Hoffmann trial: Accused ‘talked gibberish’ after being taken to hospital following his arrest

Jurors were played police body-worn camera footage of Ben Hoffmann ‘talking gibberish’ about his drink being ‘spiked’ and being ‘hit with chairs’ after being taken to Royal Darwin Hospital after his arrest.

UPDATE SEP 29: ON Wednesday afternoon jurors were played police body-worn camera footage of Ben Hoffmann “talking gibberish” about his drink being “spiked” and being “hit with chairs” after being taken to Royal Darwin Hospital after his arrest.

In cross examining Constable Justin Schremmer, who was wearing the camera at the time, Hoffmann’s barrister Jon Tippett QC asked about his client expressing concerns to police about being shot.

“I do remember him being concerned about people coming for him,” Const Schremmer responded.

Mr Tippett also asked Const Schremmer if Hoffmann made comments about “his drink being spiked a couple of days ago” and saying “I don’t want them hitting me with chairs”.

Const Schremmer replied that he did remember him saying “something about being poisoned”.

“That poison’s coming back on,” he quoted Hoffmann as saying.

“He rambled on for hours.”

Mr Tippett: “What he was talking to you about was being hit by chairs, wasn’t he?”

Const Schremmer: “I don’t recall that part of the conversation, without seeing the footage.”

Mr Tippett: “Were there any people there threatening to hit him with chairs?”

Const Schremmer: “At that time, in our custody? No.”

Mr Tippett: “He spent a lot of time just talking gibberish, didn’t he?”

Const Schremmer: “He did yes.”

The trial continues on Thursday.

EARLIER: THE police officer who apprehended Ben Hoffmann before tactical response teams arrived has told jurors at his trial how he swore to protect the alleged quadruple murderer “with my life”.

Constable Michael Kent told the jury he had attended the scene of the first alleged shooting and was directing traffic away from the Buff Club on June 4, 2019 when he learned the suspect’s vehicle was heading back his way.

Const Kent said he radioed headquarters for further instructions as Hoffmann’s white HiLux approached the Daly St bridge shortly before 7pm before seeing the vehicle pull up “right in front of me”.

Constable Michael Kent swore to protect alleged Darwin shooter Ben Hoffmann 'with my life' while arresting him in June 2019. Picture: Jason Walls

“I got onto my radio and I pushed the talk button and I said words to the effect of ‘The offender is in front of me, he’s surrendering, he’s surrendering’,” he said.

“While doing this I approached the vehicle, crossed in front of the vehicle and approached the driver’s side door, I could clearly see through the windscreen a Caucasion male ... he was covered in blood.”

Const Kent said as he approached he could see a shotgun in the footwell of the ute’s passenger seat and the driver with both hands up in the air saying “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, don’t shoot me”.

“I approached the vehicle and I engaged the driver in conversation, it all happened very quickly but again he said ‘I’m sorry, don’t shoot me’, he seemed very nervous that he was going to get shot,” he said.

“I approached the door, I said ‘Sir, can you turn your vehicle off’, he said again ‘I’m sorry, don’t shoot me, don’t shoot me’, so I reached in with my left hand because my right hand still had my radio on.

“I reached in and I turned the car engine off, I put the keys on my belt and he said ‘You guys are going to kill me’ or words to that effect and I said ‘No, I’ll protect you with my life’.”

EARLIER: JURORS in Ben Hoffmann’s murder trial have heard him claim to have been poisoned and “killed a sexual predator” while on the phone with police after a failed attempt to break into police headquarters in Berrimah.

Hoffmann has pleaded not guilty to 14 charges including four counts of murder following an alleged killing spree on June 4, 2019.

On Wednesday the jury was shown CCTV footage of a shirtless Hoffmann, covered in blood, trying to kick in the door of the Peter Mcauley Centre while carrying a shotgun in one hand and a large knife in the other.

Hoffmann is then seen speeding off in a white HiLux before he calls police while driving back towards the Darwin CBD.

Then Duty Superintendent Lee Morgan was listening in as Hoffman spoke to the call taker before taking over the dialogue when Hoffmann suggests handing himself in at the police station in Mitchell St.

Then Duty Superintendent Lee Morgan spoke to Hoffmann over the phone when the accused suggested handing himself in

On the call, Hoffmann tells Supt Morgan he is “very” injured and his “face has been smashed up” and “everyone wants to shoot me”.

