Nottingham triple killer Valdo Calocane attacked two colleagues – punching one in the face – a month before his fatal stabbings, an inquiry has been told.
The investigation in London has been hearing about events involving CaIocane before he killed University of Nottingham undergraduates Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both 19; and grandfather Ian Coates, 65.
He also attempted to kill three more people during his attack in Nottingham in the early hours of 13 June 2023.
The inquiry has heard that a month earlier Calocane, who has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, was working in a Derby warehouse for logistics company Arvato when he attacked two colleagues, who were a married couple.
He punched the man in the face before pushing over the woman and hurting her leg.
The inquiry has previously heard how Calocane put a flatmate in a headlock and trapped him in his flat in January 2022; and how he headbutted, punched and swung handcuffs at a police officer, in September 2021.
On Tuesday a training coordinator for Arvato at the time of the warehouse attack told what had happened during the incident on 5 May 2023, referring to Calocane as VC.
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‘We heard a scream’
Identified only as Louisa, she said: “We heard a scream from the back of the warehouse. I then started to move in that direction.
“The two victims – the wife, she was in front of the husband, the husband was already on the floor. He had already been assaulted.
“As I got into the area I stood myself in front of VC so my back would have been to the victims. VC was just stood in front of me, there was no words coming out of VC’s mouth.”
The coordinator then told the inquiry that “for the seconds I was stood in front of VC his attention was not on me”, adding: “He was looking through me and his attention was on the male victim that was on the floor.”
She said she remembers the male victim saying he had been hit to the side of his face, which had triggered an old injury, and that he did not know why he had been attacked.
An email from the police was shown asking Louisa to make contact to help the case proceed.
However, she said on Tuesday that she “was not told by the business that I should be providing information to police, I believed that was being done by the business”.
‘I kicked the knife out the way’
Another Arvato worker, Volodimir, told the inquiry he saw what appeared to be a Stanley-type knife on the floor after Calocane attacked his colleagues.
“I was dealing with something else in the background and I hear unusual voice and screams, so I went towards the noise and I saw there was a male and female on the floor and VC punching the male in the face,” the witness said.
“So I straight away tell him ‘stop, you can’t do this, it’s not allowed,’ and he just go back from the victims, and he said someone has pushed him.
“He said ‘I lost my glasses’, and I noticed a knife was next to him and I kicked the knife out the way.”
He told the inquiry that workers were not allowed to use the type of knife he saw.
Volodimir described the incident as “very violent”.
The warehouse operations manager at the time, Matthew, said Calocane “kept looking at the floor and was pacing” immediately after the event. But he told the inquiry he could not see anything on the ground.
After being made aware by colleagues that a knife had been spotted and kicked away, Matthew said he mentioned it to police and told officers he thought there was “something not right with (Calocane) mentally”.
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Calocane is currently detained indefinitely in a high-security hospital. He was given the hospital order at Nottingham Crown Court in January 2024 after prosecutors accepted his plea of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
The inquiry continues.
