Terri Harris (bottom left) and her children John Bennett (top left) and Lacey Bennett (bottom right) were found dead along with Lacey’s friend Connie Gent (top right)
By Will Jefford & PA news agency
BBC News
A quadruple murderer said he would kill his girlfriend and her children if their relationship “went bad”, an inquest heard.
Damien Bendall murdered four people at a house in Derbyshire in 2021.
He pleaded guilty to killing Terri Harris, 35, her son John Bennett, 13, daughter Lacey Bennett, 11, and Lacey’s 11-year-old friend Connie Gent.
An inquest heard an officer fitting an electronic tag on Bendall did not report the comments.
Inquests into the deaths of the four victims at Chesterfield Coroner’s Court continued on Wednesday.
Officers were dispatched to a property in Killamarsh on 19 September 2021 and found the bodies of the four victims inside the house.
Image source, Derbyshire Constabulary
Damien Bendall admitted four murders and the rape of 11-year-old Lacey
On arrival, they found Bendall, who was 31 at the time and said: “I need the police and an ambulance because I just killed four people.”
The inquest heard from an Electronic Monitoring Service (EMS) officer who was fitting a tag on Bendall for a previous crime when he made the comments.
She said he told her he would “murder my girlfriend and children” if their relationship “went bad”, but she did not make a report.
Probation officer, Aisha Fatima, who worked at the probation service in Chesterfield, told the court she had not been aware of the comments when she was dealing with Bendall in June 2021.
At the time, Bendall was subject to a 17-month suspended sentence for committing arson in Swindon in May 2020, but he was living with Ms Harris and her children in Chandos Crescent, Killamarsh.
Image source, PA Media
Police found Terri Harris and the three children dead at the house in Chandos Crescent
When asked what she would have done had she known of Bendall’s comments, Ms Fatima said: “I would have taken action.
“I wouldn’t have allowed Bendall to reside at the address with Terri Harris and her children.”
The inquest heard how Ms Fatima would not have been given Bendall’s case had he not been incorrectly assessed as posing a medium risk, because she only had six months experience in the job.
Ms Fatima also said she had not taken a “deeper dive” into Bendall’s history after taking over his case and had only read two out of 10 of the previous risk assessment reports detailing his background.
The inquest previously heard from two probation officers who said their workload was “overwhelming” when they were dealing with the killer.
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