Police 'missed chance' to arrest Nottingham killer weeks before

27 January 2024 , 00:08

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Valdo Calocane, 32, killed university students Barnaby Webber, Grace O'Malley-Kumar, both just 19, and a school caretaker, Ian Coates, 64, during a frenzied attack on June 13 last year (Image: PA)

Police missed a chance to arrest Valdo Calocane just weeks before he went on the rampage, it has emerged.

The paranoid schizophrenic, 32, was reported on May 5 after attacking two colleagues at a warehouse when he was already wanted for failing to attend a court hearing in 2022. Officers were still probing the attacks when Calocane killed students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both 19, and caretaker Ian Coates, 65, in Nottingham on June 13 last year.

Leicestershire Police confirmed officers were called following two assaults at the Avarto warehouse in Kegworth. The force said Calocane had been escorted from the site by security but did not explain why he was not detained.

Ian Coates, Grace O'Malley-Kumar and Barnaby Webber

A spokesman said: “Our enquiries to establish the full circumstances of the report were ongoing at the time the incident occurred in Nottingham.”

Calocane’s guilty plea of manslaughter by diminished responsibility was accepted on Thursday and he was sentenced to a hospital order. But the victims’ families reacted angrily outside Nottingham crown court and slammed prosecutors for not putting him on trial for murder.

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They also hit out at the police and mental health services after it emerged Calocane – who is being held at Ashworth high security hospital on Merseyside – had been sectioned four times since 2020 and stopped engaging with mental health teams in 2022. Last night, Barnaby’s mum Emma called for a public inquiry to establish whether or not Calocane could have been stopped.

Speaking to The Times, she said: “Questions must be asked, answers must be given and, where appropriate, lessons must be learned.”

Attorney General Victoria Prentis is deciding whether to refer Calocane’s sentence to the Court of Appeal. NHS England is also investigating his contact with mental health services.

Martin Fricker