A watchdog has uncovered a litany of failings by probation officers in the case of the “sleepover killer” who murdered three children and his pregnant partner.
Damien Bendall, 33, was handed a whole-life sentence for the murders of 35-year-old Terri Harris, her 11-year-old daughter Lacey Bennett, her son John Paul Bennett, 13, and Lacey’s friend Connie Gent, 11, after attacking them with a claw hammer at a property in Killamarsh, Derbyshire. He also admitted to raping Lacey as she lay dying.
It emerged that the killer had a string of convictions and a history of violence prior to the murders in September 2021, leading Dominic Raab, the justice secretary, to open a review into the Probation Service’s handling of Bendall, a repeat offender who had been under its supervision since 2011.
Chief inspector of probation Justin Russell said the Probation Service’s work with Bendall was of an “unacceptable standard” at every stage – including approving him to be curfewed in Ms Harris’s home months before he killed her and the children.
Mr Russell’s report, published on Tuesday, revealed a catalogue of errors, with probation officers missing opportunities to act on records showing that an ex-partner made allegations of domestic abuse against Bendall and a police child sexual exploitation unit had contacted probation about him a year before the attacks.
Intelligence about the risk of “serious sexual harm” he could pose to girls was “not explored or recorded sufficiently” to inform checks to help keep children safe, the report found.
One probation officer questioned by inspectors, who was involved with Bendall’s case in 2016, described him as “cold and calculated and quite psychopathic”.
The watchdog found that probation teams at that time focused on his extreme right-wing views and violence behind bars, rather than the risk of domestic abuse.
Bendall, a one-time cage fighter, repeatedly claimed he was a high-ranking member of the white supremacist group Aryan Brotherhood and spoke of having two Nazi-inspired tattoos.
But inspectors found “no evidence” that probation officers checked with police whether this was true after he was recorded as being prone to telling “grandiose stories”, the report said.
Bendall had previous convictions stretching back to 2004 for crimes including robbery, attempted robbery and grievous bodily harm.
Just months before carrying out the murders he was handed a 24-month suspended sentence for arson. Probation staff decided to issue Bendall with a curfew at Ms Harris’s home after this sentence.
Officers “came to this wholly inappropriate conclusion without speaking to Ms Harris, visiting the property, conducting domestic abuse inquiries, or taking into account past domestic abuse claims”, Mr Russell said.
Bendall was classed as posing a medium risk of serious harm to the public and a low risk of posing serious harm to partners and children.
Mr Russell said probation workers missed several opportunities to scrutinise the court’s decision, which he said would likely have blocked the curfew order. Instead, the review found, he was supervised by “insufficiently qualified and experienced” probation officers.
