- Damien Bendall moved into Terri Harris’s home five months after talking and in the beginning they were smitten.
- But very soon Terri and her kid’s lives’ took a dark turn after a deadly sleepover went terribly wrong.
- After becoming high on cocaine, Damien brutally murdered Terri, her kids and their 11-year-old friend Connie.
When Terri Harris first met Damien Bendall in April 2020, his charming personality swept her off her feet.
Five months after they met online, Damien, then 30, moved in with Terri and her kids, John-Paul, 12, and Lacey, 10.
It seemed the pair were smitten.
But Terri’s family soon became concerned when they noticed that Terri was quieter than usual, and that Damien was always with her.
He’d also made comments to Terri’s mum, Angie, about hitting his friend’s dog over the head with a brick, when they were unable to afford to get vet treatment.
Immediately, alarm bells rang for Angie and she became concerned for her daughter’s and grandchildren’s safety.
Damien also had a violent past – something that Terri was completely unaware of.
He’d been in and out of jail for crimes such as robbery at knifepoint, and also significantly assaulting prison officers.
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Then in June 2021, Damien was found guilty of arson.
Despite his murky past, Damien was handed a 17-month suspended sentence, and a five-month curfew order at Terri’s home.
But things seemed to be looking up when Terri discovered she was pregnant a few months later. Damien was over the moon to be expecting his first child.
Then in September little Lacey had her friend, Connie, 11, for a sleepover.
She was only due to stay one night, but the girls were having so much fun, Connie asked her mum if she could stay one more night.
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On the second day, the kind-hearted girls were hard at work, selling sweets to raise cash for cancer research.
But later on that evening, police received a call from Damien in which he said, ‘I need the police and the ambulance here now because I’ve killed people.’
When officers arrived at the scene, they discovered the bodies of pregnant Terri, 35, John, 13, Lacey, and Connie, both 11.
Police arrested and charged Damien Bendall with the murders of Terri, her two kids and Connie.
Sickeningly, he was also charged with raping Lacey as she lay dying.
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In October 2022, Bendall, then 32, appeared at Derby Crown Court and denied the charges, instead pleading guilty to manslaughter.
He also denied the rape charges. But in December 2022 he changed his plea to guilty for all four murders, as well as admitting to raping Lacey.
The court heard how after the fatal attack, which was carried out using a claw hammer, Bendall, who was high on cocaine, took John-Paul’s games console to sell in exchange for drugs.
A ligature had been used around Lacey’s neck, which also contributed to her death.
When detectives quizzed why Bendall had committed the heartless crime he said, ‘I don’t know. I blanked out. It was like I was outside my body but looking in.’
Bendall was given a whole-life order, meaning he will never leave prison.
Reading out a victim impact statement, Terri’s mum recalled how her grandchildren used to be scared of monsters when they were younger.
‘I told them there’s no such thing as monsters, but how wrong I was,’ she said.
‘Terri, Lacey and John meant the world to me and were the most precious people in my life’.
John and Lacey’s father, Jason Bennett, said, ‘The murder of my two children has destroyed and taken my life away.
‘I’m a shadow of my former self, I am nothing… 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. It’s like my heart has been shattered into a billion pieces never to be repaired.’
Connie’s father, Charlie Gent said, ‘The man who carried out the crimes can only be described as truly evil’.
In 2023 an inquest was held into why Damien Bendall – who posed a serious threat to women and children – had been put under curfew at Terri’s address.
Held at Chesterfield Coroner’s Court that October, the inquest concluded that the probation service had made 51 separate failings.
As well as multiple robbery convictions, Bendall had been accused of violence by a previous partner, and had also been designated by police as being a ‘sexual risk of harm to girls’.
And when fitted with an electronic tag before going to Terri’s, Bendall had warned the Electronic Monitoring Service officer, ‘If this relationship goes bad, I will murder my girlfriend and the children.’
Charlie Gent spoke to ITV about his daughter’s death and the inquest.
‘Connie was one of the nicest girl’s you’ll ever meet. She could light up any room she went in.
‘I’ve lost my absolute world.’
Determined to make a change, Terri’s mum Angie has founded the charity Terri’s Fight in her daughter’s name.
Creating care packages – Terri’s Fight Bags – for domestic abuse survivors, Angie said, ‘I’m doing so much for her in her name to keep me focused – she didn’t die in vain.’
Speaking about it to Yorkshire Live, Angie explained, ‘I started talking to [women’s] refuges and realising the difficulty that people have to get away from these relationships.
‘That’s why I started doing them – to give people some help.’
Reflecting on Terri, Angie said, ‘She was the kind of person who would help people in life, if she could. I think she would be very surprised that I’ve managed to get this up and running.’
