'Show respect', Nottingham victim's mum urges over graphic post

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'Show respect', Nottingham victim's mum urges over graphic post

Emma Webber, mother of victim Barnaby Webber in the Nottingham attacks, has called out a police staff member who posted graphic messages about the tragedy in a WhatsApp group. In an open letter to the group, Webber asked the staff to show respect for her son who lost his life in the attacks, and for Valdo Calocane’s other victims, Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates. She wrote that the graphic and dehumanizing messages in the group had caused more trauma than the families of victims could ever imagine.

Calocane was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order for manslaughter on the ground of diminished responsibility in January after a Nottingham Crown Court found that he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. He had stabbed the three victims with a dagger and attempted to kill three others in the attack. On Friday, 8 May, 2023, a hearing of the sentence review was announced.

Nottinghamshire Police has been approached for a comment on the matter of the inappropriate WhatsApp messages, but is currently under investigation for handling the Nottingham attacks case by the Independent Office of Police Conduct. Additionally, the College of Policing is conducting a separate review of the situation. Behind closed doors, several officers were punished, including a special constable who viewed footage of the aftermath of the attack, a police constable who texted details of the case, and another officer who sent a crude and distasteful message.

Webber explained that the reason for her open letter was the refusal of members of the WhatsApp group to allow her to speak privately and anonymously before the whole group. In her message, Webber calls on the author of the posts to show compassion and care in the future, displaying the respect for the victims that she felt the WhatsApp messages did not give

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