Kelly Collins had at some point “had some sort of relationship” and for whom Hoffmann had “expressed a strong dislike”.

From there, Mr Babb said Hoffmann went to another room in the motel where Cameron Elhing and Damita Jerome were staying, before attempting to force his way in.

Mr Elhing managed to close and lock the door on him but Mr Babb said Hoffmann shot away part of the lock and came inside anyway.

“It’s the prosecution case that Mr Hoffmann then entered the room and pointed the shotgun directly at Mr Elhing who was by this time on his knees with his hands raised and moving away from Ms Jerome towards Mr Hoffmann,” he said.

“You’ll hear that Mr Elhing stated his name to the man in the room and the fact that he didn’t know what was going on in an effort to pacify the man with the gun.”

Mr Babb said Mr Elhing pleaded with Hoffmann “while the gun was trained on him” and eventually, Hoffmann said “You’re f***ing lucky, or similar words before turning and leaving Room 15”.

Hoffmann then left the motel about 12 minutes after he arrived.

THE GARDEN HILLS INCIDENTS

Next, Mr Babb said Hoffmann drove to a nearby unit block in Garden Hills Cres where he arrived at about 5.54pm and started again firing the shotgun, killing 75-year-old Nigel Hellings.

Mr Babb said Hoffmann also endangered the life of Catherine Milera by firing the gun through her door and again asking about “Alex”, who she told him wasn’t there.

Hoffmann was only in Garden Hills Cres for about five minutes before he left, telling Ms Milera “sorry” as he walked past her on his way out.

THE BUFF CLUB INCIDENT

From the unit block Mr Hoffmann drove to the Buff Club in Stuart Park where Mr Babb said he met Michael Sisois, 57, who “had been a mate of the accused for some time” before their relationship “changed”.

Mr Babb said that change included a text message Hoffmann sent on June 3 that said “I will f***ing wreck you Sisois, bring her to me, I’ll f*** you up, you f***heads”.

He said what happened next was captured on CCTV, which showed the pair interacting before Hoffmann “suddenly punches Mr Sisois to the head with such force that Mr Sisois falls to the ground”.

Mr Babb said the footage then showed Hoffmann reaching into his vehicle for the shotgun before pointing it at Mr Sisois and pulling the trigger, killing him instantly.

THE JOLLY ST INCIDENT

The final alleged murder — that of 52-year-old Rob Courtney — took place after Hoffmann drove to a recycling yard on Jolly St where Mr Babb said he began moving through the premises “discharging his shotgun into various rooms”.

“We say there was a protracted struggle between the accused and Mr Courtney and during the struggle, the accused, Ben Hoffmann, shot and stabbed Mr Courtney,” he said.

“I expect forensic evidence to indicate that Mr Courtney fought back hard, causing the accused a number of injuries, however, ultimately the accused stabbed and shot Mr Courtney to death.”

By the time the struggle was over, he said Mr Courtney had suffered more than 30 separate wounds and Hoffmann could be seen on CCTV “moving around the recycling centre and ultimately leaving the facility shirtless and smeared with blood”.

THE TRIAL CONTINUES

In his address, Hoffmann’s barrister, Jon Tippett QC, told jurors many of the events described by Mr Babb would not be in dispute but that the “fundamental issue” would be his client’s state of mind at the time.

“Consequently, when witnesses describe behaviour and so on I ask you to think about the behaviour and the state of mind that might underpin that behaviour and whether that state of mind is that form of mind that can be relied upon by the prosecution to found its allegations of guilt,” he said.

In taking the stand as the first witness on Tuesday, Kylie Wilkins described the moment Hoffmann threatened to make her the first of what prosecutors now allege would ultimately become four murder victims.

“He said ‘You better not be calling the police or I’ll blow your head off’ and that’s when I did get scared,” she said.

The trial continues before Justice John Burns on Wednesday.

TUESDAY 10AM: ALLEGED Darwin shooter Ben Hoffmann has taken his place in the dock in the Supreme Court as a jury of 12 men and women plus three reserves is selected and his murder trial formally begins.

Hoffmann is charged with the unlawful killing of four people in June 2019 — Nigel Hellings, 75, Hassan Baydoun, 33, Michael Sisois, 57, and Rob Courtney, 52.

On Tuesday morning he formally pleaded not guilty to four counts of murder as well as a raft of other charges including multiple counts of unlawful entry while armed with a pump-action shotgun and recklessly endangering life.

Crown prosecutor Lloyd Babb SC is due to begin his opening address either Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday followed by Hoffmann’s barrister, Jon Tippett QC.

Jury selection continues before trial judge Justice John Burns.

The trial is estimated to run for about nine weeks.

Originally published as Hoffmann trial: First woman injured in alleged shooting spree tells court how her partner was forced to become a ‘human shield