Valdo Calocane, who recently pleaded guilty to three counts of manslaughter on the basis of diminished responsibility, should have been arrested earlier. Nottinghamshire Police’s Assistant Chief Constable Rob Griffin has said that he has reviewed the force’s involvement and believes more should have been done to arrest Calocane, who had an arrest warrant issued after failing to attend court in September 2022 over an alleged police officer assault. Calocane was not arrested from that warrant and nine months later, he fatally stabbed three people.
Students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley along with school caretaker Ian Coates were killed by Calocane on 13 June. The 32-year-old has also admitted three counts of attempted murder after driving a van at three other people following the killings. The sentencing hearing has been told about possible sentencing options for Calocane, including a “hybrid” life sentence with a hospital direction or a hospital order under the Mental Health Act.
Dr Nigel Blackwood, professor of forensic psychiatry at King’s College London, who spoke at the hearing, suggested that a “hybrid” sentence could be very dangerous for Calocane who has a treatment-resistant form of paranoid schizophrenia. If he stops taking medication in prison, there is a significant risk of lethal behaviours returning, whether against prison officers or fellow inmates, stated Blackwood. Calocane, who noted that he carried out a “horrific” crime, has also mentioned that he was “deeply sorry” and wanted people to know that he had been a “targeted individual” by “malign forces” since 2019.
Meanwhile, at the sentencing hearing, Barnaby Webber’s younger brother called him a “hero” and talked about how his older sibling had been there for him when he was younger. Charlie Webber said that, when he first learned what happened, he wanted to set the world on fire, and “He was my hero. He didn’t just die a hero to the world, but he was a hero to me. On June 13 2023, you [Calocane] didn’t just take my brother from me and from those around me, but you also took a large part of me from myself.”
“I have personally reviewed this matter and we should have done more to arrest him,” said Nottinghamshire Police’s Assistant Chief Constable, while also adding that, given the circumstance prevailing at the time of the alleged assault, it is highly unlikely that Calocane would have received a custodial sentence. Moreover, Griffin believes that an arrest might have triggered a route back into mental health services, but as seen from Calocane’s previous encounters with those services, it seems unlikely that he would have engaged in this process
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