Brenden Bennetts convicted of murdering schoolgirl Jayde Kendall
BRENDEN Bennetts was convicted of murdering 16-year-old Jayde Kendall yesterday, but a basic mistake almost up-ended the whole trial.
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ANYONE who’s watched Law and Order knows that as soon as a suspect asks for a lawyer, police have to cease questioning.
It was this exact mistake, where police pushed an interview with now-convicted murderer Brenden Bennetts, that cost Queensland Police part of their investigation.
In the video, seen by the Courier Mail, police confronted Bennetts about flirty text messages he’d sent to teenager Jayde Kendall, who was killed by him on August 14, 2015.
The interview, conducted a week before Kendall’s body was found, saw police ask the then-18-year-old about recovered deleted text messages between the two.
One of the messages featured Bennetts telling Kendall she wouldn’t be nervous once things “heat up”.
Police continued questioning Bennetts after he asked for a lawyer and the interview wasn’t stopped until he requested to speak to a lawyer for a second time.
Due to that mistake, the interview was struck from evidence.
Despite the loss of the video, Bennetts was still convicted of murder yesterday after his trial at Brisbane Supreme Court.
The 21-year-old has officially begun to serve his life sentence behind bars for the murder of the Queensland schoolgirl Jayde Kendall.
It took a jury just four hours to convict the 21-year-old on Thursday after he pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the first day of his trial in the Brisbane Supreme Court.
There was an audible gasp from the public gallery when the verdict was handed down while Bennetts showed no emotion.
Jayde was last seen alive getting into Bennetts’ distinctive red Toyota Corolla after school about 3.20pm on Friday, August 14.
Justice Ann Lyons said Bennetts had betrayed the trust of an inexperienced girl, whose death had had a profound impact on her family, friends and community where she lived.
“Your ability to calmly detach from events around you is alarming and concerning, as is your calculated web of lies and deception,” Justice Lyons said.
“You showed no respect for her body after death, just as you had shown no respect for her in the last moments of her life.” Jayde was killed shortly after Bennetts picked her up from school on August 14, 2015.
He then stole money from her bank account, destroyed evidence linking him to the 16-year-old and continued to lie to police that he had not harmed her until her body was discovered in an isolated field 13 days later.
Her father Bruce Morrissey, who raised Jayde alone after her mother died when she was seven, had a warning for the future parole board who would have to consider whether to release Bennetts into the community.
“Think about those that you love and care about around you and then ask yourself would you feel safe, him being around your daughters, your children,” Mr Morrissey said.
Bennetts will be eligible for parole in 2035.
— With AAP
Originally published as Brenden Bennetts convicted of murdering schoolgirl Jayde Kendall
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