Nottingham attacks: Families get ‘confirmation public inquiry will take place’
Valdo Calocane stabbed students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar as they returned from a night out in June 2023, before killing Ian Coates.
A public inquiry is to be held to examine the events which led to Valdo Calocane stabbing three people to death in Nottingham in June last year, the families of his victims have said.
Calocane stabbed 19-year-old students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar as they returned from a night out in the early hours of June 13 last year, before killing 65-year-old Ian Coates.
A statement from their families revealed they have had confirmation that a public inquiry will take place, after meeting Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Attorney General Richard Hermer.
It said: “Following meetings with the Attorney General and Health Secretary on Tuesday of last week, we are pleased to have had confirmation that a public inquiry will take place.
“The final form of the inquiry is yet to be determined, but we families urge that it must be a statutory, judge-led one.”
It is understood that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer remains committed to a judge-led inquiry into the case.
Writing in The Sun, Mr Streeting said Calocane’s crimes “exposed holes in a broken system” and reiterated the commitment to an inquiry.
“More must be done,” he said. “This Government wants to assure itself that no families must go through the unspeakable horror of that day because of systemic failings.”
It comes after the final part of a special Care Quality Commission (CQC) review into the care of Calocane by Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT) found risk assessments “minimised or omitted” key details of the serious risk he posed to others.
It also questioned how well the trust engaged with Calocane’s family, who raised concerns about his mental state.
The families’ statement added: “Progress is slowly being made and we will continue in our fight to ensure there is full organisational and individual accountability for the horrific events of 13 June 2023.
“We will also fight to ensure that appropriate changes and improvements to our systems and laws are made so as to ensure that a tragedy of this level is prevented from ever happening again.”
Calocane’s brother Elias echoed calls from the victims’ relatives for a public inquiry earlier this week.
“We need some strong recommendations,” he told the BBC’s Panorama programme.
“But we can’t just say we’ll just wait until it finishes how many years down the line and then do something about it then. Something needs to happen now.”
It also emerged that a psychiatrist warned Calocane could “end up killing someone” three years before the attacks in June 2023.
His family told Panorama they only received the 300-page medical summary containing the warning after his sentencing.
Calocane was handed an indefinite hospital order in January after admitting manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
Prosecutors accepted his not-guilty pleas to murder after multiple medical experts concluded he had paranoid schizophrenia.
