A man has pleaded guilty to the murders of a pregnant woman and three children who were found dead at a house in Derbyshire.
Damien Bendall, 32, had previously denied murdering his then partner Terri Harris, 35, her 11-year-old daughter Lacey Bennett, her 13-year-old son John Paul Bennett, and Lacey’s 11-year-old friend Connie Gent, but admitted their manslaughter.
Lacey and John Paul were Ms Harris’s children from a previous relationship, and Connie had been at the house for a sleepover when the killings took place.
Bendall made his latest plea as he appeared at Derby Crown Court on Wednesday, where he also admitted raping Lacey after previously denying the charge.
Lacey’s friend Connie Gent was also among the victims. Pic: Derbyshire Constabulary
He killed the four victims at the home he shared with Ms Harris in what prosecutor Louis Mably KC told the court were “brutal, vicious and cruel attacks on a defenceless woman” and young children.
Ms Harris and the three children were found dead in Chandos Crescent, Killamarsh, near Sheffield, on 19 September last year.
Mr Mably said: “On the night of Saturday September 17, 2021, stretching into the early hours of September 19, the defendant brutally and viciously murdered his then partner, Terri Harris, who is aged 35 – and was in the early stages of pregnancy.
“He also murdered Terri’s two children, by a previous partner, her 13-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter Lacey, and he murdered Connie Gent, also aged 11.
“She was a friend of Lacey’s who just happened that evening to be staying at Lacey’s house for a sleepover.”
Bendall will be sentenced later today.
