Doctors feared Nottingham triple-killer would homicide somebody
- ‘The Nottingham Attacks: A Search for Answers’ is on BBC One at 8pm tonight
A doctor warned that Nottingham murderer Valdo Calocane ‘could end up killing someone’ three years before he went on a knife attack that left three people dead, it was revealed tonight.
The 32-year-old paranoid schizophrenic went on a rampage in the city in June last year killing 19-year-old student’s Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Barnaby Webber before fatally stabbing Ian Coates, 65.
Now, speaking for the first time since the tragedy, Calocane’s mother and brother have revealed they were handed a 300-page dossier of medical records after the killer was sentenced.
On one occasion, a psychiatrist doing ward rounds at a Nottinghamshire Trust Hospital raised serious concerns about Calocane’s behaviour – and suggested someone could die as a result of his actions.
The notes, revealed by the family on BBC Panorama read: ‘There seems to be no remorse and the danger will be that next time this will happen again and perhaps Valdo will end up killing someone.’
The revelation comes as shocking unseen video showed Calocane attacking his flatmate in private student halls after he was called out for making a mess in the bathroom.
The clip from 2021 shows Calocane putting his fellow student Chris Young in a headlock after punching him. Police were called to the incident but did not charge the future murderer.
Recalling what Calocane was like to live with, Mr Young told the broadcaster: ‘I thought he was someone with serious mental health issues so I did not think he was a bad person necessarily, I thought he was an ill person.
Calocane, 32, admitted three charges of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility at Nottingham Crown Court
Calocane pictured putting his former flat mate Chris Young in a chokehold after he was called out for leaving their shared bathroom in a mess
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
‘But I definitely did not think that he should have been walking around on the street. I did not think that was best for him.’
Calocane was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2020 and was sectioned four times in the last two years:
- May 2020: Calocane attempted to break into an apartment in his block of flats. He was arrested, assessed as low-risk psychotic and released to a community crisis team. One hour later, he attempted to break into a second apartment. Was reassessed and sectioned for three weeks.
- July 2020: Sectioned for two weeks after forcing way into a third apartment. Anti-psychotic medication restarted and increased, managed by community intervention team upon release.
- August/September 2021: Admits he’s stopped taking medication and will not engage further. Assaults PC during execution of a warrant under Mental Health Act. Sectioned until October.
- January 2022: Assessed and sectioned after assaulting and trapping a flatmate in kitchen. Discharged after three weeks of treatment.
Calocane’s mother Celeste and brother Elias believe the three deaths ‘could have been prevented’ if the mental health services in the UK were not ‘broken’.
They are now calling for an urgent reform of mental health services in the UK and a public inquiry.
Earlier this year in January Nottingham Crown Court accepted Calocane’s guilty plea for manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
His victims’ families, however, have been calling for him to be put on trial for murder.
Throughout the documentary, Elias said his brother had shown no signs of mental illness before a phone call in May 2020 while studying mechanical engineering at the University of Nottingham.
Throughout the interview, Elias said he received a call from Calocane the night before the attack. Over the phone Calocane spoke about his ‘delusions’ in what was a ‘copy’ of a chat they had before.
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
Mr Young told BBC Panorama he knew Calocane was not mentally well and said he shouldn’t be ‘walking round on the street’
Valdo Calocane (pictured) as a young boy. His family say he showed no signs of mental illness as a teenager
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
At around 5am on the morning of the murders, Elias received another call from his brother.
Calocane is said to have continued speaking more of his delusional beliefs, telling his brother to take his family out of the country, claiming they were not safe because of fears he was being controlled by the Government.
Elias told BBC Panorama: ‘I asked him eventually, ‘Are you going to do something stupid?’ And he says, ‘It’s already done’. And then he hangs up.’
Elias told the programme he thought his brother would instead harm himself and ‘that this would end in suicide’.
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.
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
‘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.
The BBC has learned that in Autumn 2020, Calocane admitted lying to doctors earlier that year about no longer hearing voices so that he could be discharged from hospital. He was not admitted again until a year later.
The community health team discharged Calocane to his GP in 2022 because he was not responding to them. An arrest warrant for him was issued the same day for the assault of a police officer.
It is understood Calocane’s longest stay in hospital during his four admissions was just seven weeks.
However, he was twice eligible for stays of up to six months, according to the BBC.
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 per cent of people serving hospital orders are out within 10 years and 98 per cent 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.’
