Accused offered to kill victim voluntarily, court told

A man allegedly paid to murder the partner of his co-accused said he offered to do the killing voluntarily, the Central Criminal Court has heard.

The court heard that when he was charged with the murder of Derek Benson, the accused Paul Hopkins allegedly replied: "I’m guilty as charged, I’m sorry I did it."

In court today Detective Sergeant Mat Molloy gave evidence of having taken a statement from Mr Hopkins on May 19, six days after the killing.

In the statement, which was read in court, he said the deceased, a drug addict, was a violent man who boasted about beating and cutting people up and who regularly beat his partner, Jacqui Noble.

Mr Hopkins told gardaí he was afraid of Derek Benson.

He frequently looked for money from the accused and had threatened his girlfriend when the accused was in the US on a FÁS course.

"When I heard this I snapped…I despised him with a passion," he stated.

The fortnight before the killing he bumped into Jacqui Noble. She was crying and claimed Benson had robbed her of a bracelet left to her by her late father.

That Thursday he told Jacqui Noble he would kill Derek Benson. "She said if I did she’d pay me", the statement claimed, and mentioned the sum of £5,000 but he said he offered to do it voluntarily.

That Friday, armed with a sword, he went to Benson’s flat after a pre-arranged phone call from the co-accused, who left as he came in. "I said ‘Jacqui are you sure’ you really want to do this?" …I was trying to get out of it. She said she was."

Paul Hopkins told gardaí that he took the sword from a bag and swung it at the deceased who was asleep on the bed.

He woke up and tried to wrestle the sword. Benson was bleeding heavily and tried to run from the room but the accused ran after him.

"I kept stabbing him…he was then dead," the statement read.

The accused told gardaí that he then set the bed alight, threw lighting papers into a wardrobe and left the flat with the sword.

He later asked a friend to keep the sword in her flat in Ballymun. The court heard that he told gardaí where the sword was and they recovered it later that day.

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

The trial continues.