Killamarsh murders: Damien Bendall admits killing of mother and 3 children in claw hammer attack

Damien Bendall has been given a whole life order after admitting to the brutal murders of his pregnant partner, her two children and one of their friends. Bendall attacked his 35-year-old partner Terri Harris, her 11-year-old daughter Lacey Bennett, her son John Paul Bennett, 13, and Lacey’s friend Connie Gent, also 11, with a claw hammer at the home he shared with Ms Harris.

He also admitted raping Lacey , and the court was told he did so as she lay dying from the head wounds inflicted on her by Bendall’s hammer attack.

Bendall, who previously admitted manslaughter, entered the guilty pleas at Derby Crown Court on Wednesday.

Ms Harris and the children were found dead at a house in Chandos Crescent, Killamarsh, in north-east Derbyshire, near Sheffield, on 19 September last year.

In a victim impact statement read to court, Ms Harris’s mother Angela Smith – who branded Bendall “evil” – said: “John (Bennett) would tell me when he was younger, he was scared of monsters. I would tell him there’s no such thing as monsters. How wrong I was.”

What happened in Killamarsh?

Louis Mably KC, prosecuting, opening the case, told the court Bendall’s attacks unfolded in Harris’s family home in Chandos Crescent, Killamarsh, near Sheffield.

Mr Mably KC, opening the case, said Lacey was likely to have been raped at least twice by Bendall. Connie had only been due to stay over for one night, but successfully got permission from her mother, fatefully extending her stay by another night – coinciding with Bendall’s attacks, the court heard.

What also emerged was that having brutally killed Ms Harris and the children, Bendall “took John’s Xbox (games console), ordered a taxi, went to Sheffield”, where he then exchanged the console “for drugs”, Mr Malby said.

Bendall would later tell police he had consumed “three to four bags of cocaine and then blacked out”. “This gives an indication of the sheer callous depravity of the defendant’s conduct that night,” said Mr Mably.

He said: “On the night of Saturday 17 September 2021, stretching into the early hours of 19 September, the defendant brutally and viciously murdered his then partner, Terri Harris, who is aged 35 – and was in the early stages of pregnancy.

“He also murdered Terri’s two children, by a previous partner, her 13-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter Lacey, and he murdered Connie Gent, also aged 11. She was a friend of Lacey’s who just happened that evening to be staying at Lacey’s house for a sleepover.”

“The circumstances of these offences are truly hideous and dreadful. These were brutal, vicious and cruel attacks on a defenceless woman and three young children. The defendant attacked them using a claw hammer which he used to hit them over the head and on the upper body.”

He added: “It was perfectly clear none of the victims stood a chance. It does appear each (victim) was attacked in a different room, (and) appears he went around the house looking for them, attacking them each in turn, in order to kill them.

“One of the dreadful facts about this case is that during the attacks, the defendant raped 11-year-old Lacey, and this included raping her as she lay dying from the head wounds he had inflicted with the hammer.”

When was Bendall arrested?

Bendall was arrested outside the house shortly after 7.39am on September 19, after his mother had rung 999 telling them he had reported stabbing himself. Body-worn video showed Bendall, who had two superficial knife wounds, calmly telling police: “I’ve murdered four people.”

Officers asked him: “Do you think you’ve killed your family inside their house?” Bendall replied: “No. I have (killed them). There’s one in the bathroom, two upstairs and one in another bedroom.”

Audio of the police search of the house was then played in court, with a male officer’s voice catching with emotion as he said: “They’re gone, they’re gone. They’re all gone.”

In police interview after his arrest, Damien Bendall told officers at Ripley police station: “I used the hammer. I didn’t realise what I did until I walked into my room and saw my missus and my daughter.”

He then added: “Bet you don’t usually get four murders in Killamarsh do you – well, five (murders), because my missus was having a baby.”

What did Bendall’s defence say?

Vanessa Marshall KC said her client, who has maintained having no memory of the event, agreed he should be handed a whole life order. She said: “His actions that night remain largely inexplicable and motiveless.”

She added that he had been “happy” about the forthcoming pregnancy, which would have been Bendall’s first child. “The defendant hopes the knowledge he will be spending a full whole life sentence behind bars for the rest of his life, where every day he is having to confront the demons of his actions, will provide some justice to these families,” the lawyer said.

What did the judge say?

Sentencing Bendall for four counts of murder and one of rape, High Court judge Mr Justice Sweeney said family impact statements attested in moving terms to each victim who had been “so horrifically taken away” and their families’ “utter devastation.”

The judge told him: “On your behalf Bendall, it is accepted that the seriousness of your offences is so exceptionally high the court must make a whole-life order. I agree. You are now aged 32 and have a significant background of violent offending, including robbery.

“As the prosecution have said, you carried out brutal, vicious and cruel attacks on a defenceless woman and three young children.”

What else has been said?

Giving his reaction to the whole-life order handed to Bendall, the deputy chief crown prosecutor for the East Midlands, Andrew Baxter, said: “It is hard to put into words the scale of Damien Bendall’s barbaric and horrifying actions. He went through the house looking for the victims until he had killed them all, raping one of the children in the attack.

“What he did left two families utterly devastated by grief and a community in bewilderment and shock. I offer my heartfelt sympathies to the families of Terri, John-Paul and Lacey and Connie, who have suffered an unimaginable ordeal, and who still have waited patiently and with great dignity to see justice done. My thoughts are with them.”