Mother and brother of Valdo Calocane communicate for the primary time
- Elias and Celeste Calocane call for urgent reform of UK mental health service
- ‘The Nottingham Attacks: A Search for Answers’ is on BBC One at 8pm tonight
The mother and brother of Nottingham knifeman Valdo Calocane have called for an urgent reform of mental health services, as they say the tragedy which left three dead ‘could have been prevented’.
Celeste and Elias said a psychiatrist warned them three years prior to the stabbings that Calocane’s mental illness was so severe he could ‘end up killing someone’.
But they told BBC Panorama they only received the 300-page medical summary containing the warning after his sentencing.
It comes as one of a series of opportunities that could have prevented the killings in June 2023.
The 32-year-old paranoid schizophrenic was given an indefinite hospital order earlier this year after he went on a rampage in Nottingham city centre, killing 19-year-old students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar and caretaker Ian Coates, 65.
His victims’ families wanted him put on trial for murder, but in January this year Nottingham Crown Court accepted his guilty plea for manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
Calocane was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2020 and was sectioned four times in the last two years.
The warning came while the medical team reviewed Calocane on the ward and was held in records by the Nottinghamshire NHS Trust.
Calocane’s mother and brother are calling for urgent reform of mental health services in the UK and want a public inquiry.
In their first-ever interview, that the mental health system was ‘broken’ and led to a ‘tragedy that could have been prevented’.
Calocane, 32, admitted three charges of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility at Nottingham Crown Court
Calocane’s mother and brother (pictured) are calling for urgent reform of mental health services in the UK and want a public inquiry. They spoke to BBC Panorama
Valdo Calocane (pictured) as a young boy. His family say he showed no signs of mental illness as a teenager
The 19-year-old university students were killed while walking home from a night out in the city
Calocane went on to kill school caretaker Ian Coates, 65, later that same morning
His brother said Calocane had shown no signs of mental illness before a phone call in May 2020 while studying mechanical engineering at the University of Nottingham.
After his brother had cried on the phone for 40 minutes, Elias recalled: ‘Finally, he said to me ‘I hear voices’.’
The medical report came during a second stay in hospital under the Mental Health Act following arrests for breaking into flats.
According to the BBC, medical records from July 2020 said ‘there seems to be no insight or remorse and the danger is that this will happen again and perhaps Valdo will end up killing someone’.
He had no further contact with the mental health team after September 2022 when he was discharged back to his GP.
‘Basically, they wash their hands and say, ‘OK, that’s it’,’ said his mother, who said her son distanced himself from the family over the next nine months.
His brother Elias echoed calls from the victims’ families for a public inquiry.
‘We need some strong recommendations,’ he said. ‘But we can’t just say, we’ll just wait until it finishes how many years down the line and then do something about it then. Something needs to happen now.’
The 32-year-old was sentenced to an indefinite period in a high-security medical facility after pleading guilty to manslaughter.
A Care Quality Commission review of the care of Calocane by Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT) will be published on Tuesday.
Dr Sinead O’Malley and Dr Sanjoy Kumar, parents of Grace O’Malley-Kumar, Ian Coates’s son James Coates and Emma and David Webber, parents of Barnaby Webber, are pictured speaking to the media outside the Royal Courts of Justice
Grace O’Malley Kumar was praised in court for her ‘incredible bravery’ trying to protect her friend Barnaby Webber from Valdo Calocane’s dagger blows
Flowers were laid at the Ilkeston Road scene in Nottingham where Grace and Barnaby were killed, including by Barnaby’s father David Webber
Victim Grace O’Malley-Kumar, left, pictured with father Dr Sanjoy Kumar, who has criticised ‘gaps’ in Valdo Calocane’s treatment, alongside Grace’s mother Sinead and brother James
The family of Barnaby Webber, second left, with his father David Webber, left, mother Emma and brother Charlie
NHFT chief executive Ifti Majid told the BBC he was ‘committed to do everything within my power to prevent such a tragedy reoccurring’.
Calocane’s sentence was referred to the Court of Appeal in February, but three judges ruled the hospital order was not ‘not arguably unduly lenient’, stating the court could not ignore medical evidence related to his paranoid schizophrenia.
Speaking following the appeal ruling, Barnaby Webber’s mother Emma Webber said: ‘Today’s ruling comes as no surprise to the families of the Nottingham attack victims. It was inevitable and was not a review of anything other than the letter of the law as it stands.
‘Despite the fact that the Attorney General herself feels that Valdo Calocane did not receive the appropriate sentence, today’s outcome proves how utterly flawed and under-resourced the criminal justice system in the UK is. It also illustrates the need for urgent reforms in the UK homicide law.
‘The fact remains, despite the words of the judge, that almost 90% of people serving hospital orders are out within 10 years and 98% within 20 years. In effect, the families now face their own life sentence of ensuring the monster that is Valdo Calocane becomes the next Ian Brady or Fred West and is never released.
