Chilling words of Killamarsh murderer after killing pregnant girlfriend and three children

The man who murdered a mother and three children in a “brutal” attack at their home told police officers after his arrest that the house was “covered in claret”.

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.

He has now been handed a whole life order at Derby Crown Court after he pleaded guilty to the murders – meaning he will never be released.

In police interview after his arrest, Bendall coldly described what he saw to officers at Ripley police station following the murders, telling them: “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.”

What also emerged was that having brutally killed Ms Harris and the children, Bendall “took John’s Xbox (games console), ordered a taxi, went to Sheffield”, where he then exchanged the console “for drugs”, prosecutor Louis Mably told the court today.

Bendall also admitted raping Lacey during what prosecutor 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 19 September last year.

Watch: Killamarsh victim's father speaks out after daughter's murder

Mably said Lacey was likely to have been raped at least twice by Bendall.

Her friend Connie, who was at the house for a sleepover, had only been due to stay over for one night, but successfully got permission from her mother, fatefully extending her stay by another night – coinciding with Bendall’s attacks, the court heard.

On the day of the attacks the children had put up a stall outside the house selling sweets to raise money for Cancer Research.

Nearly all the victims had defensive injuries, indicating they had tried to fight off Bendall after he launched his attack some time after 9.42pm that evening.

Mably 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.

“It was perfectly clear none of the victims stood a chance.”

Bendall was arrested outside the house shortly after 7.39am, after his mother had rung 999 telling them he had reported stabbing himself.

Body-worn video showed Bendall, who had two superficial knife wounds, calmly telling police: “I’ve murdered four people.”

Audio of the police search of the house was then played in court, with a male officer’s voice catching with emotion as he said: “They’re gone, they’re gone.

“They’re all gone.”

The court heard that Bendall, who had previous convictions for robbery, attempted robbery and grievous bodily harm had carried out the rape and murders while on a 24-month suspended sentence handed down at Swindon Crown Court in June 2021 for arson of a car he had tried to steal.

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