Compensation for the parents and grandparents of Terri Harris, John Paul and Lacey murdered by Damien Bendall

Kim Vernal, Head of our Actions Against the Police team at Taylor Rose has secured compensation for the parents and grandparents of Terri Harris, John Paul Bennett and Lacey Bennett murdered by Damien Bendall.

Bendall is serving a whole life sentence for their brutal murders in September 2021. He attacked them with a claw hammer in Killamarsh, Derbyshire. He pleaded guilty to the murders and also admitted to raping Lacey.

A two week inquest at Chesterfield Coroner's Court in October 2023 concluded they were unlawfully killed, and senior coroner Peter Nieto said that while Bendall bore "primary responsibility" for the "brutal and savage" murders, there were "several very stark acts or omissions" by both the Probation Service and individuals that "accumulatively" contributed to the deaths.

Speaking at the Inquest, he added: "My conclusion is unlawful killing, contributed to by acts or omissions by the designated state agency for offending management in the course of Damien Bendall's offender supervision and management."

Bendall's history and allegations of domestic abuse against a former partner and inappropriate contact with a young girl in care were missed due to a "failure to demonstrate sufficient professional curiosity", Mr Nieto said.

The Probation Service accepted 51 separate failings at the inquests and 6 more thereafter, accepting a catalogue of missed opportunities and lack of scrutiny concerning Bendall’s supervision going back several years.

At the time of the murders, Bendall was serving a suspended sentence with a curfew and alcohol treatment requirement following an arson committed in 2020.

He was deemed a low risk to partners and children and recommended for curfew at Ms Harris’s home in the pre-sentence report for the arson 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.

Closing the inquest, Mr Nieto acknowledged widespread systemic failure over many years in the probation service including failures of supervision, auditing, monitoring of practice, failures in training, lack of competent staffing, failures around allocation decisions and recording systems and failures in risk assessment procedures.

Kim Vernal represented Angela Smith and Lawrence Harris, the parents and grandparents of Terri, John Paul and Lacey and other family members in a claim for compensation against the Probation Service and the Electronic Monitoring Service (EMS) following the inquest. A letter of claim included claims for negligence and breaches of Articles 2, 3 and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights bought into English law by the Human Rights Act 1998. The Probation Service admitted liability for breach of the Article 2 systemic duty but not the operational duty. EMS denied all liability. Despite this dispute, the parties agreed to attempt to compromise the claims without recourse to the courts. A settlement meeting took place in May 2025 during which both the Probation Service and EMS agreed a sizable award of damages that included compensation for psychiatric injury for Angela and Lawrence.

Following the settlement meeting Kim said: “The facts of this case are horrendous and I am humbled by the dignity and strength Angela and Lawrence have shown throughout since the murders. The sheer number of systemic failings identified and admitted is astounding. Although no amount of money can bring back Terri and her children, the size of the damages award is indicative of the acknowledged failings. Life will never be the same again for Angela and Lawrence, but they can at least now start to properly grieve the loss of their beautiful daughter and grandchildren, taken from them in the most cruellest way possible.”