Nottingham triple killer Valdo Calocane repeatedly hit a police officer in the face less than two years before his deadly knife attacks, an inquiry has heard.
He had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and was being detained by medics when he punched, headbutted and swung handcuffs at Nottinghamshire Police Constable Barnaby Pritchard, causing swelling to his face.
Less than two years later he would go on to kill 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 during the attack in the early hours of 13 June 2023.
On Wednesday PC Pritchard told the London inquiry that he was called to Calocane’s Nottingham address on 3 September 2021.
The former student was refusing to take his medication and resisting doctors’ efforts to detain him, he said.
Calocane was “very calm” when they arrived at his address and “was very unemotional with any response”, PC Pritchard said.
Woman who fell from window to flee Nottingham attacker warned by police ‘he could have killed her’
Police failed to arrest Nottingham triple killer on warrant months before attacks, inquiry hears
Nottingham attack survivor demands ‘someone take the blame’ for killing spree
The officer added: “At the time, he wasn’t demonstrating any warning signs that he could begin assaulting me.
“As soon as I stepped in the room, he began just swinging completely out of the blue.
“He began punching me repeatedly.
“As a collective, we managed to restrain him against an item of furniture inside the room.
“He tried headbutting me, and did headbutt me, while I was trying to restrain him.”
Calocane swung handcuffs at PC Pritchard “as a weapon” but missed, he claimed.
He was left with swelling to his forehead and bruising to his left cheek, leaving him in “pain and discomfort”.
“They were quite sore”, he added.
Be the first to get Breaking News
Install the Sky News app for free
A Taser was deployed twice and Pava spray, an irritant spray, was used to restrain Calocane, the inquiry heard
In body-worn camera footage played to the inquiry, he can be heard saying “I don’t have a history of mistreating women” upon the arrival of three female officers.
“Gentlemen, if you want to take me out, I prefer you do it,” he added.
The inquiry heard that after his attack on PC Pritchard, Calocane said: “You didn’t go down.”
Read more from Sky News:
UK’s first visa ban on asylum crackdown
Three men arrested on suspicion of spying for China
Asked by counsel to the inquiry Rachel Langdale KC what he thought that meant, PC Pritchard said: “It was possibly some male bravado – he expected the force of his blows to put me to the floor.”
In the footage, Calocane can be heard grunting after being tasered and saying: “No more of that.”
Calocane was taken in a marked police van to hospital because he had been tasered, the inquiry heard, before he was taken to Highbury Hospital, a mental health facility.
The inquiry was previously told that two months earlier Calocane had pushed his flatmate against the wall, tried to get into his locked bedroom and stalked him home on two occasions.
The incidents were reported to the police but no further action was taken, the inquiry heard.
The inquiry continues.
