Monster who killed pregnant lover and 3 children on sleepover given £122,000 in taxpayer-funded Legal Aid
A MONSTER who killed his pregnant lover and three children on a sleepover benefited from £122,000 in taxpayer-funded Legal Aid.
The sum went to Damien Bendall’s lawyers despite him admitting the killings.
He was given a whole-life tariff after a court heard how he used a claw hammer to smash the skulls of Terri Harris, 35, her son John Paul Bennett, 13, daughter Lacey Bennett and Lacey’s pal Connie Gent, both 11.
Bendall, 33, who had been on a cocaine and cannabis binge, also admitted raping Lacey “as her life ebbed away”.
He never explained the 2021 attacks in Killamarsh, Derbys.
Details of the payment were released by the Ministry of Justice under Freedom of Information laws.
Bendall’s lawyers got £73,000, while £49,000 went on providing him a barrister at Derby crown court.
Bendall had originally admitted manslaughter but denied murder and rape.
He demanded unnecessary hospital tests to delay the case, claiming to be injured from cage fighting — despite having no fighting background.
Then, 15 months after the horrific attacks, Bendall admitted all the charges.
It later emerged that, at the time of the murders, Bendall was serving a suspended sentence for setting a car ablaze three months earlier.
A report found errors by the probation service — which had marked Bendall as low-risk — left him free to kill.
David Spencer, of the Centre for Crime Prevention, said: “Everyone deserves legal representation.
“But when someone like Bendall is already pleading guilty, it is extraordinary that the taxpayer should still be stumping up a six-figure sum.”