this morning first of all we had a change of plea from damien bendall. he originally pleaded guilty to manslaughter but not murder. the four victims were terry harris, whose daughter lacey bennett, his sonjohn and lacey s friend who was on a sleepover on the night that damien bendall committed these murders. he changed his plea to murders. he changed his plea to murderfirst thing this murders. he changed his plea to murder first thing this morning murders. he changed his plea to murderfirst thing this morning of the rest of the day we had the prosecution opening the case and then sentencing from mrjustice sweeney which he gave damien bendall five whole life sentences. the four murders plus the rate of lucy bennett as well. this was a horrendous case. i can t go into too much of the detail. he killed them all with a hammer. it was an awful morning and afternoon for the families who were in court. they had not heard a lot of the details before stop they had already gone through hell and
horrific circumstances. terri harris, a care worker who was pregnant with the killer s child, her sonjohn bennett, aged 13, his sister, lacey, who was 11, and herfriend connie gent, also 11, who was on a sleepover. 0n the day they died, the girls had held a charity sweet sale. among the family statements which were read out in court was one from angela smith, who sjohn and lacey s grandmother. she said, i used to tell them there was no such thing as monsters. how wrong i was. mrjustice sweeney described damien bendall as abusive and controlling, violent and unstable. he d been selling his partner s possessions to fuel his drug habit. do you know what s going to happen to you now, mate? i know what s going to happen. going to prison, obviously, again. why? have you done something to anyone else? yeah. what have you done? murdered four people. this was him the morning after he d killed them all, and raped lacey. first, he had gone to sheffield to swapjohn s xbox for more drugs before
gruesome information about their loved ones. when mrjustice sweeney told damien bendall he was going to prison for the rest of his life there was no chance of parole cover several members of the family said yes. that is what they wanted. that is also what damien bendall s barrister said he wanted. we also heard more about his background. he had a long string of offences, some of them violent. he was actually serving a suspended sentence at the time of the murders. that was for arson. he has been sentenced to that within that life sentence again. he was called violent and controlling by the judge and we had some really very sad statements from members of the children s family. their victim impact statements which were read out. the thing that is most
i m arresting you on suspicion of murder. how would you describe bendall? as a monster. as a callous monster who brought about the trust of a family and he shattered that in a matter of a few minutes. and how are they now? difficult to put into words. they need to come to terms with what happened today. ithink, obviously, a relief with regards to the fact that it is a whole life order, because that s what they were all hoping for, that s what we as a police service were hoping for, and that s what justice sweeney has brought about today. it was a distressing day for the families, who were satisfied with the whole life sentences handed out but say it won t make up for the fact they will never see their loved ones again. phil mackie, bbc news, derby. a man has pleaded not guilty to the murder of nine year old 0livia pratt korbel in liverpool last summer. thomas cashman, who s 3a, appeared via video link at liverpool crown court earlier today. 0livia was fatally shot last august by a gunm
where ali harbi ali, the self confessed terrorist, would learn his fate. during the trial, he had used the witness box to spout islamic state propaganda. today, his defence barrister told the court he instructed her to say nothing at all. but mrjustice sweeney had plenty to say. when it came to sentence, there was no doubt in mrjustice sweeney s mind ali harbi ali had carefully prepared a murder of a public servant for a terrorist cause, an attack, struck at the very heart of democracy. that meant he crossed the legal line for a whole life order and he will never get out of jail. no sense of victory in the family s statement, read by the head of counterterrorism. there is no elation in our family today following the sentencing. 0ur amazing husband and father has been taken from us in an appalling and violent manner. nothing will ever