A man who murdered three children and his own partner made a chilling remark to police as he admitted killing a 'fifth' person during his rampage.
Damien Bendall, 32, has now been jailed for life for murdering his partner Terri Harris, 35, her 11-year-old daughter Lacey Bennett, her son John Paul Bennett, 13, and Lacey's friend Connie Gent, 11. He also admitted to raping young Lacey and the court heard how he committed the vile act while she lay dying after he struck her in the head with a hammer.
The family and Lacey's friend were murdered at the house Bendall shared with Harris on Chandos Crescent, Killamarsh in Derbyshire in September last year. In a shocking police interview following his arrest, Bendall told officers at Ripley police station: “The whole house is covered in claret," reports the Mirror.
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He continued: “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 eerily added: “Bet you don’t usually get four murders in Killamarsh do you – well, five (murders), because my missus was having a baby.”
At Derby Crown Court on Wednesday (21 December) Bendall admitted raping Lacey in the "brutal, vicious and cruel attacks on a defenceless woman and three children", prosecutor Louis Mably KC told the court. Mr Mably went on to tell the court how Bendall's horrific attack unfolded at the Harris' family home in September last year.
On the night that Lacey's friend had been staying over for a sleepover, the prosecutor said Bendall hit the victims over the head and on the upper body using a claw hammer, as he attacked each victim in a different room, going "around the house looking for them, attacking them each in turn, in order to kill them".
The prosecutor added: "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." Mr Mably went on to say that horrific attacks "were of such ferocity" that the victims "skulls were smashed in" by the force.
He told the court: "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.
"The attacks were of such ferocity, in essence their skulls were smashed in and in the case of one of the children, 11-year-old Lacey, parts of her brain matter were found on the living-room floor. It was perfectly clear none of the victims stood a chance."
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