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 was given a sentence of life imprisonment at the Central Criminal Court today.

Robert Broughan of St Patrick’s Park, Rathangan, Co Kildare was sentenced to the mandatory term of life imprisonment for murdering Roy Hopkins at the age of 34 in the same town on 31 July 2020.

The sentence was backdated to 1 August 2020, when Broughnan went into custody.

The Central Criminal Court heard today that Broughnan told gardaí that he wanted to kill another person and make his victim’s head “explode”.

Mr 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” and 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 and made “some disclosure” to his parents before his father alerted Kildare Garda Station. 

The deceased’s mother, Catriona Hopkins, told the Central Criminal Court today 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. Sometimes in the dark of the night I dream I’m having my worst nightmare ever and then jump up and realise I’m now living 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 past-time was fishing and that he loved peace and tranquillity. 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.

On 28 February last, a jury took just two hours and 53 minutes to find Broughan guilty of murdering Mr Hopkins. 

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 ten-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 31 July 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 Professor 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 today that when Broughan originally went into custody he was sent to the Central Mental Hospital for a period of time. 

A post mortem examination 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 SC, 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.

Extending his condolences to the Hopkins family on the loss of Roy, Mr Justice Tony Hunt said he didn’t think anyone in court hadn’t been moved by the articulate and detailed statements given about this “horrendous act”.

The judge said unfortunately life had dealt the family “a very bad hand” as they already had a lot of difficulties in their background without having this thrust upon them.

“It illustrates that very bad things happen to very good people…For the little it is worth, I’m not unmoved by the human side of these cases,” he said.

He said he knew the family could never go back to the place they could have been but he wished them well in their struggles. 

He added: “The trial process is difficult but it doesn’t establish why something like this happens, if indeed there is a reason, but sometimes there are no reasons”. 

The judge said Broughan had shown no sympathy for the Hopkins family nor expressed any remorse for this “horrendous tragedy”.

He said nothing in Broughan’s defence - such as the effects of the abuse of non-prescribed medication – had precluded “any expression of sympathy or remorse retrospectively”.

However, he said what was noticeable was the kindness of the people who had come to attend to Mr Hopkins in his “badly injured position”. He said they had made as much an impression on him as they had on the Hopkins family. 

Commenting on the CCTV footage in the trial, Mr Justice Hunt said it was “very sad to see” as it showed Mr Hopkins “going about the things he enjoyed” on a beautiful summer’s evening in July 2020.

He noted the way the deceased had interacted in “a very friendly way” with the people he came across in an off-licence and on the street in Rathangan.

Sentence hearing

At today’s sentencing hearing, Detective Garda Doyle detailed the background to the murder, telling Mr Coffey that the incident occurred in Glenaree, which is a short distance from Rathangan.

The detective said the men were good friends and they intended to go fishing that day, which was the deceased’s hobby.

The detective said a female witness in the trial, who had been out walking, heard music coming from the far side of the canal and saw a parked car.

On her return, the court was told, she heard a loud piercing noise, like from an animal and another noise “like the groans of death”. She saw a man lying on his belly and coming out of the reeds so she went to get help. 

The witness then met two other women and told them what she had observed and they went to assist the deceased.

One of them said Mr Hopkins had a serious head injury and was breathing but it was laboured and there was blood coming from his ears.

Those who came to the deceased’s aid had difficulty trying to move his body as it was on a slope but the court heard they did the best they could. 

The detective said gardaí arrived on the scene at 9.28pm and Mr Hopkins was brought to Naas General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 11.05pm.

Broughan, the court heard, later returned to the family home, where he phoned his two brothers and disclosed to them what he had done to Mr Hopkins. He also made “some disclosure” to his parents.

The defendant also met a friend and told him what he had done. Broughan’s father had contacted Kildare Garda Station and spoke to gardaí about what his son had told him. 

At 11.45pm that night, gardaí arrested Broughan at a filling station in Rathangan and brought him to Kildare Garda Station. He declined the assistance of a solicitor throughout his interviews with gardaí. 

Broughan told gardaí he had hit Mr Hopkins on the forehead with a baseball bat, then on the side of the head and on the nose and Adam’s apple.

He said he had left Mr Hopkins to die and wanted him to die. He admitted telling his mother he was “after killing a chap”.

In his third interview, Broughan told gardaí that Mr Hopkins was his best friend and that he [the defendant] had intended to kill another person. He said the deceased was “a gentleman” and treated him like a son.

He described blood coming out of the victim’s ears, head and eyes. He said Mr Hopkins’ eyes had “nearly come out from the beating he got”.

He admitted that the second ”bang” of the bat had “finished him off”. He said he was satisfied Mr Hopkins’ was dead after leaving him.

The defendant told gardaí in his fifth interview that he was sorry, despite admitting he intended to kill Mr Hopkins.

He said it was his intention to make the deceased’s head ”explode” and he had thought about it for “one minute and 30 seconds” beforehand.

Detective Garda Doyle said Broughan resided with his parents, was single at the time and had three children from two previous relationships.

The mother of the defendant’s son had given evidence at the trial that she had noticed the defendant taking Solpadeine earlier on the day of the murder. 

Referring to Mr Hopkins, Mr Coffey said his sister Debbie had passed away from cancer prior to his death, that he was known for his hobby at fishing and was well liked in the community.

“Even on Broughan’s own account he speaks very highly of him,” said counsel, which the detective agreed with.

Under cross-examination, the detective agreed with Seamus Clarke SC, defending, that the men were best friends and that the defendant had used Solpadeine arising out of the bonfire accident, where his skin had stretched causing him pain. 

Victim impact statements

The deceased’s mother, Catriona Hopkins, said in her victim impact statement that she and her family had endured a lot of tragedy.

She said her husband died in 2010 and that her 27-year-old daughter Debbie had died from cancer. 

Ms Hopkins said their worst nightmare unfolded when they received the news that Roy had been murdered and that night their lives had changed forever.

She said Broughan treated her son as if he was nothing and beat him to a pulp, leaving him for dead all alone on the side of the canal bank. She said she would never again see his smiling face but instead a cold and bleak cemetery, where Roy is buried with his sister. 

Ms Hopkins said Broughan had destroyed her trust in people and made her question her own faith at times.

“I’m hyper vigilant around other people and react to small things in a big way. My body is in a constant state of alert and on edge. I crave the safe space and security of my own home. I’m like a prisoner in my own home”. 

She said not only is her life devastated but also that of her four remaining sons: “Not only did they lose their sister to cancer but their brother was brutally beaten to death.”

Referring to the 999 call, Ms Hopkins said it will haunt and plague her for the rest of her life.

She said it was played in full during the trial and she could hear her son moaning and struggling to breathe. 

“Roy paid the ultimate price with his life and I’m so relieved justice won out in the end and the killer got what he truly deserved. He never once said sorry for killing Roy and showed no remorse during the trial,” she concluded. 

The deceased’s aunt Sandra Gill read a second victim impact statement in which she said her nephew loved the simple things in life; his family and three dogs.

“He set out on a fishing trip with his so-called friend on a beautiful summer’s evening totally unaware he would never return home. When we heard the news we were dumbfounded, heartbroken and inconsolable”.

She said Roy’s “senseless murder” is difficult to fathom, understand and come to terms with.