Attorney General orders review into CPS handling of Nottingham attacks
A review has been ordered into the decision not to push for Nottingham killer Valdo Calocane to be jailed for murder.
The families of those who died have voiced their anger after Valdo Calocane was given a hospital order. He fatally stabbed 19-year-olds Barnaby Webber and Grace O'Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates, 65, in June last year.
Calocane will be detained at a high-security hospital after his pleas of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility were accepted. Emma Webber, the mother of Barnaby, has said "true justice has not been served” over the decision by prosecutors not to seek a murder conviction. She warned that the families have been "let down" by the Crown Prosecution Service who she said had presented the decision as a fait accompli.
Attorney General Victoria Prentis has ordered an inspection into the Crown Prosecution Service’s handling of the triple stabbing case "so we can properly investigate the concerns raised by the families". The review will include examining the decision to accept Calocane's guilty pleas to manslaughter on the basis of diminished responsibility and whether the CPS met its duties to consult with families ahead of accepting pleas.
Calocane had originally been charged with three counts of murder but the CPS later concluded there was "no realistic prospect of conviction for murder" due to the 32-year-old suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, which "impaired his ability to exercise self-control".
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Rishi Sunak pledged on Tuesday the victims' families will get the answers "they deserve". Speaking on ITV's This Morning, the PM said independent investigations have been set up into Nottingham institutions' role in alleged missed opportunities to stop triple killer Valdo Calocane before he stabbed three people to death.
After meeting with the victims' families on Monday evening, the PM said: "What they've expressed to me are a bunch of questions about what's happened that they have. How did the NHS operate? Was mental health properly checked? How was the police investigation conducted? How was the Crown Prosecution Service operating and interacting with them? I think those are all perfectly reasonable questions. What I said to them is that we will get the answers. That's what they deserve. That's what I've committed to."
He added: "We've set up investigations, independent ones, into all those areas I mentioned. The NHS, the Crown Prosecution Service, the police forces. So, they're all going to be looked at independently so we can get those answers. That's going to happen promptly and thoroughly and effectively, as quickly as possible. Once we hear back from that, then we can sit down with them and decide if there are more questions that need answering, is the inquiry then the next logical step?"
The PM last night insisted he’s not ruled out a public inquiry into the Nottingham attacks as he met the families of the victims. Speaking outside No10 afterwards, David Webber, the dad of 19-year-old Barnaby, said: "We did get an assurance from the Prime Minister himself that if it's required, they're not ruling out a public inquiry (into the attack), and they will do a public inquiry."
Barnaby's parents earlier said they were "horrified" and "disgusted" at the lack of calls for an inquiry into killer Calocane’s attack. Mr Webber's mother Emma told BBC Breakfast a review into the NHS Trust where Calocane was treated would just be "a toe in the water" and "not enough".
She said: "It needs to be much more than reviewing the mental health failings and services in Nottingham. Also, the failings of the police to investigate and act accordingly up to the attacks and also the investigation of the case we've got real concerns about, and the way we've been managed by the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] and of course, we're really unhappy with the outcome from last week."
The Health and Social Care Secretary has ordered a special review of the mental health services at Nottinghamshire Healthcare Foundation NHS Trust which will report back within weeks. Leicestershire Police have referred themselves to the police complaints body, the Independent Office for Police Conduct, and the Policing Minister has also met with senior leaders at Nottinghamshire Police to discuss the case.
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