Tragic dad Jason Bennett has a heartbreaking wish for the New Year – a dream that can never come true.
To spend one more day with his murdered children.
Grieving Jason has just endured a second Christmas without Lacey, 11, and John, 13.
It fell a month after his pregnant ex-partner’s new boyfriend Damien Bendall got a whole-life term for killing her and the children along with their friend.
Now Jason has revealed his agony and the “priceless memories” he has in an emotional New Year TikTok video.
He said: “Christmas and New Year has come and gone in a flash. I’m so glad it’s over. We’ll always have those memories but you just wish you could have them back for one more day.”
Monster Bendall, 32, killed Jason’s ex Terri Harris, 35, along with Lacey, John and their sleepover pal Connie Gent, 11, with a claw hammer at their home in Killamarsh, near Sheffield, in September 2021.
He also raped one of the dying children. Bendall had met Terri on a dating website about 18 months beforehand. They had a rocky relationship.
He was a well-known criminal, and heavy drug user. On the day of the attacks, the children had put up a stall outside the house selling sweets to raise money for Cancer Research.
Bendall called 999 from Terri’s phone the day after the murders, telling the call handler: “I just killed four people.”
He later told police: “Bet you don’t usually get four murders in Killamarsh –well, five, because my missus was having a baby.”
Jason has previously said of the killer: “I can’t comprehend how someone can take so many innocent lives. He’s taken my life too. I’m lost without my children. It’s like my heart has been shattered into a billion pieces.”
Now North East Derbyshire District Council, which owns the £100,000 semi where the tragedy happened, has decided to knock it down after tenants in the adjoining home asked to leave.
In its place, it says there will be a “fitting commemoration” to the family. Meanwhile heartbroken Jason added on TikTok: “Everyone who has lost someone who means so much to them, I’m sure you’ll understand this.”
He said of Christmas: “It is a beautiful time of the year. You get to see your beautiful family, spend happy times with them.
“All those beautiful people around you. Those memories are priceless aren’t they?
“It’s sad then because they are not with you to enjoy Christmas in person with you.”
