On September 19th police were called to a scene by reports of a man having harmed himself. Upon arrival they found Damien Bendall outside the property in Killamarsh with blood on his hands. The police originally thought they were dealing with a case of self harm however when Damien uttered the words ‘I murdered 4 people’ everything changed. That day in a cocaine fueled attack Damien had killed his pregnant partner, her two children Lacey Bennett (aged 11), John Bennett (aged 13) and Lacey’s friend Connie Gent (aged 11). He had brutally murdered them all with a claw hammer. The police also determined that Damien had raped Lacey as she lay dying from her injuries. This was a merciless and heartbreaking attack that ended 4 lives and the life of his unborn child. But how could someone capable of this have been allowed access to this family unfortunately there were numerous failings which led to this point.
Police failings
Unfortunately this case highlights some of the police failures that allowed this crime to happen. He was monitored by probation officers and an internal investigation found they did not do enough to monitor him correctly. Below is a list of all his previous crimes and convictions.
List of Damien’s Previous Crimes and Convictions
2004 charged with criminal damage.
2010 received a warning for possession of cocaine.
2010 committed robbery and left the victim unconscious.
2011 sentenced to 3 years imprisonment for the robbery.
2015 committed an attempted robbery and was found in possession of a knife.
2016 committed grievous bodily harm and two counts of assault on prison officers after being denied a prison transfer. He left one prison officer requiring surgery and months of rehabilitation.
2016 a former partner of Damien came forward to report domestic violence at the hands of Damien.
2017 sentenced to 30 months in prison for the assault on prison officers.
2018 was released to an approved premises but was recalled just a month later for breaching conditions and drinking on the premises.
2020 police child sexual exploitation team requested the known address for Damien as they had evidence of sexual risk of harm to girls. They "had concerns he was associating with a vulnerable 16-year-old girl and wanted to give him a warning to keep away from this girl".
2020 he committed arson.
2021 a pre-sentence report for the arson charge stated a medium risk of serious harm to the public and a low risk of harm to partners and to children.
2021 sentenced to 17 month custodial sentence, 175 hours of unpaid work, 6 months alcohol treatment programme and a 5 month curfew which was to be served at his partner's address with her children.
2021 during 6 weeks of case management he did not begin unpaid work or alcohol treatment programme and attended 4 in person appointments and a further 3 on the phone.
2021 arrested for the murder of 4 people.
I think the most telling information above is that child sexual exploitation services had become involved but no one else was made aware of this. Surely this would then put the children at the home in danger. This would surely then have affected the low risk which was placed on the dangers to the children. This low risk was also a factor in the address at which he had to return after curfew which was that of his partner and her children. It seems highly inappropriate that no risk assessment was done of the home and the children’s safety. It is also later stated in the report that they took his word ‘without verification’. This is referring to the fact he made himself out to be a father figure and important in the children's lives.
There is a paragraph I found rather telling in the internal review. ‘Inspectors found successive probation practitioners missed opportunities to ensure vital information known about Damien Bendall was included in assessments and plans to manage and address the risk of serious harm he posed to both women and children. Practitioners did not carry out safeguarding enquiries when he was sentenced for his most recent offense of arson. The impact of unmanageable workloads at both the probation practitioner and senior probation officer levels resulted in reduced oversight of new or struggling staff, frequent role changes and sickness absence. This made consistency and continuity of practice challenging. In this case, there was an increasing reliance on unqualified and trainee staff to manage workloads; this contributed to emerging factors linked to risk of harm not being recognised and escalated appropriately.’ This paragraph seems to blame the increased workload and reduced staff as reasons for allowing this case to slip through the cracks. Ultimately these mistakes proved costly as 4 innocent people lost their lives that day. The overall review concluded that work done was of an ‘unacceptable standard and fell far below what was required’.
The Arrest
Upon his arrest outside the property he remains calm and doesn’t show any signs of remorse. In the clip below you can clearly hear in the policeman's voice the terror he has seen inside that home and I can only feel sorry for what he has had to witness.
In December of 2022 Damien was sentenced to life in prison for the attack and he will thankfully never be released from prison.
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