I'm full of rage and haunted by the horror of it.. how could he value Roy's life so cheaply?"

Victim's mum tells killer of her anguish in emotional statement at sentencing | Broughan had wanted to murder another person and make his friend's head 'explode'

- ALISON O'RIORDAN

A MAN who beat his "best friend" "to a pulp" with a baseball bat after they had set out together on a fishing trip told gardai he wanted to kill another person and make his victim's head "explode", the Central Criminal Court heard.

Robert Broughan, 30, also told detectives in his interviews there had never been a "cross word" between the pair but he had swung the bat "with bad intentions and power".

At yesterday's sentencing hearing, the court heard 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 who the court heard had addictive issues with codeine and Solpadeine after a childhood accident and who had taken Solpadeine tablets on the day - said he had left Mr Hopkins to die and his "sole intention" was to kill him.

He also told officers 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 yesterday in her victim impact statement her son had died in "horrendous and shocking circumstances".

She said: "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.