The UK’s attorney general is said to be considering whether judges should review the sentence of Valdo Calocane, the killer responsible for the deaths of Barnaby Webber, Grace O’Malley-Kumar, and Ian Coates in Nottingham in June 2022. Calocane, who was 32 years old at the time, was given an indefinite hospital order after he admitted to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. This sentence has been challenged as too lenient by the families of the victims, who believe that “true justice has not been served.”
Under the Unduly Lenient Sentence Scheme, anyone can request that a Crown Court sentence be reconsidered if it is deemed too short. In this case, the review will examine whether Calocane’s sentence was appropriate. The court had heard evidence that Calocane had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and that his mental illness began in 2019, before he was discharged in February 2021. He was then detained under the Mental Health Act at a psychiatric unit in Nottingham four times in the following months.
During the sentencing hearing, Mr Justice Turner said that Calocane’s abnormality of mind “significantly contributed” to his perpetration of the attacks, although he acknowledged that his actions had shocked the nation and wrecked the lives of everyone affected. Calocane had also pleaded guilty to three counts of attempted murder and had driven his car at pedestrians Wayne Birkett, Marcin Gawronski, and Sharon Miller in Nottingham city center.
While psychiatric evidence suggested that Calocane suffered from severe mental disorder at the time of the attacks, the families of those who lost their lives remain skeptical that he has been held appropriately accountable for his actions. By referring the case for review, the attorney general’s office must now weigh up whether Calocane’s sentence was too lenient
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