The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has gagged families of the three individuals who were fatally stabbed on June 13, 2023, in Nottingham. Barnaby Webber’s mother, Emma Webber, disclosed that she and the families of Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates were forced to sign a non-disclosure agreement by the IOPC. The NDA concerns the investigation into the way Leicestershire police officers dealt with Valdo Calocane’s alleged assaults before the attacks. The IOPC confirmed that the report would be shared with the families at the earliest opportunity, and the NDA would be in place until the investigation’s findings and outcomes are published.
Calocane, the killer, was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order in January 2024 for admitting three counts of manslaughter on the basis of diminished responsibility and three counts of attempted murder. The IOPC has stated that three Leicestershire police officers had two constables and a sergeant, were being investigated over the way the inquiries regarding Calocane’s alleged assaults were handled. The family members of the victims are urging the IOPC to release the reports and findings to the public in the same way NHSE released the full report into the mental health care received by Calocane before the attacks.
The NHS initially required the families to sign NDAs to ensure that the investigation into Calocane’s care was not disclosed. However, after pressure from the families, the NHS released the report in full. Emma Webber has called on the IOPC to follow NHSE’s lead and to “disclose their reports to the public” to avoid other families enduring the same torture as them. Radd Seiger, an adviser to the families of the victims, has criticized the IOPC’s move to impose the NDA as “inexcusable.” The IOPC has planned to publish the findings and outcomes of the investigation “in the coming weeks.”
The IOPC also launched an investigation into Nottinghamshire police’s prior contact with Calocane before the killings. Nottinghamshire police admitted that they should have arrested him sooner. The force issued an arrest warrant in September 2022 over the alleged assault of a police officer in 2021
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