Killamarsh murders: Damien Bendall will never be released from prison for killing pregnant partner and three children

He pleaded guilty this morning to murdering pregnant partner Terri Harris, 35, and her children John Paul and Lacey Bennett, 13 and 11, and sleepover guest Connie Gent, 11, and to raping Lacey as she lay dying at their home near Sheffield.

Habitual criminal Bendall’s defence lawyer said the rampage with a claw hammer in which he killed each victim in a different room was ‘inexplicable’ and he claimed to have no memory of the event. He even went to buy drugs after the murders, taking John’s Xbox with him to sell in Sheffield.

Giving his reaction to the whole-life order handed to Damien 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.

“I would also like to thank my dedicated legal team who worked tirelessly on the case to ensure this offender won’t harm anyone else.”

Sentencing Damien 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.”

The ferocity of the murders was such that the skulls of the victims were “literally smashed in,” the judge added.

Sentencing Damien Bendall to a whole-life order on each count of murder and on the charge of rape relating to Lacey Bennett, Mr Justice Sweeney said the sexual offence was committed “in the grossest breach of trust” as the 11-year-old’s life ebbed away.

The judge said “just punishment” required that Bendall be kept in prison for the rest of his life in relation to each count of murder.

Imposing another whole-life order for the rape of Lacey Bennett, the judge said the facts of Bendall’s offending had gone “way beyond” those envisaged by the court’s sentencing guidelines.

Speaking after Bendall was sentenced, Detective Inspector Mark Shaw of Derbyshire Police said: “The level of force and violence which was used in these attacks show they were carried out with one intention, and that was to take the lives of Terri, John-Paul, Lacey and Connie.

“They had all, by the nature of their relationship, come to trust Bendall and he took the opportunity to shatter that trust and carry out the horrendous acts. The force and weapon he used would have meant they were very quickly left them incapacitated.

“It is also impossible to comprehend the nature of the further attack on Lacey for all those involved.

“The families of each victim have had to endure more 15 months of unimaginable distress and anxiety, but at least today they will have some reassurance that Bendall will not be able to cause more harm.

“As an investigation team we have nothing but admiration for the way in which the families have conducted themselves, from helping the team with our inquiries through to having to relive the events through the court process. I personally would like to thank them for that.

“Whilst we, as officers and staff members in law enforcement expect to face difficulties, no one should have to deal with such tragedy.”

In a victim impact statement read to Derby Crown Court immediately before Damien Bendall was ordered to spend the rest of his life in prison, Terri Harris’s father, Lawrence, said the killer had used “unthinkable” levels of violence.

Mr Harris, who works as a builder, said of being told his daughter and two grandchildren had been murdered: “At that moment my life changed forever.

“I was then put through the trauma of seeing them at the mortuary. The vision of the three of them has been imprinted on my brain forever.”

Mr Harris’s statement, read to the court by a barrister, said he would do anything to be able to hug his loved ones one more time and tell them how much he misses them.

He added that he would never be able to understand “how any human could murder a defenceless woman and children” in what he described as “an act of monumental brutality”.

“I will never be able to get over what happened,” he said.

“They had done nothing to him to warrant such unthinkable levels of violence.”