This year has seen a string of murderers convicted and locked up for appalling and sickening crimes. Among the most high-profle of these was Ali Harbi Ali, who was given a whole life order for the terror-related murder of MP Sir David Amess.
Just days before Christmas quadruple killer Damien Bendall was sentenced to a whole life term for murdering his pregnant partner Terri Harris, her two children Lacey and John Paul Bennett and Lacey’s friend Connie Gent. Bendall also raped Lacey as she lay dying.
In Scotland, the family of Renee MacRae and her three-year-old son finally saw someone jailed for their murders. Their bodies have never been found since their disappearance more than four decades ago, and the case was one of the longest running missing persons inquiries in the country. William MacDowell, 81, was handed a life sentence after being found guilty of the murders.
The case of five-year-old Logan Mwangi, who was found dead in a river in Bridgend, Wales, shocked the whole nation. It transpired that Logan was the victim of a campaign of abuse. His mother Angharad Williamson, her partner John Cole, and Cole’s stepson - who was only 13 years old at the time of Logan’s death, were all locked up after being found guilty of murder.
Here are 20 of the most notorious criminals who faced justice this year.
1. Damien Bendall
Quadruple killer Damien Bendall murdered his pregnant partner, her two children and one of their friends. Bendall was given a whole life order on 21 December for the brutal murders in Killamarsh, near Sheffield. Bendall carried out the attacks using a claw hammer in September 2021. He pleaded guilty to murdering 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, at the home he shared with Ms Harris. Bendall also raped Lacey as she lay dying from head wounds he inflicted on her. After his arrest Bendall told police he hadn’t realised what he had done until he walked back into the room and saw Terri and Lacey. He added: “Bet you don’t usually get four murders in Killamarsh do you – well, five (murders), because my missus was having a baby.” Photo: Derbyshire Constabulary
2. Brian Sengendo
Sex predator Brian Sengendo was jailed in March for at least 42 years for killing a woman and violating her dead or dying body during a violent spree. Sengendo beat and stabbed Therasia Gordon, 44, in an act of extreme violence. He then enacted his “vile fantasy” to have sex with her dead or dying body before dumping her body in woods in Enfield, north London, on 3 August 2021. Earlier the same night, the 27-year-old delivery driver targeted two other vulnerable women in the area, the Old Bailey was told. Following a trial, Sengendo was found guilty of seven charges, including murder, attempted murder, kidnap and rape. Sengendo had denied all the charges and blamed a work associate called KT, despite incriminating DNA and CCTV evidence. Following his conviction, he “confessed” to the offences he was convicted of to a psychiatrist and blamed his social isolation, unemployment and drug and drink abuse. | PA
3. Anthony Russell
Anthony Russell murdered three people and raped his final victim, who was five months pregnant. Russell, who was sentenced to a whole life order, had previously pleaded guilty to the murders of 58-year-old Julie Williams and her son David Williams, 32, at separate flats in Coventry on October 25 and October 21, 2020 respectively. He lived on the same road as his first two victims. He had also admitted the October 26 murder of 31-year-old Nicole McGregor, who was found in woodland near Leamington Spa three days later. He had denied raping her, but was found guilty after trial. She had been lured to the woodland by Russell, who had befriended her while on the run for the other killings. Russell who had sparked a nationwide manhunt was arrested on 30 October after being found sleeping in a car he’d stolen. | SWNS
4. Andrezej Latoszewski.
Andrezej Latoszewski showed little emotion as he was jailed in November for at least 39 years over the murder of his partner’s son. Sebastian Kalinowski died of an infection caused by “untreated complications of multiple rib fractures”, after weeks of what prosecutors described as “cruel assaults and abuse” at the hands of his mother Agnieszka Kalinowska and her long-term partner Latoszewski. Footage revealed weeks of abuse endured by Sebastian before he died, with footage played to jurors including Latoszewski beating Sebastian’s with what appears to have been a slat from a bed, making him do exercises, and whipping him with an extension cable to “spur him on”. Video from Latoszewski’s phone also contained clips of him verbally abusing the visibly upset teenager. On the day before Sebastian’s death, on 13 August 2021, Latoszewski was seen on CCTV forcing food and drink into the boy’s mouth and stabbing him a number of times with a needle in the groin and thigh. | West Yorkshire Police / SWNS.COM