“I need assistance, I’m f***ed,” he is heard saying.

“You can meet me out the front sir, I’ll have my hands up.”

Supt Morgan tells Hoffmann not to come back into the city but to pull over where he is and he agrees to pull over but says “I need someone with a gun because there’s people who want to shoot me sir”.

During the call Hoffmann claims to have killed an unnamed “sexual predator” and to have been poisoned by Michael Sisois, whose body had recently been found in the car park of the Buff Club.

“I’m just going to stop where you want me to stop,” he says.

“But I need someone there with a gun because a lot of people here want to f***in’ kill me because I killed a sexual predator, sir.”

Supt Morgan replies “yeah, they’ve got guns mate, they’ve got guns”.

Next the court was played body-worn camera footage of two uniformed officers arresting Hoffmann on the Daly St bridge before he is approached by members of the Territory Response Group who order him onto the ground and taser him.

The trial continues.

EARLIER: POLICE were following just seconds behind Ben Hoffmann in the minutes before he killed the second of four alleged murder victims when they made the call to “tactically disengage”, a court has heard.

Footage played in Hoffmann’s Supreme Court trial on Friday showed two police cars travelling about two seconds behind Hoffmann’s white HiLux on the afternoon of June, 4 2019.

The patrol cars are then seen stopping and reversing away back in the opposite direction before a series of loud gunshots ring out and are not seen in the footage again.

Prosecutors allege Hoffmann had just murdered Palms Motel caretaker Hassan Baydoun with a shotgun and minutes after the police ended the pursuit, 75-year-old Nigel Hellings was found shot dead on the floor of his Gardens Hill Cres unit.

Bloodstains found in the shower were Hassan Baydoun’s body was found (after being treated with a chemical fingerprint enhancer). Picture: Supplied.

Hoffmann would allegedly go on to murder two other men, 57-year-old Michael Sisois at the Buff Club and Rob Courtney, 52, in Jolly St.

Sergeant Xavier McMahon was driving the first car solo with another lone police officer, Senior Constable Gregory Cleary, travelling in the vehicle behind him.

Sgt McMahon told the court he started to follow the HiLux – which was believed to have been involved in the Palms Motel shooting at the time – at the intersection with McMinn St but stopped the pursuit when the HiLux began to do a U turn on Gardens Hill Cres.

“I radioed to the other vehicle that was behind me, the Darwin supervisor, Acting Sgt Cleary, and directed him that we reverse out of that area,” he said.

The officers retreated to the end of the street and did not see the HiLux again.

Under cross examination from Hoffmann’s barrister Jon Tippet QC, Sgt McMahon said both officers were carrying their service Glocks at the time but were not wearing bullet proof vests.

Mr Tippett asked Sgt McMahon why he chose to disengage from the pursuit but Justice John Burns ruled it was irrelevant to the charges at hand.

Earlier on Friday, one of Mr Hellings’ neighbours, Murray Schneider, testified of going into his unit after the gunman left the area and making a desperate but ultimately futile effort to save his life.

“After one of the neighbours told me it was ‘an Fing mess in there’, I went in and found Nigel on the floor in a pool of blood,” he said.

Nigel Hellings’ door. Picture: Supplied.

“One of the people I was with pulled him down so he was flat on his back and we looked for a pulse and I did a few compressions but we realised pretty quickly he was well and truly gone.”

The trial continues on Monday.

EARLIER: NEIGHBOURS of Hassan Baydoun and Nigel Hellings reported seeing a man in a high-vis shirt “looking for someone to kill” on the day of the men’s alleged murder, Ben Hoffmann’s Supreme Court trial has heard.

In a triple-0 call played to the court, Finniss St resident Leon McGuane told police he could see a man across the street “shooting up the place” with a shotgun at the Palms Motel on June 4, 2019.

“Hurry up will you, somebody’s shooting the shit out of the joint and tell them (to hurry) and put their vests on,” he tells the operator.

“He’s still running around with a shotgun, this bloke, he’s looking for someone, he’s hunting around looking for someone to shoot.”

As more shots ring out in the background, Mr McGuane tells the call taker the man appears to be “still hunting for someone”.

