A man accused of shooting four people dead in Darwin while he searched for a woman tried to run another woman down with his ute, his trial has been told.

September 22, 2021

A man accused of the shooting murders of four people in Darwin allegedly tried to run a woman down with his ute before he killed his first victim.

Benjamin Glenn Hoffmann is accused of murdering four people at four locations in Darwin in less than an hour on the afternoon of June 4, 2019.

The 47-year-old denies the charges, with his barrister Jon Tippett QC asking the jury to reflect on his client’s state of mind when the crimes happened.

The Northern Territory Supreme Court has heard Hoffmann was high on drugs when the killings took place and searching for a woman he believed was his girlfriend.

That search took him to a rural property in Humpty Doo on Darwin’s outskirts at 4.15pm, about 90 minutes before he allegedly shot his first victim, Hassan Baydoun, 33, four times.

But Hoffmann didn’t say he was looking for the woman.

Instead, he allegedly told a woman at the property he was looking for a dingo that he’d seen run onto the property.

“I asked who he was looking for. He said he was looking for a dingo,” Carol Robinson said from the witness box on Wednesday.

Ms Robinson choked back tears as she told the jury how Hoffmann later drove his white Toyota Hilux ute directly at her after he’d searched the property.

“He was accelerating and I put my hand up to stop him and he kept accelerating and he was aiming straight for me,” she said.

“I jumped out of the way. He would have hit me”.

By 5.38pm, Hoffmann had arrived at the Palms Motel in Darwin’s CBD, where he allegedly murdered the caretaker, Mr Baydoun and threatened three other people with a pump-action shotgun.

Prosecutor Lloyd Babb SC has told the court Hoffman was at the premises for about 12 minutes before he drove to a nearby apartment complex, where he shot and killed Nigel Hellings, 75, about 5.54pm.

Hoffmann’s next victim was an old friend, Michael Sisois, 57, about five minutes later in the car park of the Buff Club.

Mr Babb said he’d sent Mr Sisois a text earlier in the day that read: “I will f***ing wreck you Sisois. Bring her to me”.

Hoffman then drove about 2.5km to Darwin Recycling about 6.05pm, where he allegedly stabbed and slashed Rob Courtney, 52, more than 30 times with a Bowie knife as his victim struggled to defend himself.

Police allegedly found blood smears on the walls and floors near Mr Courtney’s body, which had also been shot twice.

Psychiatrists assessed Hoffmann shortly after police arrested him later in the evening and determined that he was not suffering from a psychiatric illness.

However, Mr Babb said a sample of Hoffmann’s blood was later found to contain concentrations of methamphetamine “at the top end of the range for high recreational use”.

Hoffmann has also pleaded not guilty to 10 other serious charges, including threatening to kill and four counts of recklessly endangering the lives of other people he came across during the afternoon of June 4.

The trial continues.