In September 2021, Bendall killed his girlfriend, 35-year-old Terri Harris, her children 13-year-old John Paul Bennett and 11-year-old Lacey Bennett, as well as Lacey's 11-year-old friend Connie Gent. Bendal also confessed to raping Lacey. In December 2022, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. UK Justice Secretary Dominic Raab has ordered an independent review into the work of probation officers after it turned out that Bendal had previously been convicted of a number of violent offenses.
"Had DB's [Damien Bendall's] risk of serious harm to the public and children been correctly assessed as high, and had his risk of serious harm to partners been correctly assessed as medium, the court may not have curfewed him to an address with Ms Harris and her children," the inspectorate said in its review.
The inquiry found that since 2010, Bendall had been convicted of multiple felonies, including robbery, possession of knives, committing grievous bodily harm and unintentional arson. The watchdog also said the police had held evidence of the sexual risk the criminal represented to children.
"If records had been explored correctly, this assessment would have included police intelligence from March 2020 that DB posed a risk of sexual harm to girls. Inspectors find that at the start of this order the correct risk assessment of DB's risk of serious harm to children should have been 'high'," the inquiry added.
The Probation Service's failure to properly assess the case led to the fact that Bendall was supervised by inexperienced officers, who, in their turn, missed opportunities to "amend his risk of harm classification," according to the review.
"He would have been allocated to an experienced probation practitioner. This would have led to enforced weekly face-to-face appointments and improved communication with partner agencies, and assertions lacking evidence would not have been relied upon and repeated in future assessments," the review read.
Based on the findings, the inspectorate also prepared several recommendations for improvements to the UK Prison and Probation Service. The watchdog suggested, among other measures, ensuring the adequacy of risk assessments, lowering senior officers' workloads and making child safeguarding evaluations in all cases.