The families of the victims of the Nottingham attacks have said the killer should face a retrial on a murder charge.
Findings from a new independent review published on Wednesday mean Valdo Calocane should be retried on the more serious charge, the families told Sarah-Jane Mee.
Valdo 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.
The report detailing his mental health treatment before his killing spree has found failings in his NHS care – including that he was allowed to avoid taking long-lasting antipsychotic medication because he did not like needles.
Prosecutors accepted a plea of manslaughter after experts agreed his schizophrenia meant he was not fully responsible for his actions.
But on Wednesday, the father of Grace, Dr Sanjoy Kumar, told The UK Tonight with Sarah-Jane Mee: “The basis of the trial was that Calocane had treatment resistant paranoid schizophrenia and that’s why he was convicted in the way he was.
“We have now got three agencies – the Care Quality Commission has said he did not have treatment resistant paranoid schizophrenia. The mental health trust has said emphatically he did not have treatment resistant paranoid schizophrenia. And now the trust report has confirmed he didn’t have treatment resistant paranoid schizophrenia.
“So if that was the basis of what the sentences were passed on, then if that basis is wrong, as families we can’t understand why that basis wouldn’t be challenged and even looked at by someone like [sentencing judge] Mr Justice Turner, who ultimately passed that sentence, because that sentence to us is not right.”
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James Coates, the son of Ian Coates, said Calocane’s defence team portrayed him as an “upstanding citizen” in court.
He said he had been contacted by several people from Nottingham on social media “that are going through similar things that we are – they have a child in mental healthcare because of issues they are going through and they are refusing to take medication and they are refusing to get help”.
“If they then learn the same doctor that signed off my father’s killer into the streets is the one looking after their child, or friend, or partner – how are they supposed to deal with that?”
Emma Webber, Barnaby’s mother, said: “I have been engaging with a lady who messaged me to say… ‘Emma, my son’s going to be the next Valdo Calocane. Can you help?’
“This isn’t peculiar to just Nottingham, this is an entirely different part of the country.”
Asked if they would be willing to take on the challenge of seeking a murder retrial, Ms Webber said: “Yes, of course I am, because it is such a grievous wrong. Once the truth is fully uncovered, then we will cross that bridge. Absolutely, yes.”
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Earlier, she told a news conference held by the families in London that 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 said the evidence of failures in dealing with her son’s killer would have been “brushed under the carpet” had it not been for the campaigning by the victims’ families.
Talking about her son’s killer, she said: “He got away with murder, didn’t he? This has to be addressed. So enough is enough. It’s shameful we’ve had to fight so hard against the public agencies and institutions that should be there to protect us.”
She added: “Barnaby, Ian and Grace would be here today if those concerned across these agencies had just done their job properly.”
You can watch the full interview on The UK Tonight with Sarah-Jane Mee at 8pm
