Man who beat best friend 'to a pulp' told gardaí he wanted to kill another person
A 30-year-old man who beat his best friend "to a pulp" with a baseball bat after they had set out together on a fishing trip told gardaí that he wanted to kill another person and make his victim's head "explode", the Central Criminal Court heard.
Robert Broughan also told detectives in his interviews that there had never been a "cross word" between the pair, but he had swung the bat "with bad intentions and power".
The court heard that the father of three later texted Roy Hopkins' phone after he killed him with a message that read: "How is the head?"
The defendant said if Mr Hopkins had answered him he would have "gone back down and finished him off". He also said the deceased's eyes had "nearly come out from the beating he got".
Broughan said he had left the deceased to die and his "sole intention" was to kill him. He also told officers that Mr Hopkins was "a gentleman", his "best friend", and that he [the defendant] had wanted to kill another person.
Broughan, the court heard, had put petrol on the baseball bat before leaving it on the top of a shed at his home. He told his brothers what he had done, making "some disclosure" to his parents before his father alerted Kildare Garda Station.
The deceased's mother, Caitríona Hopkins, told the Central Criminal Court on Monday in her victim impact statement that her son had died in "horrendous and shocking circumstances".
"How could his killer have valued Roy's life so cheaply? I'm so full of rage and anger, and haunted by the horror of it.
Ms Hopkins told her son's killer: "All any parent wants to do is look after their children and fix everything for them, but you stopped my ability to do that. No punishment you receive will ever compare to the grief, pain, and loss you have inflicted on me and my family ... We live hell on Earth everyday as a result of the terrible atrocities you inflicted on my son."
She said her son was a very caring and considerate person, whose pastime was fishing and that he loved peace and tranquility. She said she had got him a fishing rod for his birthday present the year he was murdered and he was so proud of it.
The testimony was heard as part of an emotional victim impact statement read to the Central Criminal Court, where Broughan, of St Patrick’s Park, Rathangan, Co Kildare, was sentenced to the mandatory term of life imprisonment for murdering Mr Hopkins, 34, in the same town on July 31, 2020.
The sentence was backdated to August 1 2020, when he went into custody. On February 28 last, a jury took just two hours and 53 minutes to find Broughan guilty of murdering Mr Hopkins.
Speaking outside the Criminal Courts of Justice building on Monday, Caitríona Hopkins, made a statement on behalf of the Hopkins family.
"We are so happy to get justice for Roy today; it won't bring him back. We are very thankful to our legal team for all they have done and to our friends, family, and neighbours. I just want to say that I will never, ever, ever forgive Robert Broughan for taking my son's life," she said.
"Roy was the funny one one in the family, he made us all laugh constantly and now it's not the same ... He loved fishing, he went out fishing that day, a sunny evening, doing the thing he loved most and a guy who was meant to be his friend just battered him to death; you would not do it to a dog".
Earlier, the court heard that Broughan has three previous convictions which arose out of one incident — where he was convicted for criminal damage and received a €200 fine. Two public order incidents for threatening and abusive behaviour and intoxication were taken into consideration.
Evidence was given that Broughan had addictive issues with codeine and Solpadeine and would take excessive amounts of the painkillers. He was very badly burned in a bonfire as a 10-year-old child, was in hospital for a year, and had numerous skin grafts.
In his fifth garda interview, Broughan told detectives that he had taken three or four Solpadeine tablets on July 31 before killing his friend and that he wanted "to get a third party".
The court also heard that a psychiatrist found that Broughan initially qualified for a defence of diminished responsibility on the basis of psychosis. However, when Keith Rix retired, a new psychologist was appointed who didn't share the same opinion and that defence wasn't put forward.
The hearing was told on Monday that when Broughan originally went into custody he was sent to the Central Mental Hospital for a period of time.
A autopsy revealed Mr Hopkins died from a traumatic head injury, namely blunt force trauma to the head and skull consistent with force to the front and side of the head.
Detective Garda Seamus Doyle told Maurice Coffey, prosecuting, that Broughan gave a full account of and admitted to the murder of Mr Hopkins in his garda interviews. The detective said Broughan admitted to hitting Mr Hopkins on the forehead with the baseball bat, followed by another hit to the side of the head.
Broughan said he had wiped down the bat in the grass before he hit the victim again a number of times.
The court also heard that Broughan told gardaí he had swung the bat with "bad intentions and power", and intended to make his friend's head "explode", and also intended to kill him.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