A door at the Palms Motel damaged in the alleged rampage. Picture: Supplied.

“He’s coming back around every now and again, he’s looking for someone,” he says.

“He’s hunting around, he’s firing shots, he’s definitely looking for someone to kill.”

A short time later, Mr Hellings’ neighbour in Gardens Hill Cres, Australian Defence Force member Catherine Burns, also called police after seeing a man in a high-vis shirt next door.

“There’s a man outside, next door and he’s firing a gun and he’s banging on a door,” she says on the call.

“I keep hearing gunshots, I don’t know what’s happening.”

When Ms Burns repeats that the noises she heard sound like gunshots, the operator confirms what her military training had led her to suspect.

“It is gunshots m’am, please make sure you keep yourself inside that house, OK?” she says.

Hoffmann has pleaded not guilty to all charges including the murders of Mr Hellings and Mr Baydoun who were both later found dead in their homes. His trial continues.

A crime scene at the Palms Motel. Picture: Supplied.

EARLIER: A WITNESS in the murder trial of alleged Darwin shooter Ben Hoffmann has told jurors of the moment he stared into the accused killer’s eyes and begged for his life after Hoffmann allegedly blasted his way into his motel room during a 2019 shotgun “rampage”.

Cameron Elhing was sleeping off a shift at work at the Palms Motel with his partner, Damita Jerome, when the couple was woken by loud banging at the door on the afternoon of June 4.

Mr Elhing said when he went to see what the commotion was he was confronted by a bald man with a “mean look” who peered inside and “motioned for me to ‘Come the f*** outside’”.

Mr Elhing told the court he opened the door and after the man tried to kick it open further, a struggle ensued but he managed to keep the stranger out of the room, asking “What the f***’s going on?”.

“His first question back to me was ‘Are you a f***ing tamperer?’,” he said.

“I said ‘I don’t know what the f*** you’re on about mate, what the f***, you’re a crackhead’.”

Cameron Elhing leaves the Supreme Court after testifying on Thursday.

It was then that the man produced a shotgun from behind his right leg and started to raise it to waist height and a panicked Mr Elhing shut the door and ran back to the bed.

He said he rolled off the bed with Ms Jerome underneath him, protecting her, as the man continued to rage outside and then began firing through the door.

“We lay there terrified, listening to the screaming and the yelling and then a second shot was let off through the door,” he said.

“I could hear what sounded to me like glass bouncing across tiles, I could hear metal scraping, I could hear the acoustics and the echoing from the gunshot reverberate around the room, I could smell the gunpowder.”

The gunman continued to shoot and kick the door and Mr Elhing said he now realised the lock might not hold out much longer.

“I just somehow knew one last shot was coming to actually open the door so I got down and braced for that and a fourth shot was finally put through the door,” he said.

“It sounded different to all the other times like there was less metal, there was less contact and at that point I knew he was going to come into the room.”

After telling Ms Jerome “to stay there, no matter what happens and don’t make a sound or move”, Mr Elhing said he shuffled forward on his knees to confront the man who was now standing inside the room with the gun aimed at his chest.

Crown prosecutor Lloyd Babb SC with police officers outside the Palms Motel during tour of the scene for jurors on Thursday.

Mr Elhing said he was “looking directly into his eyes” as the gunman slowly raised the weapon towards his face.

“I started talking and I said to him, without breaking eye contact, ‘I don’t know what’s going on mate, I don’t know who the f*** you are, my name is Cameron Elhing, I haven’t wronged anybody, I don’t owe anybody money, I don’t know what this is about, it’s got nothing to do with me,” he said.

“After I’d said that, we looked in each other’s eyes, from eye-to-eye, for what felt like an eternity and he just simply said to me ‘You’re f***ing lucky then’.

“As soon as he said that he just turned and walked away.”

Earlier on Thursday jurors were taken on a tour of the Palms Motel where Hassan Baydoun was fatally shot, as well as the Gardens Hill Cres address where Nigel Hellings was killed, the scene of Michael Sisois’ alleged murder at the Buff Club and a Jolly St address where Rob Courtney died.

Hoffmann has pleaded not guilty to all charges, including four counts of murder. His trial continues in the Supreme Court in Darwin.

Originally published as Hoffmann trial: Accused ‘talked gibberish’ after being taken to hospital following his arrest