Concerns raised over Damien Bendall’s association with girl year before murders

Probation officers failed to properly explore or record violent killer rapist Damien Bendall’s risk of serious sexual harm to girls, despite police concerns that he was associating with a vulnerable teenage girl in care.

Chief inspector of probation Justin Russell said Wiltshire Police’s child sexual exploitation team wanted to give Bendall, who is now 33, a child abduction warning notice (Cawn) in March 2020 for his involvement with a 16-year-old girl.

The formal review into probation’s handling of Bendall before he murdered Terri Harris, 35, her daughter Lacey Bennett, 11, her son John Paul Bennett, 13, and Lacey’s friend Connie Gent, 11, showed a court report officer did not read the information about the Cawn before the killer was given a curfew to live with Ms Harris and her children.

Probation’s court report officer “incorrectly” found Bendall posed a medium risk of serious harm to the public, and a low risk of harm to partners and to children as a result, the review found.

Mr Russell’s report said the information of Wiltshire Police’s contact with probation was “readily available” but found “probation practitioners and managers all failed to read this contact”.

The report added: “This was another significant missed opportunity to identify (Bendall’s) high risk of serious harm to children.

“It was an opportunity to work with the police to understand these concerns and review the management of the risk of harm posed.”

Speaking to reporters about the concerns raised by Wiltshire Police, Mr Russell told reporters: “In May 2020, as we say in the report, that child sexual exploitation team in Wiltshire got in touch with probation to ask if they had an address for Bendall.

“Probation provided what they thought was his address, although I think it turned out to be out of date.

“A record of that contact was then put on to his case file.

“What we think should have happened was, when it came for a court report to be written in the following spring, the court report officer should have noticed that case file and contacted the child sexual exploitation team to ask ‘Why were you interested in Bendall? What was concerning you?’

“I talked to the police detectives involved in this case last week and they told me that the police in Wiltshire were interested in Bendall because they had concerns he was associating with a vulnerable 16-year-old girl and wanted to give him a warning to keep away from this girl.

“I think it’s called a child abduction warning notice.

“In practice, because they couldn’t track him down, they weren’t able to give him that warning notice.”

Mr Russell said he believed it was “correct” to say the teenage girl was in foster care at the time of Bendall’s involvement with her.