A man in the United Kingdom sentenced to life in prison Wednesday for the murders of three children and his pregnant partner was seen on video calmly admitting, "I’ve murdered four people."
Damien Bendall pleaded guilty to rape and four counts of murder in Derby Crown Court on Wednesday, Derbyshire Police said in a statement. He admitted to raping and murdering 11-year-old Lacey Bennett on Sept. 19, 2021.
Bendall also allegedly murdered her 13-year-old brother John Paul Bennett, the siblings’ mother and Bendall’s pregnant partner, 35-year-old Terri Harris, and the girl’s friend, 11-year-old Connie Gent, at a home in Killamarsh, a town and civil parish in North East Derbyshire, England.
Interviewed at the Ripley police station afterward, Bendall told officers, "I used a hammer," adding boastfully, "Bet you don't usually get four murders in Killamarsh do you – well, five, because my missus was having a baby,' SKY News reported.
He allegedly said after the killings, he took the boy’s gaming console and went in a taxi to sell it for drug money before returning to the home and then calling police.
Sitting outside the house when police arrive, body camera footage shows Bendall standing and telling officers that he has no weapons on him. He complies when asked to unbutton his coat, and officers ask if he harmed himself, noting the blood on Bendall’s hands. Bendall says he stabbed himself "about four inches in with a bread knife and one on the stomach" and continues to unbutton the top of his coat.
Maintaining a calm demeanor, Bendall asks the officers to move around the corner. They agree but stop him from going far, as one officer asks, "do you know what’s going to happen to you now?"
"I know what’s going to happen. I’m going to prison, obviously. Again," Bendall says.
The officer says Bendall will be subject to an arrest. "I’ve murdered four people," Bendall adds casually.
Bendall is a handcuffed, and a search of the property discovered the four victims. Afterward, officers are heard reading Bendall his rights and leading him into the back of a police van.
In a recording of the initial emergency call, Bendall also is heard calmly telling the dispatcher, "I need the police and the ambulance here now because I’ve killed four people."
Bendall would later tell police that he took "three to four bags of cocaine and then blacked out." He was also under the influence of cannabis, police said.
The brother and sister were from Harris’ prior relationship. Their father, Jason Bennett, said in his victim impact statement that the children’s killings "destroyed" him and that life now seemed "pointless."
"It's like my heart has been shattered into a billion pieces never to be repaired. I'm a shadow of my former self, I am nothing," the statement said. "I have lots of love around me but the love I crave off my beautiful kids, I can't have that, that's a hole that can never be filled."
