The loved ones of the victims of the Nottingham attack have criticized a series of failures that allowed Valdo Calocane to roam free and ultimately commit murder. They are calling for the doctors involved to be identified and held responsible.
Barnaby Webber, Grace O’Malley-Kumar, and Ian Coates, aged 19 and 65 respectively, fell victim to Calocane, who suffers from schizophrenia, in an unprovoked and fatal stabbing rampage in June 2023.
The families expressed outrage after a report highlighted that Calocane had been detained under the Mental Health Act and subsequently released on four occasions due to what was deemed as oversights by mental health professionals.
The review, published today, found he was not forced to take long-lasting antipsychotic medication before his rampage because he was scared of needles.
Calocane, who had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order in January for the murders and three other attempted killings in the stabbing spree.
Barnaby’s mother Emma Webber insisted Calocane has ‘got away with murder’ as she demanded accountability from Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust to make sure something like this never happens again.
‘He’s mentally ill of course, he is, however, he did have insight,’ she told reporters at a press conference. ‘He knew what he was doing. He knew it was wrong. He did it anyway.
‘This is wrong. He got away with murder. This individual is residing as a patient but he planned his murder. He bought his knives and had a rucksack full of weapons.’
(left to right) Grace O’Malley-Kumar’s brother James, with their parents Dr Sanjoy Kumar and Dr Sinead O’Malley, James Coates, the son of Ian Coates, and Emma Webber, the mother of Barnaby Webber at a press conference responding to a new report into Valdo Calocane today
Ian Coates, Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar died during Calocane’s killing spree in Nottingham in June 2023
Calocane is serving an indefinite hospital order after admitting manslaughter by diminished responsibility
She added: ‘He does respond to treatment. He is getting better, as his brother so emotionally said in Spring of last year. They have their brother back already.
‘But Barnaby’s brother Charlie will never have him back. James Kumar with never have Grace back. Ian will never return to his children and grandchildren.
‘The words in court were he is unlikely to ever be released. That’s rubbish, he is a patient and he’s responding.
‘The statistics show that he almost certainly will be out within 20 years. He got away with murder, didn’t he?’
Grace’s father Dr Sanjoy Kumar said doctors within the Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust must be held responsible for their ‘failure’ to treat Calocane appropriately.
He revealed that he will be writing to Health Secretary Wes Streeting to order the mental health trust to name the individual clinicians involved in the killer’s care after he was sectioned and released on four different occasions.
‘We’ve been failed at every intersection that Valdo Calocane had with any authority,’ Dr Kumar said.
‘This report published highlights the failures of the mental health trust, but it fails my wife and I, as clinicians working at the NHS, for the failure to treat Valdo Calocane appropriately.
‘We will be asking the Secretary of State for Health to order the trust to hold individual doctors responsible as they know Valdo Calocane was an evil, violent man – a known risk to the public who did not take his medication.
‘Four times they failed to put provisions in the community to make sure he took his medication.
‘Ultimately, they are responsible for discharging him into the community to do harm. They failed to consider public safety.’
Emma Webber, mother of victim Barnaby, said Calocane had ‘got away with murder’ after being allowed to plead guilty to reduced charges
Valdo Calocane as seen in a court sketch during his trial. He was not forced to take anti-psychiatric medication because he disliked needles, according to a damning new report
Grace O’Malley-Kumar’s mother Sinead (right) accused NHS staff of ‘laziness’ around maintaining Calocane’s medication programme
James Coates, son of attack victim Ian, said the mental health trust meant to be looking after Calocane had ‘failed’ him
He added: ‘A system is made out of individuals. If individuals are not able to account, systems do not change in our country.’
His wife Dr Sinead O’Malley Kumar said there had been poor decision-making and ‘laziness’ among health staff who treated their daughter’s killer.
‘Psychiatry is one branch of medicine where treatment of a patient does not just impact the patient and their well being, it can impact the people around them,’ she added.
‘It is the only branch of medicine where a third party can be hurt, where a complete stranger can take the life of my child because of their choice on treatment.
‘If any of them [workers] knew that Valdo Calocane was going to go out and share student accommodation with their children, I suspect their choices may have changed.’
‘Accountability on an individual level is essential.’
James Coates, whose father Ian was killed by Calocane , said he has no faith in the mental health trust which ‘failed’ his family.
‘My father Ian was six months away from retirement,’ he said. ‘Working hard to get to that day when he could put down his tools and spend time with his grandchildren and do his hobbies, like fishing, watching football.
‘That day was brutally snatched away from him. That would have been prevented, if the mental health trust just did their job.’
He is now in therapy to deal with the trauma of his father’s tragic death.
The families have called for a statutory public inquiry and will meet with the government next week.
The attack saw Calocane stab Barnaby and Grace in the street before stabbing Ian Coates and stealing his van (pictured after Calocane was stopped by police)
Forensic scene of crime officers on Nottingham’s Ilkeston Road – just one of the scenes of Calocane’s deadly rampage
The incident shocked Nottingham and the country as a whole (pictured: women leaving tributes during a vigil at St Peter’s Church in Nottingham on the day of the attack)
The families have used the press conference to call for the doctors involved in Calocane’s care to be named
Mrs Webber said it is now time for them to meet with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and other senior ministers.
In further disturbing revelations, investigators found a series of violent incidents involving patients linked to Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.
There were found to have been 15 incidents between 2019 and 2023 where current or recently discharged patients perpetrated ‘serious violence’ towards others, including strangers.
The NHS had initially tried to avoid publishing the full independent mental health homicide review – citing Calocane’s patient confidentiality – but u-turned on Tuesday in the face of outrage from the bereaved families.
Calocane had a long history of contact with NHS mental health services and is serving an indefinite hospital order after admitting manslaughter with diminished responsibility.
Prosecutors accepted his not guilty pleas to murder after medical evidence showed he had been suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.
But the families said the review showed the killer was ‘responsible for his actions and was allowed to make these decisions by his treating teams’.
