Daughter’s plea for mother’s freedom

AN appeal was made yesterday to Justice Minister Mr McDowell for compassion in the case of a woman jailed for life without parole for the murder of her violent, drug-abusing husband.

As Jacqui Noble today celebrates her 39th birthday in Mountjoy jail, her daughter Kelly launched a campaign to have her freed.

The teenager yesterday described her murdered father, Derek Benson, as an animal who violently abused both her and her now-jailed mother.

Ms Noble, from Knowth Court, Ballymun, Dublin, and Paul Hopkins, from Sillogue Road, Ballymun, were both found guilty of the murder of 33-year-old Benson on May 13, 2000.

Kelly yesterday told Joe Duffy’s Radio One Liveline Show: “I don’t think justice was done. My mother did life with my da, now she’s serving another life sentence.”

Benson, described as a bully by his daughter, was hacked to death and had a sword run through his body by Hopkins, a doorman. The State claimed it was a contract killing involving Ms Noble.

The teenager said her father, jailed at one stage for assaulting a woman garda who came to assist with a domestic row, allowed her to smoke cannabis at eight years and had her selling drugs on the streets at 13.

Along with her daughter, Kelly is due to visit her mother in prison today. “She said the prison officers are very nice to her and all but she doesn’t like the environment, the drugs and whatever,” said Kelly.

“Everybody in Ballymun knew what my da was doing to my mum.

“Nobody said a bad word about her because she’s not a bad person; he was the bad person. She did it for me, basically, now she’s being punished.”

Kelly said both she and her mother were hospitalised at different times after being “bashed” by Benson.