Murder accused had tried to hire killer before, court told

A woman accused of hiring an alleged killer to murder to violent partner told gardaí she had previously paid another man to have him shot, the Central Criminal Court heard today.

Jacqui Noble, who is accused of hiring co-accused Paul Hopkins to murder Derek Benson, told gardai that she paid IR£500 (€634.90) to a northern man who had offered to have him shot. However, he disappeared with the money and nothing came of it, she said.

In a garda statement of May 22, read to the court, Ms Noble spoke of a third man who offered to give Benson a "bad dose of gear [heroin]" and that she offered to pay him.

The accused said she was terrified of Derek Benson, who had beaten her repeatedly throughout their relationship. She also claimed that he was using their daughter, then aged 13, to administer heroin to him and that he was allowing her "to smoke joints and stuff".

"He was ruining her life just like he ruined mine," she told gardaí.

The court heard evidence that a barring order from 1997 was in place at the time of the killing.

Detective Sergeant Mat Murphy, Ballymun, agreed with Mary Ellen Ring SC, that Ms Noble was treated in the Mater Hospital for fractured ribs. The court also heard of an incident in which the deceased man assaulted a female garda officer after he breached the barring order.

Earlier, Detective Sergeant Murphy told Dominic McGinn BL, prosecuting, that Jacqui Noble signed herself into a psychiatric unit days after the killing.

She had admitted herself to St Vincent’s in Fairview on May 19, two days after she voluntarily contacted gardaí in relation to the killing. On May 22 she was discharged and was leaving the unit by car in which she was a back seat passenger when Det Sgt Murphy stopped the car.

He told the accused he was arresting her for the murder of Mr Benson.

"She fell back or collapsed in the back seat of the car," he told the court.

Jacqui Noble (38) of Knowth Court, Ballymun, Dublin and Paul Hopkins (24) Sillogue Road, Ballymun have both pleaded not guilty to the murder of Derek Benson (33) at Sandy Hill Avenue Ballymun on May 13, 2000.

The trial continues tomorrow.