Benjamin Hoffmann’s estranged girlfriend has told his NT murder trial the pair smoked dodgy drugs with one of his alleged victims before the killings.

October 4, 2021

The ex-girlfriend of a man on trial for murdering four people during a shooting spree across Darwin says the pair smoked dodgy drugs with one of his alleged victims before the killings.

Benjamin Glenn Hoffmann has pleaded not guilty to four counts of murder during a drug-fuelled rampage on the afternoon of June 4, 2019.

Kelly Collins, a woman he met in drug rehabilitation and later formed a relationship with, says the pair smoked crystal methamphetamine the night before the men were killed.

“It didn’t taste right. It didn’t taste nice,” she told the Northern Territory Supreme Court on Monday.

‘It was just off, maybe burnt, I’m not sure.”

The court heard Hoffmann was at Ms Collins’ home in Darwin’s outskirts with one of the men shot dead the following day, Michael Sisois.

“Hoffmann was standing over Sisois. Dominating him. Intimidating him. Bossing him around,” she said.

Ms Collins said Hoffman smoked three pipes in about an hour then left before returning later in the evening with another person.

“He tried to coerce me to go with him,” she said.

“I ran to (my neighbour). I said ‘we have to ring the police’.”

Ms Collins said Hoffmann also texted her saying he believed Mr Sisois had “spiked” the drugs he smoked.

The Crown says Hoffmann used a shotgun to murder four men in less than an hour as he searched for Ms Collins and a man named Alex Deligiannis less than 24 hours later.

Hassan Baydoun, 33, died at the Palms Motel and Nigel Hellings, 75, was fatally shot at an apartment complex.

Mr Sisois, 57, died from a gunshot to the head in the car park at The Buff Club and Rob Courtney, 52, was stabbed more than 30 times and shot dead at Darwin Recycling.

Hoffmann told police after he was arrested that he believed he’d been poisoned or fed a “spiked” ice pipe the night before the killings.

He also said it caused him to be “out of his mind” and temporarily insane on June 4.

The court heard Ms Collins and Hoffmann were briefly in love and had plans to move in together.

But two weeks before the shootings, Ms Collins texted Hoffmann a message that read: “Hoffy, I love Alex”.

Hoffmann later replied: “I wanted to ask you why you f***ed me and others while you’re in love with Alex?”

“Cause I liked you and I don’t like the situation you are in,” he also messaged.

Hoffmann told police after the shootings that he’d been trying to help Ms Collins beat drug addiction before the killings.

He described her as an “ex-working girl” who suffered a “rapid decline” after she was preyed upon by Mr Deligiannis who manipulated her back into prostitution.

He also repeatedly told workmates that he was going to kill a man named Alex.

Ms Collins denied she was a prostitute or that Mr Deligiannis had exploited her.

The trial continues.