Ballymun murder accused denies mention of money

A man accused of murdering his co-accused's former partner denied telling gardaí that his co-accused offered him IR£5,000 (€6,300) to do the killing.

During his second day of evidence at the Central Criminal Court, the accused Paul Hopkins contested portions of his Garda statement, and denied stating that his co-accused offered to pay him IR£5,000 (€6,300) to kill Derek Benson.

He further denied saying he was not concerned about the money as he "wanted to kill him as much as her."

Cross-examined by Dominic McGinn BL, the accused accepted that the majority of his statement was accurate. In another reference to Ms Noble, he says: "She had contemplated giving him rat poison instead of gear [heroin], but she wasn’t sure if it would burn up like gear."

Mr McGinn put it to the accused that he had told gardaí "at least once or twice every month she would have talked about getting Derek Killed".

"Not that regular, My Lord," he replied. The statement went on to say: "I never had any doubt that she was deadly serious".

Mr Hopkins told the court he believed the deceased was a dangerous man - "a psychopath" - who was extremely violent and who allegedly molested children, including his own daughter.

Counsel put it to the accused that this was mere rumour and that Derek Benson was never charged or convicted of child molestation.

"He slipped through the net," the accused replied, pointing to previous evidence suggesting that the deceased had been investigated by gardaí for child sex abuse but the complainant subsequently withdrew her statement.

He told the court that he had been bullied, threatened and assaulted by Derek Benson on a number of occasions over four years.

When Benson threatened his girlfriend, Lisa Moorehouse, and their baby daughter, that he would burn them after he "was finished with them", he took it as a threat that he intended to rape them.

Asked if this had a big impact on him he said yes, adding that "that was a factor" in what happened.

Mr McGinn put it to Mr Hopkins that he did not mention those threats in his statement. The accused replied that he did mention them to the gardaí, but that not everything was recorded in the statement.

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.