Supplied: Elizabeth Howell
)The Northern Territory's Chief Justice has "reluctantly" delayed the trial of the man accused of carrying out a series of deadly Darwin shootings.
Benjamin Hoffmann is charged with four counts of murder following the shooting deaths of three men and stabbing death of another in June 2019.
Mr Hoffmann's defence lawyer, Jon Tippett QC, made a last-minute application to the Northern Territory Supreme Court on Wednesday, arguing his client had not yet had enough time to review the brief of evidence against him and would be "prejudiced" if the trial went ahead as planned on March 29.
"He tells me that he's been unable to read the whole of the brief but that he is making his way through it and there are aspects of it that concern him," Mr Tippett said.
The court heard Mr Hoffmann had been given two boxes of evidence, the most recent of which he received on March 18.
But Chief Justice Michael Grant said some evidence had been passed on almost 12 months ago.
"The Crown provided the brief to the accused's present legal representatives in April 2020, which was almost a year ago now," he said.
"For reasons which can only be described as dilatory conduct on the part of the accused's legal representatives, he was not provided with a full copy of the brief until six days ago.
"No proper reason is given for that … however the accused is not to be punished for laxity on the part of his legal representatives."
Crown Prosecutor Matthew Nathan SC suggested the length of the trial be shortened, then delayed by three weeks to give Mr Hoffmann additional time to go through the brief.
But Chief Justice Grant said that could be difficult because there could be "a similar argument about the opportunity to read and digest all the material".
The court heard about 150 witnesses could be called throughout the trial.
Chief Justice Grant "reluctantly" ordered the trial be "provisionally" listed for September 20 this year.
"The principle of a fair trial does require the accused to be given adequate opportunity to read and digest the materials in the Crown brief and to provide instructions in relation to those materials," he said.
Mr Hoffmann remains in custody.
