Killamarsh killer Damien Bendall handed another life sentence for attempting to murder inmate with claw hammer
The man who killed three children and his pregnant partner in an horrific attack in Killamarsh has received another life sentence after attempting to murder a prison inmate with a hammer.
Damien Bendall, 36, who is already serving a whole-life sentence for the 2021 murders of his pregnant partner and three children in Derbyshire, attacked another prisoner at HMP Frankland in 2024.
Bendall used a claw hammer to kill 35-year-old Terri Harris and her children, 13-year-old John Paul Bennett and 11-year-old Lacey Bennett, who he also raped, at the family home in Chandos Crescent in September 2021. He also killed Lacey’s young friend, Connie Gent, who was at the home for a sleepover.
At Teesside Crown Court today (February 23), he was handed another minimum term of 15 years for attempting to murder an inmate at HMP Frankland in 2024.
He reportedly bludgeoned the inmate, Michael Mullaney, four times with a claw hammer without warning during a workshop.
Bendall's first blow was to the back of his head, causing Mr Mullaney to slump unconscious to the floor before he was hit three more times, the court heard.
The attack in a workshop in May 2024 was so severe that a prison officer believed the victim could be dead, Jolyon Perks , prosecuting, said.
When the officer drew his baton and sounded an alarm, Bendall submitted, the court heard.
Mr Perks said: "The defendant immediately threw his hammer to one side and put his arms out to show he had stopped his assault on Mr Mullaney."
After he was handcuffed, officers asked Bendall why he had attacked the inmate, with whom he had sometimes played dominos.
Mr Perks said: "The defendant responded 'I don't know'."
His victim spent four nights in the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle, being treated for depressed skull fractures and bleeding on the brain.
The court heard that the severity to the blows could have been fatal.
In a victim statement made three months after the attack, Mr Mullaney said it had left him anxious, reluctant to leave his cell and struggling to sleep.
Bendall had planned the attack to engineer a move to segregation unit because he was concerned that his mental state was deteriorating, Vanessa Marshall KC, defending, said.
She said Bendall wanted to apologise to Mr Mullaney, saying: "He held no contempt for Mr Mullaney, despite what he did.
"There is evidence that they were friends and he wanted to convey his regrets and apologies."
Judge Francis Laird KC said the sentence was life with a minimum term of 15 years, but that Bendall will never be released in any event.
He said the attempted murder was aggravated because it happened in prison and due to his "previous convictions for the most serious violent and sexual offences".
Bendall, in a blue T-shirt and with a shaved head, watched the proceedings via a videolink from HMP Wakefield, in South Yorkshire.
It comes after a coroner concluded in 2023 that a series of “very stark” failures by the probation service to see Bendall for the risk he posed contributed to the murders of John Paul, Lacey, Connie and Terri.
Senior coroner for Derby and Derbyshire Peter Nieto heard how Bendall was deemed a 'low risk' to partners and children and recommended for curfew at Ms Harris’s home in the pre-sentence report written by a probation officer - a report that Mr Nieto described as "wholly inadequate and misleading" and that was part of a "profoundly and seriously flawed" report process.
The Probation Service accepted 51 separate failings at the inquests, held at Chesterfield Coroner’s Court, in which it accepted a catalogue of missed opportunities and lack of scrutiny concerning Bendall’s supervision going back several years.