Probation failures contributed to ‘brutal and savage’ murders of mother and three children, coroner rules
Damien Bendall, 33, murdered pregnant Terri Harris, 35, and three children in Killamarsh two years ago
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Failures by the Probation Service contributed to the “brutal and savage” murders of a mother and three children by Damien Bendall, a coroner has ruled.
Peter Nieto, the senior coroner for Derby and Derbyshire, concluded that while Bendall bore “primary responsibility” for the murders of Terri Harris, John Paul Bennett, Lacey Bennett and Connie Gent, there were “several very stark acts or omissions” by both the Probation Service and individuals that “accumulatively” contributed to the deaths.
Bendall, 33, murdered pregnant Ms Harris, 35, her children – 11-year-old Lacey and 13-year-old John Paul – and Lacey’s friend, 11-year-old Connie, in Chandos Crescent, Killamarsh, Derbyshire, on September 19 2021, and was given a whole life order in December 2022.
The inquests into the four deaths, which concluded on Monday, heard multiple reports over two weeks of how Bendall was managed by overworked, stressed and inexperienced probation officers, with the service facing “significant” challenges at the time.
Mr Nieto said: “In my judgment, there are several very stark omissions and also a very large number of individual acts or omissions that accumulatively contributed to the deaths.”
Recording his conclusion for all four inquests, he said: “My conclusion is unlawful killing, contributed to by acts or omissions by the designated state agency for offending management in the course of Damien Bendall’s offender supervision and management.”
The Probation Service accepted 51 separate failings at the inquests, held at Chesterfield Coroner’s Court, in which it accepted a catalogue of missed opportunities and lack of scrutiny concerning Bendall’s supervision going back several years.
The families of those murdered said their “pain is indescribable” as they issued heartfelt tributes to their lost loved ones at the time.
Jason Bennett, father of John Paul and Lacey, said his life “will never be the same again”, describing Lacey as “my TikTok queen” and John Paul as “absolutely my mini me”. Kerry Shelton, mother of Connie, described her daughter’s “amazing imagination”. Ms Harris’s parents, Angela Smith and Lawrence Harris, revealed she was a care worker and said she “would go above and beyond for the people she cared for”.
At the time of the murders, Bendall was serving a suspended sentence with a curfew and alcohol treatment requirement following an arson committed in 2020.
He was deemed a low risk to partners and children and recommended for curfew at Ms Harris’s home in the pre-sentence report for the arson written by a probation officer, a report that Mr Nieto described as “wholly inadequate and misleading” and that was part of a “profoundly and seriously flawed” report process.
Bendall’s history of serious and violent offences dating back to 2004 and of allegations of domestic abuse against a former partner and inappropriate contact with a young girl in care were missed, due to a “failure to demonstrate sufficient professional curiosity”, Mr Nieto said.
“That was an important piece of information to be prominently recorded in the probation report.
“If it had been, it appears to me inconceivable that Damien Bendall would not have been considered to be high risk to children.”
Further safeguarding checks were not completed, with no effort made to speak to Ms Harris and her children to assess whether a curfew at her property was suitable, something the Probation Service admitted was “unacceptable”.
As part of his “entirely inappropriate and dangerous” curfew, Bendall was made to wear an electronic tag, during the fitting of which he said: “If this relationship goes bad, I will murder my girlfriend and the children.”
But these comments were not fed back to the Probation Service, even though they “should very clearly have been”, Mr Nieto said.
Bendall’s case was managed by two probation officers with just months of experience between them and who “did not have the experience, qualifications or training to manage the case”.
Inadequate guidance and supervision by managers allowed other intervention opportunities to be missed, including Bendall admitting he was using cannabis and strong alcohol and missing at least five meetings with a substance misuse worker, which the coroner said should have prompted a review of his risk level.
Systemic issues were raised around supervision, auditing, training staff and other issues, and Mr Nieto said it remained unclear to him how an offender’s high-risk status is “prominently displayed” on their record.
While Mr Nieto acknowledged the impact of changes to the Probation Service in the months before the murders and of Covid-19, he said: “They don’t explain the totality of the acts or omissions or failures of the Probation Service’s overview and supervision of Damien Bendall and the decisions made.”
Following the coroner’s conclusion, lawyer David Sandiford, who represented the Probation Service throughout the inquests, said: “We extend afresh our deepest sympathies to the relatives of Terri Harris, Lacey Bennett, John Paul Bennett and Connie Gent, and indeed to all those who mourn them.
“Damien Bendall is rightly serving a whole life order.
“We recognise that the changes made with a view to ensuring that this doesn’t happen again can never undo the terrible loss or assuage the grief of those whose lives will never be the same again.”
Closing the inquest, Mr Nieto said he would write a Prevention of Future Deaths report, and extended his condolences to the victims’ families and friends after a “difficult two weeks”.