Killer was delusional before murdering pregnant ex-partner, court hears
A father held delusions that his ex-partner’s unborn baby was not his when he killed the mother of two at their former family home, a Melbourne court has been told.
Benjamin Coman was also paranoid that she was tracking him using a chip in his brain, and believed supermarkets were poisoning his food and that he was being spied on, according to a forensic psychiatrist.
Mother-of-two Michelle Darragh.
Coman, 31, faced the second day of a pre-sentence hearing on Tuesday after he pleaded guilty to the October 2021 murder of Michelle Darragh, 32, inside the home they once shared with their children in Bayswater North.
The couple had an on-and-off relationship. Darragh was 12 weeks pregnant when she died, and Coman wanted her to abort their unborn child.
Darragh was staying with her parents when she went to the house on October 9 to collect some belongings.
Her father became concerned when she did not return home to her children, so he drove to the house, where he found his daughter’s body.
Ben Coman pleaded guilty to Michelle Darragh’s murder.Credit:Facebook
Coman claims there was a struggle with a kitchen knife before he stabbed Darragh to death and then turned the blade on himself. He was taken to hospital with stomach injuries.
His mental health had deteriorated in the weeks before the murder and he was admitted to Maroondah mental health ward in mid-September for psychiatric help after he tried to take his own life.
Forensic psychiatrist Andrew Carroll was called to give evidence on Tuesday about Coman’s mental health leading up to the murder.
After years of drug use, he said, Coman had developed psychotic depression, which included paranoia, hearing voices, hallucinations and delusions.
“Objectively, Mr Coman had no reason to be angry with Ms Darragh. He did feel angry at the time. His thinking the child was the product of an affair was a delusional belief,” Carroll told the Supreme Court.
He said Coman, a regular methamphetamine, speed and cannabis user, also believed Darragh was tracking him using a chip in his brain.
“He came to believe his partner could read his mind through some device that had been inserted into his head through an operation a few years prior,” Carroll said.
Earlier, Darragh’s siblings read statements to court and stared down Coman, who kept his eyes closed while in the dock.
“Don’t be such a coward, open your eyes,” her brother James said to Coman.
Samantha Darragh described the heartbreaking 10-second call she received from her mother on the day her sister was murdered.
“I think about Mum screaming down the phone to me … ‘Ben’s killed Michelle,’ ” she said. “We trusted Ben, we trusted him with Shell. For him to take the life of someone who he was supposed to love and protect just shows everyone who he really is – a monster.”
Coman’s eyes remained closed until Darragh’s niece read her statement.
He cried as the young girl explained how Coman had comforted her at a family member’s funeral before he killed her aunt.
“The fact someone could do this to my beautiful aunty makes me sick,” she said.
The hearing before Justice Andrew Tinney will continue on Thursday.
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AAP
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