Sentence for Nottingham killer who ‘got away with murder’ to be reviewed
Valdo Calocane stabbed and brutally killed Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Barnaby Webber, both aged 19, and 65-year-old school caretaker Ian Coates to death on 13 June last year
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The attorney general is considering whether Nottingham triple killer Valdo Calocane should have his sentence reviewed after the families of his victims said he “got away with murder”.
The 32-year-old engineering graduate brutally killed Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Barnaby Webber, both aged 19, and 65-year-old school caretaker Ian Coates to death on 13 June last year.
Calocane, who has paranoid schizophrenia, pleaded guilty to manslaughter by diminished responsibility, which was accepted by the prosecution earlier this week.
He showed no emotion in the dock on Thursday as he was handed down a hospital order for the killings. Judge Mr Justice Turner said Calocane would “very probably” be detained in a high-security hospital for the rest of his life.
The son of Ian Coates, James, suggested the killer had “made a mockery of the system and he has got away with murder” on the steps outside Nottingham Crown Court after the sentencing.
A spokesman for attorney general Victoria Prentis confirmed her office had received a submission arguing the sentence handed down was unduly lenient.
It gives the Cabinet minister 28 days from sentencing to review the request and decide whether to refer the case to the Court of Appeal to decide whether the sentence was appropriate.
Emma Webber, mother of student Barnaby, said Nottinghamshire Police had “blood on your hands” after a series of failures meant his killer was free to carry out the attack.
Speaking on the steps outside Nottingham Crown Court after the sentencing hearing concluded, Mrs Webber said the CPS only met the bereaved families on 24 November.
She said: “We were presented with a fait accompli that the decision had been made to accept manslaughter charges.
“At no point during the previous five-and-a-half-months were we given any indication that this could conclude in anything other than murder.
“We trusted in our system, foolishly as it turns out.”
While accepting that Calocane is mentally unwell, Mrs Webber said the “pre-meditated” nature and “brutality” of the attacks indicated that they were the actions of “an individual who knew exactly what he was doing”.
The attorney general’s considerations are unlikely to look at whether the correct charge was pursued in Calocane’s case.
The court heard that Calocane’s “serious” mental illness, which he was not taking his prescribed medication for, meant he would hear voices telling him he needed to kill people or his family would be hurt.
He is also known to have visited MI5’s London headquarters two years before the fatal attack to ask them to stop “controlling him”. Calocane had previously been detained in hospital four times under mental health laws and was arrested in September 2021 for assaulting a police officer.
Yet by 13 June last year, he had been “unmedicated and out of touch with psychiatric services for almost 12 months”, and was in the grip of severe psychosis.
Prime minister Rishi Sunak declined to back calls for a public inquiry into the circumstances that led to the Nottingham attacks but has promised to learn “any lessons” required from the case.
Mr Sunak told broadcasters during a visit to Scarborough in north Yorkshire on Thursday that it was “right” Calocane, who he branded a “very dangerous individual”, would “spend very probably the rest of his life” in a high-security hospital.
Asked whether he would order a public inquiry into any failings by the police, health authorities and the CPS, he said: “I think it is important that all the relevant agencies look back to ensure that all reasonable steps that could have been taken were taken and if there are any lessons to be learned that we do so.”
Despite being detained in hospital, Mr Justice Turner said Calocane still “remains dangerous”.
During the three-day hearing, the court heard that Calocane, a mechanical engineering graduate from the University of Nottingham, hid in the shadows in Ilkeston Road at around 4am on 13 June, armed with a dagger, before beginning his attack on Mr Webber and Ms O’Malley-Kumar as they walked back to their student accommodation after an end-of-term night out.
After stabbing the pair tens of times, the court heard how Calocane “calmly” walked away, later going on to “lure” Mr Coates from his van before stabbing him 15 times.
Leaving Mr Coates dying in the street, Calocane stole his van where he proceeded to drive into pedestrians on his way into the city centre. Calocane was arrested after being tasered around five minutes after the final victims were injured.
Three psychiatrists agreed a hospital order would be the best course of action for Calocane, who believed he was being “interfered with” by “malign forces”, with all of them agreeing in court that the attack would not have happened had he not been in the grip of “severe psychosis”.