Moment quadruple killer casually admits murdering woman and three children
‘I’ve murdered four people,’ Damien Bendall tells officers outside Derbyshire home
Footage has captured the moment a murderer casually told police he had killed four people outside the house where the “brutal and vicious” attacks happened.
Damien Bendall told officers about the murders as he was taking off his coat to show them a self-inflicted wound.
A court heard how the 32-year-old later also told police at the station: “Bet you don’t usually get four murders in Killamarsh do you - well, five [murders], because my missus was having a baby.”
Bendall killed his 35-year-old partner, Terri Harris, as well as her two children, 11-year-old Lacey Bennett and 13-year-old John Paul Bennett, at their home in Killamarsh near Sheffield last year.
He also murdered Lacey’s 11-year-old friend Connie Gent, who was over for a sleepover at the time of the attack.
The 32-year-old pleaded guilty to the murders, as well as a separate charge for the rape of Lacey, on Wednesday.
He was sentenced to a whole life order at Derby Crown Court on the same day.
Police went to the property on 19 September last year to reports of a man with a self-inflicted wound, before finding the four bodies inside the property.
The court was played bodyworn footage which showed Mr Bendall interacting with officers outside the house on Chandos Crescent, where he lived with Ms Harris and her two children.
They asked Mr Bendall if he had stabbed himself, to which he replied he had. While unbuttoning his coat to show officers his injuries, he said: “I know what’s going to happen. I’m going to go to prison, obviously. Again.”
The officer replies: “Why? What have you done? Have you done something to anyone else?”
Taking off his coat, Mr Bendall says: “Yeah. I’ve murdered four people”.
Police can be heard calling Mr Bendall “calm and compliant”. Officers proceeded to search the house and found the four bodies.
Derby Crown Court also heard a recording of Mr Bendall calling 999. “I need the police and the ambulance here now because I’ve killed four people,” he said.
While still on the line, he said police had arrived. The court heard how his mother had previously called 999 after a phone conversation with her son.
It also revealed details of Mr Bendall’s police interview after his arrest. The 32-year-old 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.”
Prosecutor Louis Mably KC said he carried out “brutal, vicious and cruel attacks on a defenceless woman” and children.
He told the court “none of the victims stood a chance” during the attack at the house in Chandos Crescent in September last year.
“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,” the prosecutor said.
His lawyer said Bendall wanted to receive a full life order “for taking as he did those four young lives away and in such awful circumstances”.