On a warm September evening in the tiny Derbyshire town of Killamarsh, little Connie Gent was preparing for a sleepover at her best friend Lacey’s house. Connie, 11, was set to spend the evening with Lacey, her brother John Paul, 13 and mum Terri Harris, 35.
She should have been safe with her pal and her loving family, but late on that Sunday evening, reports began to emerge of an unspeakable tragedy that had befallen the town. A man had been arrested after four people were found dead at a house.
Police had launched a murder inquiry. No details of the victims were initially released by police, but as a reporter I had an uneasy sense it was likely to be a mum and her children. It almost always is in these circumstances, sadly.
By the time I arrived at the scene on Monday morning, as a young agency reporter filing copy for the national newspapers, word was going round the town that it was a woman, her two children and the best friend of one of the youngsters.
Neighbours in the close knit community were in shock. Seasoned reporters were visibly upset by the realisation that precious young lives had been snatched away so violently.
It soon emerged the man arrested had been Terri’s partner, Damien Bendall. As the news broke, Jason Bennet – John Paul and Lacey’s dad – posted on social media that his heart was “broken into a million pieces”.
As he made a four hour dash back to the area from a holiday in Devon, he wrote on Facebook, “Life will never be the same. I love you both more than anything. Please look after each other. Gone too soon with so much to live for.”
Then he turned up at the scene and cried out in pain at the police cordon as he viewed the house where his children were taken by the monster Bendall. His grief was captured by press photographers as he sat in the road in floods of tears.
I will never forget that haunting moment. The noise was unlike anything I’d ever heard before and the image of Jason breaking down at the scene will stay with me forever.
He sobbed as he lay flowers at the scene and told reporters he was “heartbroken, in a million pieces” and “shattered”. Later, his parents Debbie and Trevor arrived at the scene and Jason was “blaming himself”, adding: “I don’t know how he will come through this.”
Debbie said of her grandkids: “Lacey was a pink girl, very sparkly. John was into his computers. They were the most well-mannered kids you would want to meet.
“Always please and thank you, if you ever bought them a present, the first thing they would do is go on Facebook and thank you.”
Police said they were called at 7.26am in relation to concerns for the safety of a man at the house. It later emerged in court that Bendall, who had been in a relationship with Terri for around six months, had called 999 himself..
Police bodycam footage showed evil Bendall boast to the arresting officers that he’d murdered four people and had stabbed himself “four inches into his chest”.
Later at the police station, he told police he actually killed five people because Terri was pregnant at the time. He said: “Bet you don’t usually get four murders in Killamarsh do you? Well, five because my missus was having a baby.”
Bendall, handed a whole life order for the chilling murders, also told cops: “The whole house is covered in claret. I used the hammer. I didn’t realise what I did until I walked into my room and saw my missus and my daughter.”
Derby Crown Court heard he also raped Lacey as she lay dying .Mr Justice Sweeney told Bendall: “You carried out brutal, vicious and cruel attacks on a defenceless woman and three young children.
“You went around the house attacking them: Terri in the main bedroom, John in the bathroom, Connie in another bedroom, and Lacey, hitting them with a claw hammer and with such ferocity, their skulls were literally smashed in.”
The house in Chandos Crescent has since been bulldozed, but the aftermath of the brutal murder will live with me forever. As I suspect it will with those who live in the quiet street.