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| NEWS | By DAVID ST GEORGE |
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MILD-mannered grandad Roy Bentley was knifed to death as he sat eating a sandwich and chatting to workmates during their lunch break at a small family firm. The 62-year-old was targeted by a former colleague who had been driven mad by the constant torment of tinnitus, a condition which causes noises in the ears. Unable to gain any relief from the noises, William Hopkins became so deranged he believed kind and gentle Mr Bentley – known as Dave – and others had poisoned his meals and pieces of birthday cake he had eaten. He blamed his mates at Rose and Hollis, a picture frame company in Marlborough Road, Archway, for his suffering, and armed himself with two knives to get even with them. The horror that followed was revealed at the Old Bailey on Monday when Hopkins, 55, who had led a blameless life and was known as “Happy Hoppy” at the firm, admitted killing warehouseman Mr Bentley, from east London. A manslaughter plea was accepted on the grounds of diminished responsibility and a murder charge was dropped. Bespectacled Hopkins, of Gillies Street, Kentish Town, was ordered to be detained “without limit of time” in a maximum security psychiatric hospital under the Mental Health Act. Judge Stephen Kramer, QC, said he must be held indefinitely “for the protection of the public from serious harm”. Hopkins, a packer at the firm until he took a £10,000 redundancy package on ill health grounds, had little insight into his terrible mental illness, the court heard. The judge said that, tragically, Hopkins “formed the genuine view” that Mr Bentley had been poisoning him. On October 13 last year he launched his frenzied attack as workers were having their break in a courtyard. He ran through an archway and slashed and stabbed at Mr Bentley, who suffered 17 wounds. Another worker was slashed across the arm. Hopkins was overpowered and restrained, and a second kitchen knife taken from his pocket. “Is he dead yet?” he asked police as he was handcuffed. “He tried to poison me.” Hopkins, who worked at the firm from 1995 to 2002, developed an ear infection and then agonising tinnitus. “He regarded the company primarily at fault and held his colleagues responsible,” said prosecutor Sallie Bennett-Jenkins. In several letters to the firm, Hopkins said that radio noise had added to his torment and he warned there would be “recriminations”. As Hopkins sat flanked by four nurses in the dock, defence QC John Kelsey-Fry told the court: “He is well aware he took the life of a man and deprived a family of a loved one.” Married with one son, Hopkins was a quiet, shy and “thoroughly decent soul” until tinnitus turned his world upside down, the court was told. His QC said: “It was as if he were in a horror movie or standing next to a jumbo jet. Life was not worth living with this devil’s orchestra in his head.” The anger and bitterness grew as he sat for hours alone on a bench on Hampstead Heath. His wife watched the transformation without being able to help. In a letter read to the court she said she had been praying for the victim and his family. “William did not commit this act out of wickedness but because of a terrible illness,” Mrs Hopkins said. |
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