December 2022 Five life sentences for Killamarsh paedophile rapist and murderer Damien Bendall This cocaine-fuelled paedophile killer murdered his pregnant partner and three children before calmly telling a taxi driver he’d had a “crazy” night “just chilling with the family”. Derby Crown Court heard how Damien Bendall used a claw hammer to bludgeon to death Terri Harris, her children Lacey and John and Lacey’s friend Connie Gent who was on a sleepover. And as poor 11-year-old Lacey lay dying from her traumatic head wounds, the 32-year-old defendant raped her. ‏Handing him the first whole life sentence tariff believed to ever be issued at Derby Crown Court and in one of the last sentences he will impose before he retires, Justice Mr Nigel Sweeney KC said: “I have no doubt whatsoever that punishment requires you to be kept in prison for the rest of your life.” Louis Mably KC, prosecuting, has told the hearing each of the victim was murdered in a different room in the house Bendall shared with Terri, Lacey and John in Chandos Crescent, Killamarsh, on September 18, 2021. He said drug user Bendall had been taking cocaine when he inexplicably chose to use the horrific weapon to fracture each of the victim’s skulls one after the other. The prosecutor said: “The circumstances are truly hideous. Terri was in the early stages of pregnancy. It appears the defendant went around the house looking for them and attacking them each in turn.” Mr Mably said Terri moved to Killamarsh in September 2020 and at first did not want Bendall knowing where she was moving to. But he did move in and in August 2021, she told a friend she and the defendant were trying for a baby and told her mother she intended to marry him. Mr Mably said Connie had stayed over at the house the previous night and on the morning of the killings she asked her mum if she could stay over an extra evening. He said: “The girls and John spent the afternoon outside the house, selling sweets in order to raise money for Cancer Research. They set up a stall in the garden, and made a poster.” “At 9.17pm, Connie’s mother sent a WhatsApp message to Connie saying ‘goodnight’. Connie replied immediately saying good night to her mother. So it looks like at about 9.30pm, the children were getting ready for bed, and were having a last, pre-bedtime period of excitement. Terri was there. All was well.” Mr Mably said after he had killed Terri and the children, Bendall took John’s X-box and called a taxi to take him Sheffield to exchange it for drugs and leaving them dead in the house. He said: “This gives an indication of the sheer callous depravity of the defendant’s conduct that night. “When asked by the taxi driver how his night had been the defendant said ‘yeah not too bad, bit mad’. When asked why, the defendant said ‘bit crazy, but its alright’. Asked what he had been up to, the defendant responded, ‘just chilling with the family really’. This is after he had carried out the murders.” Mr Mably said Bendall called his mother at around 7am on the morning of Sunday, September 19 and then went to a shop to buy tobacco. He said she then called the police to tell them that her son had suffered a self-inflicted stab wound. “At 9.17pm, Connie’s mother sent a WhatsApp message to Connie saying ‘goodnight’. Connie replied immediately saying good night to her mother. So it looks like at about 9.30pm, the children were getting ready for bed, and were having a last, pre-bedtime period of excitement. Terri was there. All was well.” Mr Mably said after he had killed Terri and the children, Bendall took John’s X-box and called a taxi to take him Sheffield to exchange it for drugs and leaving them dead in the house. He said: “This gives an indication of the sheer callous depravity of the defendant’s conduct that night. “When asked by the taxi driver how his night had been the defendant said ‘yeah not too bad, bit mad’. When asked why, the defendant said ‘bit crazy, but its alright’. Asked what he had been up to, the defendant responded, ‘just chilling with the family really’. This is after he had carried out the murders.” Mr Mably said Bendall called his mother at around 7am on the morning of Sunday, September 19 and then went to a shop to buy tobacco. He said she then called the police to tell them that her son had suffered a self-inflicted stab wound. The prosecutor said: “The defendant used Connie’s telephone to call 999 where he told them that he had killed four people, and noted that the police had just arrived.” Mr Mably played the 999 call to the court. In it, Bendall said: “I need the police and an ambulance because I have just killed four people.” Mr Mably said: “The defendant told the officers ‘I’m going back to prison again’, and: ‘I’ve murdered four people’. When asked why, he said: ‘I don’t know. I blanked out, it’s like I was, erm, outside my body but looking in’. “The defendant was handcuffed. He said he had changed clothing ‘a few times because of the blood’. I should say that the self-inflicted stab wounds to the defendant’s chest were not serious. “The defendant didn’t appear overwhelmed with guilt. In reality, he was feeling