A rookie police officer has apologised after she admitted making a series of blunders which left a future triple killer free to strike.
Libbie-Mae Taylor was only 12 shifts into her job with Leicestershire Police when she was called to the scene of a warehouse assault on May 5 2023.
The suspect, Valdo Calocane, had fled the scene but was already wanted for skipping bail after being charged with assaulting an emergency worker.
But PC Taylor failed to notice Calocane should have been arrested when she received his full name and date of birth to enter them into the police log at a later date.
She then closed the incident without obtaining detailed statements from the victims, despite a legion of eyewitnesses at the warehouse who saw the unprovoked attack, including claims Calocane was reaching for a knife.
Calocane went on to stab three people to death, and seriously injure three others in Nottingham on June 13. An inquiry is looking into what went wrong in the build-up to the atrocity.
The young officer – who was in charge of the case, despite her vast inexperience – today apologised for her mistakes.
She told the inquiry in London: ‘I think that in this incident, I made mistakes.
PC Libbie-Mae Taylor was only 12 shifts into the job when she was made officer in charge of an assault carried out by Valdo Calocane, the month before he killed three people in Nottingham
Calocane, now 34, has been jailed for manslaughter on the grounds of diminished reponsibility
‘We’ve all admitted, accepted that we’ve made mistakes, and unfortunately, you know, it’s really difficult.
‘I can only apologise for making those mistakes and the role that I played in it.’
She said she felt supported by her senior colleagues, but explained all members of staff were under significant pressure with large caseloads, which required her to work on her days off to ‘catch up’.
The inquiry heard Calocane, who had a history of violence, had only been working at the Arvato warehouse in Kegworth for five days when he assaulted two colleagues, a husband and wife, leaving the male in serious pain.
PC Taylor was called to the scene with her senior colleague, PC Connor Amos-Perkins, who was described as her tutor.
But the inquiry heard PC Taylor did not properly download bodycam footage of the aftermath of the incident, including testimony from witnesses, which meant it was lost.
She made subsequent errors, describing Calocane as a ‘detained person’ despite him being at large, and admitted she did not properly reflect the seriousness of the injuries sustained.
But, crucially, she did not notice Calocane was already wanted by the magistrates court when she was provided with his details later – something the inquiry heard should have been a ‘breakthrough’.
Ian Coates, Barnaby Webber – known as Barney – and Grace O’Malley-Kumar were killed in Nottingham in a series of supposedly random knife attacks by one man
She told Rachel Langdale KC, counsel to the inquiry, she did not see the warrant on the police log, despite clicking on it twice.
Ms Langdale asked: ‘Did you look at it?’
PC Taylor replied: ‘If I did click on it… then all I can say is I’ve not absorbed that information because if I had seen that, I would have said something to (my tutor) and I didn’t.’
Ms Langdale said: ‘You didn’t register it?’
PC Taylor replied: ‘I didn’t register it.’
Calocane fatally stabbed 19-year-old Nottingham University students Barney Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, and 65-year-old school caretaker Ian Coates.
He was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order after the CPS accepted his guilty pleas to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
The inquiry continues.