The chief probation officer for England and Wales says the service was facing “significant” challenges when it was dealing with violent offender Damien Bendall, who went on to kill four people, but says major changes continue to be made to prevent a similar “tragic” incident from happening again.
Kim Thornden-Edwards, who has been in post since February, told inquests into the deaths of Bendall’s victims – his pregnant partner Terri Harris, 35, and her children, 13-year-old John Paul Bennett and 11-year-old Lacey Bennett, as well as Lacey’s friend Connie Gent, 11 – that she accepted the findings of a damning independent report on the probation service “without reservation”.