Woman hired man to murder husband, court hears

A Dublin woman hired a pub doorman to murder her violent partner who was hacked to death and had a sword run through his body from front to back, a joint murder trial heard today.

The murder of Mr Derek Benson in May 2000 was, according to the state, a contract killing which was precipitated by Mr Benson’s demands for part of an inheritance due to his partner, Jacqui Nobel.

The state’s case is that Ms Noble, a mother of one from Ballymun, contracted co-accused Mr Paul Hopkins for £3,000-5,000 to murder Mr Benson.

It is alleged that she paid Mr Hopkins, who worked as a doorman at public house in Drumcondra, £200 "up front", the balance to be paid after the murder.

In the prosecution’s opening speech in Central Criminal Court today Mr Tom O’Connell SC told the jury that Derek Benson suffered 25 stab wounds inflicted with a sword and 60 "cuts or incised wounds".

In seven stab wounds to the trunk, the sword went through the body completely "from back to front and front to back".

The jury heard that Ms Noble agreed a plan with Paul Hopkins to kill Derek Benson at his flat at Sandy Hill Avenue, Ballymun.

"The plan was that Mr Hopkins would actually kill Mr Benson and that he would do this at the request of Ms Noble who paid him a certain amount of money up front and agree to pay him more after he was killed," Mr O’Connell said.

The jury heard that Derek Benson, a habitual drug user, was violent towards Ms Noble.

The two had lived together in a flat in Ballymun for many years and had a teenage daughter.

However, Jacqui Noble had left the flat and had gone to live at her parents’ home at nearby Knowth Court.

The court heard that both her parents were deceased and she was due to inherit a sum of money and the house from her father.

Mr Benson was demanding some of the money intending to use it to buy himself an apartment and a motorbike. The state claims that this precipitated the killing, "although she had contemplated killing him for some time".

On Thursday May 11, 2000, two days before the killing, Jacqui Noble met Mr Hopkins who she knew and who was also known to the deceased man.

"She asked him to kill her partner, Derek Benson. She said she would pay him three to five thousand for the killing and she gave him an advance of two hundred pounds," Mr O’Connell told the jury.

It is alleged that he bought a sword from his brother for £50, some sleeping tablets and a mobile phone. He gave the phone and tablets to Ms Noble as part of the murder plan, Mr O'Connell alleged.

"It was agreed that she would go to the flat and drug Mr Benson and that she would then contact Mr Hopkins by phone when the coast was clear. She would then leave and he would kill him."

The prosecution allege that Ms Noble "fed" Derek Benson the sleeping tablets as he lay in bed recovering from dentistry. The jury was told they would hear evidence from neighbours who heard screaming at around 3am and saw smoke and fire coming from the flat.

When the body was found it was covered in blood. "Mr Hopkins set fire to the flat after he had slain Mr Benson," counsel said, although this was not part of the agreed plan.

A sword, said to be the murder weapon, was later found in a wardrobe of the house of a friend of Mr Hopkins.

Counsel told the jury that if Jacqui Noble "engaged Mr Hopkins to kill her partner Mr Benson" she is equally responsible as the two acted in joint enterprise.

Ms Jacqui Noble (aged 37) of Knowth Court, Ballymun, Dublin and Paul Hopkins (aged 24) Sillogue Road, Ballymun both pleaded not guilty to the murder of Derek Benson (aged 34) at Sandy Hill Avenue Ballymun on May 13, 2000.

The trial before Mr Justice Henry Abbott continues tomorrow.