A man who carried out the “brutal, vicious and cruel” murders of his pregnant partner and three young children – raping one of them – has been been told he will spend the rest of his life in prison.

Damien Bendall, 32, who had previously admitted manslaughter, pleaded guilty to murdering his 35-year-old partner Terri Harris, her 11-year-old daughter Lacey Bennett, her son John Paul Bennett, 13, and Lacey’s friend Connie Gent, also 11, at the home he shared with Ms Harris.

He also admitted raping Lacey at the house in Killamarsh, near Sheffield, in 2021, during what prosecutor Louis Mably KC told the court were “brutal, vicious and cruel attacks on a defenceless woman” and young children.

Sentencing Bendall for four counts of murder and one of rape, High Court judge Mr Justice Sweeney said family impact statements attested in moving terms to each victim who had been “so horrifically taken away” and their families’ “utter devastation”.

The judge told him: “On your behalf Bendall, it is accepted that the seriousness of your offences is so exceptionally high the court must make a whole-life order. I agree.

“You are now aged 32 and have a significant background of violent offending, including robbery.

“As the prosecution have said, you carried out brutal, vicious and cruel attacks on a defenceless woman and three young children.”

The ferocity of the murders was such that the skulls of the victims were “literally smashed in”, the judge added.

Mr Justice Sweeney said the sexual offence was committed “in the grossest breach of trust” as the 11-year-old’s life ebbed away.

Imposing another whole-life order for the rape of Lacey Bennett, the judge said the facts of Bendall’s offending had gone “way beyond” those envisaged by the court’s sentencing guidelines.

The Crown’s KC Louis Mably detailed the “truly hideous and dreadful” aspects of the crime, including the fact Ms Harris was murdered while carrying Bendall’s unborn child – a fact revealed by a post-mortem paternity test.

Mr Mably told the court these were “brutal, vicious and cruel attacks on a defenceless woman” and young children.

He said Lacey was likely to have been raped at least twice by Bendall.

Connie had only been due to stay over for one night, but successfully got permission from her mother, fatefully extending her stay by another night – coinciding with Bendall’s attacks, the court heard.

The court heard Bendall also “took John’s Xbox (games console), ordered a taxi, went to Sheffield”, where he then exchanged the console “for drugs”.

The killer would later tell police he had consumed “three to four bags of cocaine and then blacked out”.

The court was told the defendant, who had previous convictions for robbery, attempted robbery and grievous bodily harm, had carried out the rape and murders while on a 24-month suspended sentence handed down at Swindon Crown Court in June 2021 for arson of a car he had tried to steal.