He was convicted of the rape of a young girl in Western Australia in 1911 and, despite receiving a life sentence for the crime, he was released in June 1914 under controversial circumstances.

Bennett and another criminal named Angus Murray committed a series of offences in New South Wales and Victoria, culminating in an armed bank robbery in suburban Melbourne in 1917, for which each were sentenced to fifteen years in prison.

Soon after his release from prison Bennett was again convicted of the sexual assault of a young girl, a capital offence for which he received a death sentence.

Bennett was the first of eleven people to be hanged at Pentridge Prison after the closure of Melbourne Gaol in 1924, and the last person to be executed in Australia for a crime other than murder.

[14] After a series of cases of interference with little children had occurred at Midland "the name of Bennett was so freely coupled with the outrages that to a large extent he was ostracised by his shop mates".

[15] On the evening of Saturday, 28 January 1911, Bennett was observed to accost a young girl, aged 10 years, in the vicinity of the Town Hall at Midland Junction.

When he reached the reserve, Walker jumped the fence; as he approached the lavatory he heard the child "making a sound between a cry and a moan", followed by a man's voice saying, "Shut up, or I'll shoot you".

A newspaper report of the trial noted that "the child is undoubtably afflicted mentally, but nevertheless she gave her evidence very well", adding that "even those used to daily attending courts of law, could hardly repress a shudder as the girl told her story in her simple way".

A doctor giving evidence for the defence stated he had examined the accused and concluded Bennett was insane "due to a thickening of the skull, contributing causes being the large number of operations performed upon him".

Bennett had committed an offence under section 185 of the Criminal Code for which the Act required the judge to pass an additional sentence of whipping.

[22] It was disclosed in a later newspaper report that "Bennett's wife sued him for divorce on the ground of his adultery" with the young girl he had sexually assaulted in January 1911, "and relied on practically the same evidence submitted at the criminal trial".

[16] While he was imprisoned in Fremantle Gaol, Bennett met another prisoner named Henry Donnelly (alias Angus Murray), with whom he was to maintain a close relationship in the years ahead.

[27] When Bennett was released on 9 June 1914 he was met at Fremantle Gaol by Major Head, who put him "on a boat bound for Melbourne, where Colonel Hoskins had promised to meet him on arrival".

[29][13] When a representative of Midland Junction's local newspaper, The Swan Express, phoned Major Head on July 15, in an effort "to obtain some insight into the reasons which had been advanced by the Salvation Army authorities to secure the release of the notorious Robert Bennett", the response from the Major was less than co-operative, with Head's manner described as "belligerent".

[30] On Monday, 27 July 1914, an "indignation meeting" regarding the premature release of Bennett from gaol was held in the Midland Junction Town Hall.

A resolution was passed at the meeting protesting against the action of the Attorney-General in releasing Bennett from prison, despite being imprisoned for life "by a Supreme Court Judge for a crime which His Honor characterised as the most horrible and disgusting which had ever come before him".

[16] The Opposition Liberal Party attempted to make political capital out of the controversy surrounding Bennett's release from custody.

The main basis of the appeal was that the Crown Prosecutor had commented during the May trial on the fact that Murray had chosen not to give evidence on oath on his own behalf.

Several days later Bennett and Murray borrowed £20 from a money-lender, giving the bill of sale of the piano and a joint promissory note as security.

They were found guilty of conspiracy to defraud and were sentenced to further imprisonment terms, with hard labour, of nine months (Bennett) and two years (Murray).

At three o'clock in the afternoon Murray entered the Middle Park branch of the English, Scottish, and Australian Bank, located in Canterbury-road opposite the railway station.

[38][39] Murray entered the bank and closed and locked the front door, walked up to the counter and pointed a Winchester rifle at Brooke's head.

[44] The physical descriptions of the two men when they were arrested were: "Bennett is a short, nuggety, dark and very strongly built man" and "Murray is very tall and thin".

On the morning of October 8 outside of the Glenferrie railway station, Murray and an accomplice named Richard Buckley robbed Thomas Berriman, the manager of the Hawthorn branch of the Commercial Bank, who was carrying a case of banknotes.

On October 11 police made a pre-dawn raid on a house in St. Kilda occupied by Squizzy Taylor and Ida Pender, where they found Murray hiding out.

His sentence was the subject of intense public and political scrutiny and several judicial appeals, but eventually on 14 April 1924 he was hanged at Melbourne Gaol (the last execution before it was closed later that year).

[53] After the classes had ended a witness named William Heuston saw the girl and her brother walking along Drummond-street and he also noticed a man, later identified as David Bennett, standing in the street.

The girl was later examined by a doctor at her home and subsequently admitted to the Children's Hospital "in a serious condition", it having been determined she "had been shamefully maltreated and outraged in a fiendish manner".

[53] Bennett was charged "with a capital offence against a four-year-old girl" and tried in the Criminal Court over two days on 15 and 16 August 1932, presided over by Justice Wasley.

Speaking in a "calm, unemotional manner" he claimed "he had never done anything to deserve the extreme penalty" and that his hanging was to "appease a vengeful public".