sorry for himself, making excuses, and uppermost in his mind was his own situation, and the fact he didn’t want to go back to prison. But although he said he had murdered four people, perhaps understandably, the police officers did not believe him at that stage. They had no idea what they were about to find.” The prosecutor said: “PC Stubbs pushed open the bathroom door, and found the naked body of John lying on the floor. He then continued through the house, going upstairs, where he found the bodies of Lacey and Terri in the main bedroom – Lacey was on the bed and Terri on the floor. And then the body of Connie in the second bedroom. As might be imagined, PC Stubbs was entirely unprepared for what he was to find, and the mounting horror and disbelief was evident as he went from room to room. But he carried out his duty professionally and with some courage, communicating what he was finding to other officers, to ensure that the defendant remained detained and that further assistance was summoned to the scene. Other officers who went inside were visibly shocked.” Audio of the officer going through the house has been played to the court. In it you can hear him say: “Oh Jesus, there are at least three casualties, they are gone, they are all gone, Jesus. I don’t know who they are but they are all gone. Massive head injuries.” Mr Mably said Terri’s body was found in the master bedroom at the property and in terms of injuries, the examination found that there were multiple blunt force injuries to the head and face totalling, “at least nine and probably more”. He said Lacey was found face down on the bed in the same room as her mother and she, too, had suffered a fractured skull from at least one hammer blow and other head injuries. Mr Mably said: “Lacey was found with her nightdress pulled up and bundled tightly around her neck and so it is possible that the nightdress itself was used as a ligature and the conclusion was that Lacey had died of head injuries and application of pressure to the neck.” He said further forensic examination showed Bendall had raped her. The prosecutor said Connie was found face down on the floor of the middle bedroom at the property. He said her cause of death was injuries to the head. The prosecutor said John was found in the bathroom with multiple blunt force traumas also to the head. Mr Mably said a fornsic examination of the house concluded that Lacey had been assaulted in the living room, before being moved to the master bedroom where her raped body was found. The other victims were attacked in the rooms in which their bodies were discovered. He said: “Following his arrest at the scene, he was treated by paramedics for superficial injuries and a small cut to his abdomen which required gluing. He told the paramedics that he had a mass on his brain and suffered blackouts, and that he thought he had mental health issues. After receiving treatment, the defendant was taken to the Ripley Police Custody Suite. “Whilst in custody, and under constant observation by officers, the defendant stated that he does not act on impulse, but pre-planned things. He also stated words to the effect of ‘The whole house is covered in claret. I used a hammer. I did not realise what I did until I walked into my room and saw my missus and my daughter’. He said, ‘Bet you don’t usually get four murders in Killamarsh do you? Well I mean five coz my missus was having a baby.’” Mr Mably has read out a victim impact statement made my the father of John and Lacey, Jason Bennett. In it he said: “The murder of my two children has destroyed me and taken my life away. I can’t kiss them and tell them I love them and now I have nothing to fight for. I used to be scared of dying now I’m not scared at all I just want the pain I feel to end. John and Lacey were innocent and I cannot comprehend why someone would take innocent lives.” In her statement, Angela Smith, the mother of Terri said: “Some days I question the meaning of my existence. I struggle to try and explain to my elderly parents what happened. The only living person that can is Bendall. Terri was my only child and I will never have another child or grandchild. No mother should have to go through burying their daughter and grandchildren. How could Bendall use the level of violence he did? Terri was a lovely bubbly person and we had so many more adventures ahead of us.” Ms Smith’s victim impact statement also made refenced to her grandchildren. In it she said: “I remember Lacey and John growing up saying to me they were scared of monsters and would tell them there were no such things as monsters. How wrong I was.” A final statement is being read to the court by Mr Mably and was made by Charles Gent, Connie’s dad. In it he said: “The murder of my daughter has completely torn my life apart and I feel totally lost with the pain and stress this has caused me. I feel like I have become a lost sould trying to navigate my way through life without her. The whole crime is totally senseless and there can be no justification for the brutality he used. The man who carried out the crimes can only be described as ‘truly evil’.”