A doctor examined an “agitated” man wandering in and out of a Darwin hospital asking for a poison antidote hours before he allegedly gunned down four people, but found no signs of mental illness.
Benjamin Glenn Hoffmann has pleaded not guilty to four counts of murder in less than an hour at four locations on June 4, 2019.
In the hours before, the 47-year-old drove to Royal Darwin Hospital where he told an emergency department doctor Ross Dryden he’d been poisoned.
“He was hanging out with some fairly disreputable people,” Dr Dryden said, referring to his notes written at 7.10am after his consultation with Hoffmann.
“He suspects they poisoned his energy drink.”
Dr Dryden said he performed an examination but found no abnormalities.
It was the second time Hoffmann had gone to the hospital asking staff for an antidote that night.
Receptionist Jessica Porter said Hoffmann tried to give his phone to her and repeatedly walked in and out the doors to the empty waiting room.
“He did seem agitated and worried,” she said from the witness box in the Northern Territory Supreme Court.
Another receptionist Hayley Bunker said Hoffmann was “paranoid and scattered” and he looked “wide-eyed”.
“He was speaking very quickly, he was saying strange things,” she said.
Hoffmann later told Dr Dryden he felt disorientated, vague and not balanced
Despite this and Hoffmann’s “abnormal” behaviour, Dr Dryden developed no concerns about his patient’s psychological state.
“It wasn’t a mental health presentation,” he said.
“I see lots of unusual people in the course of a shift. I don’t refer them all to mental health.”
Dr Dryden advised Hoffmann to go home and “see how he goes” and come back if was still unwell in the evening.
Hoffmann did return to the hospital but it was under a police guard after he’d allegedly shot four people dead 11 hours later.
The Crown says his first victim, Hassan Baydoun, 33, died about 5.38pm at the Palms Motel.
Hoffman then allegedly shot Nigel Hellings, 75, at an apartment block and Michael Sisois, 57, in a car park.
Rob Courtney, 52, was stabbed more than 30 times and shot dead at Darwin Recycling.
The court has heard that before Hoffmann went to the hospital claiming his drink was spiked, he smoked crystal methamphetamine with his ex-girlfriend, Kelly Collins.
Ms Collins said the ice was “off” and Hoffmann smoked “quite a bit, as in three pipes”.
After the murders, Hoffmann told police he believed he’d been poisoned the night before the killings.
He said it caused him to be “out of his mind” and temporarily insane.
The trial continues Wednesday.