The families of the Nottingham victims have said the attacker “got away with murder” after an independent review found failings involved in his prior NHS care.
Valdo Calocane was allowed to avoid taking long-lasting antipsychotic medication because he did not like needles, the review found.
He also punched a police officer in the face and held his flatmates “hostage”.
Calocane, who had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order after killing 19-year-old students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, and 65-year-old caretaker Ian Coates, before attempting to kill three other people in June 2023.
Prosecutors accepted a plea of manslaughter after experts agreed his schizophrenia meant he wasn’t fully responsible for his actions.
Solicitor Neil Hudgell, acting on behalf of the families of the victims, said they will meet the government next week to discuss a statutory public inquiry.
‘Make this trauma stop’
Emma Webber, mother of Barnaby, said at a press conference held by the families, that evidence of failures in dealing with her son’s killer would have been “brushed under the carpet” had it not been for campaigning by the victims’ families and that Calcone “got away with murder”.
“None of us should be here today. Anything and everything that could go wrong did,” she said.
“Barnaby, Ian and Grace would be here today if those concerned across these agencies had just done their job properly.”
Mrs Webber said the indefinite hospital order handed to Calocane represented an “enormous miscarriage of justice”.
“He knew what he was doing,” she said. “He serves no punishment for his crimes.”
She added it was “unfathomable” that the families have had to fight for lessons to be learned: “To the prime minister, and the rest of the government, make this trauma stop and make our fight stop.
“You have confirmed there will be a public inquiry, but agree the terms that we’ve been pleading for, make it statutory so all of the agencies, organisations, institutions and, vitally, individuals must… and will be compelled to attend, give evidence and tell the truth.”
Mrs Webber wants a meeting with Keir Starmer: “I do think it’s time now that we get the opportunity to meet with the prime minister,” she said.
‘This is a watershed moment’
The father of Grace, Dr Sanjoy Kumar, said he will be asking the health secretary to order a mental health trust to hold individual doctors responsible for the failures in his daughter’s killer’s care.
Dr Kumar added: “He (Calocane) was sectioned four times. Four times. The psychiatrist failed to change his treatment four times.
“They failed to put provisions in the community to make sure he took his medication, ultimately irresponsibly discharging him into the community to do harm.
“For the loss of our beautiful, brave daughter, Grace, there must be change. This is a watershed moment.
“We demand a public inquiry with statutory powers, powers to compel witnesses to appear to account for their failures.
“We demand accountability and we will not stop until we get justice for the Nottingham attacks.
“A system is made out of individuals – if individuals are not held to account, systems will not change in our country.”
‘Accountability is essential’
Grace’s mother, Dr Sinead O’Malley-Kumar, said there had been poor decision-making and “laziness” among health staff who treated her daughter’s killer.
“If any of them knew that Valdo Calocane was going to go out and share student accommodation with their children, I suspect their choices may have changed,” she said.
“Accountability on an individual level is essential.”
‘The city is a failure’
James Coates, the son of Ian Coates, claimed the people of Nottingham are not safe and he had lost his faith in the local mental health services.
He said: “I want to be proud but I can’t. The city, as a whole, is a failure.”
Talking about the city’s NHS services, he said: “If they take shortcuts, it puts people’s lives at risk.”
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