A man has admitted murdering a mother and three children whose bodies were found at a house in Derbyshire. Damien Bendall, 32, who had previously admitted manslaughter, 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 entered the guilty pleas at Derby Crown Court on Wednesday. He also admitted raping Lacey during what prosecuting KC Louis Mably KC told the court were “brutal, vicious and cruel attacks on a defenceless woman” and young children.
Ms Harris and the children were found dead at a house in Chandos Crescent, Killamarsh, in north-east Derbyshire, near Sheffield, on September 19 last year.
Mr Mably, opening the case, told the court Bendall’s attacks unfolded in Harris’s family home. He said: “On the night of Saturday September 17, 2021, stretching into the early hours of September 19, 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.”
He continued: "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.
“It was perfectly clear none of the victims stood a chance.”
Mr Mably, recounting Bendall’s likely movements through the family home, said: “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.”
In police interview after his arrest, Damien Bendall told officers at Ripley police station: “The whole house is covered in claret. 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.”
Mr Mably told Mr Justice Sweeney the Crown would be seeking a whole life term for Bendall, given the gravity of the offences.
He said: “In view of all this, the prosecution’s submission as to sentence is that the seriousness of the offending is so exceptionally high, it falls into the category of case that calls for the imposition of a whole life order, rather than a minimum term.”
Bendall will be sentenced later on Wednesday.
