Grandkids were scared of monsters, I told them there was no such thing, says gran of kids murdered with mum on sleepover
AN evil thug who murdered his pregnant girlfriend and three kids at a sleepover was yesterday ordered to spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Damien Bendall, 32, went from room to room to bludgeon Terri Harris, 35, her son John-Paul Bennett, 13, plus daughter Lacey Bennett and best pal Connie Gent, both 11.
Last night, Terri’s heartbroken mum, Angela Smith said: “When Lacey and John were younger, they would say ‘I’m scared of monsters’.
“I would tell them, ‘There’s no such thing as monsters’. How wrong was I.”
Barbaric Bendall smashed his victims’ skulls with a claw hammer in a ferocious attack following a cocaine and cannabis binge last September.
He raped Lacey as “her life ebbed away” before grabbing John-Paul’s Xbox and taking a cab to exchange it for more coke from a drug dealer.
Asked how his night had been, he told the driver, “Not too bad, bit mad” before adding he had been, “Just chilling with the family really”.
Bendall, who had several Nazi symbol tattoos, returned to the murder scene in Killamarsh, Derbys, at 7am.
He then rang 999 to say: “I have killed four people.” Body-cam footage from the two cops at the scene showed Bendall, who had a history of violence, being handcuffed and told to sit on the ground.
In the next moments, one officer in the home gasps: “Oh Jesus. There’s at least three casualties. Unresponsive. I think they’re all dead.
“Keith, they’re all gone mate, they’re all gone.”
Bendall later told detectives: “The whole house is covered in claret. I used a hammer.
He then joked: “Bet you don’t usually get four murders in Killamarsh do you. Well I mean five coz my missus was having a baby.”
Prosecutor Louis Mably KC said: “These were brutal, vicious and cruel attacks . . . none of the victims stood a chance.”
He said the girls and John-Paul had spent the afternoon before their deaths selling sweets from a stall set up at the front of the house.
In their last photo, the girls stood behind a table laden with lollies, biscuits, bubble gum and a cupcake kit.
Proud Terri posted it on an online forum as the kids were giving some of the money to a woman fighting cancer.
Terri had met Bendall on a dating website after splitting up with Lacey and John-Paul’s dad, Jason.
Bendall was on a suspended sentence for arson — and had been in jail for crimes including robbery and GBH.
He stayed at care worker Terri’s home in Sheffield and she became distant from family and desperate for cash to buy him cannabis.
He hid his drug abuse from counsellors. Bendall, originally from Swindon, Wilts, has refused to explain why he went on his killing spree.
He demanded hospital tests, including CT scans, to delay the case, claiming to be brain injured from cage fighting. He had never set foot in the ring or boxed.
Trial dates in May and October were aborted before he pleaded guilty yesterday after putting his victims’ families through 15 months of agony when tests showed he was physically fine.
Vanessa Marshall KC, mitigating, told Derby crown court that Bendall “had no recollection” of the murders.
She said: “It is the defendant’s instructions that nothing but a full-life order is warranted for taking as he did these four young lives.”
Mr Justice Sweeney told Bendall: “Punishment requires you being kept in prison for the rest of your life.”
Andrew Baxter, of the CPS, said later: “What he did left two families utterly devastated by grief and a community in bewilderment and shock.”
'PAIN THAT’S ENDED MY LIFE, TOO'
IMPACT STATEMENT BY JASON BENNETT, Lacey & John-Paul’s father
THE murder of my two children has destroyed and taken my life away.
Life now seems pointless, going to work, everyday things, I don’t see what it means anymore.
If it wasn’t for my partner Caroline, I wouldn’t be here now. This has impacted every aspect of my life. I can’t go to certain places.
Simple things like, I can no longer walk down the school clothing aisle in a shop as it brings back too many memories.
John and Lacey were innocent. I am angry and sad they have been taken away from me. I will not see them grow up, I will not be given the opportunity to be a grandad. I am angry their life, their future has been taken away from them. I am lost without them and I need them.
When I went to the hospital to see them, I promised John and Lacey I would live their life for them. We try to make life normal but it is no longer normal.
John and Lacey were beautiful, polite, kind, well-mannered children. John would not hurt a fly, literally, if he saw an insect he would carefully put it outside. He was very trusting and would always see the best in people.
On the last day of her life, Lacey was out with her friend Connie Gent raising money for charity. Lacey was kind and caring. We are devastated Connie has died along with them.
I’m a shadow of my former self. I am nothing. As well as taking four lives he has taken my life, too. I no longer have a future. I have lots of love and support around me but the love I crave off my beautiful kids, I can’t have that.
That’s a hole that can never be filled. I can’t kiss them, I can’t tell them I love them and get an answer back, I feel broken that I will never get to hug them, squeeze them tight. I would give anything just to speak with them and say, ‘Goodnight my beautifuls’.
I cannot comprehend how someone could take so many innocent lives. It makes no sense.
'IT WILL HAUNT ME AS LONG AS I LIVE'
IMPACT STATEMENT BY CHARLES GENT, Connie’s father
THROUGHOUT my life I have found it difficult to articulate or put into words my emotions or feelings, so the completion of this statement is something that I have not found easy.
The murder of my daughter has completely torn my life apart. I feel totally lost and numb through the pain and distress this has caused me. I feel like I have become a lost soul trying to navigate my way through life without her here.
Whenever I am out and I hear a teenage girl’s voice for a split second I imagine it is Connie and I desperately look for her before the sad realisation that it is purely my imagination.
Sometimes I just feel like I am within my own little world and distant from the reality of normal life.
I feel like part of my identity has been taken and feel like I do not know who I am or what my purpose in life is any more. My heart is totally broken and shattered into pieces.
Whatever happens at court will not bring Connie back. No sentence will ever be sufficient justice for Connie’s death.
Whilst the court process may answer some of the questions I have about my daughter’s death I feel like I will still be left with unanswered questions.
As a result of my daughter’s death my mental health deteriorated significantly. Whilst I am hopeful it will improve in the fullness of time, I know the reality is I will live the rest of my life thinking about the brutal way my daughter’s life was ended.
This will haunt me until the end of my life and makes me feel a combination of sick to my stomach to raging anger about how she has been robbed of her life because of the brutality of one man.
This whole crime is totally senseless. There can be no justification whatsoever for what happened that night to Connie and the other victims.
The man who carried out the crimes can only be described as truly evil and should never be free from incarceration, just like the families of the victims will never be free from their life sentence as a result of the abhorrent crimes he committed on a defenceless woman and children.