Overnight killer Damien Bendall “leaves fellow inmate fighting for his life after hammer attack”

A depraved killer who murdered a pregnant mother and three children during a sleepover allegedly attacked a fellow prisoner with a claw hammer.

Damien Bendall was sentenced to life in prison for killing his 35-year-old girlfriend Terri Harris, her 11-year-old daughter Lacey Bennett, her son John Paul Bennett, 13, and Lacey’s girlfriend Connie Gent, also 11, at a house in Derbyshire .

He also pleaded guilty to raping Lacey in the “brutal, vicious and cruel attacks” in which he smashed the victims’ skulls with a claw hammer. Now the overnight killer is said to have left a prisoner fighting for his life after beating him with a claw hammer in a workshop at Frankland Prison in County Durham. The Sun quoted a source who claimed the victim was bludgeoned to death three or four times and may not survive.

They said: “This is a shocking and horrific attack, even by the standards of Frankland, a dark and violent place.” Prison officers and paramedics present were traumatized. Police will investigate the case as either attempted murder or murder, depending on whether the victim survives. Bendall was placed in a segregation unit.”

A Justice Department spokesman did not deny the claims, saying: “We cannot comment on an ongoing police investigation, but violent prisoners face harsh sentences.” The horrific nature of Bendall’s crimes made his case a high-profile one in 2022, since the judge handed down a life sentence to the murderer, Judge Sweeney, who spoke of the “utter devastation” he had caused.

In a particularly tragic twist, the court learned that Lacey’s friend Connie was only supposed to stay with her for one night, but successfully obtained her mother’s permission and fatefully extended her stay for another night – which coincided with Bendall’s attacks, the court heard. It also emerged that after Bendall brutally killed Ms Harris and the children, he “took John’s Xbox (games console), called a taxi, drove to Sheffield”, where he then traded the console “for drugs”, Mr said Malby.

Bendall later told police he had “used three to four bags of cocaine and then passed out.” Ms Harris and the children were found dead at their home in Chandos Crescent, Killamarsh, in north-east Derbyshire, near Sheffield, on September 19 last year.

It later emerged that he had been convicted of violent crimes. An ex-partner also made allegations of domestic violence. Almost all of the victims had defensive injuries, suggesting they had tried to fend off Bendall after he launched his attack some time after 9:42 p.m. on September 18.

During sentencing, prosecutor Louis Mably KC said: “The circumstances of these offenses are truly heinous and terrible. These were brutal, vicious and cruel attacks on a defenseless woman and three small children. The defendant attacked them with a claw hammer that he had previously used.” They were hit on the head and upper body. It was abundantly clear that none of the victims stood a chance.

Reporting on Bendall’s likely movements around the family home, Mr Mably said: “It appears that each (victim) was attacked in a different room, (and) it appears that he went around the house looking for them, and they “attacked one after the other” to kill them.

“One of the horrific facts in this case is that the defendant raped 11-year-old Lacey during the attacks, and this included raping her as she died from head wounds inflicted with the hammer.”