Valdo Calocane: Police did not arrest killer after previous assaults

Valdo Calocane had previously been assessed as being psychotic, and was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia at the time of the Nottingham attacks

Killer Valdo Calocane was reported to police for attacking two people weeks before killing three people in Nottingham - but was not arrested.

Leicestershire Police confirmed the assaults happened less than six weeks before the Nottingham attacks.

The two assault victims were work colleagues at a warehouse in Leicestershire.

The BBC has asked police why Calocane was not arrested, but the force has not explained.

Calocane was sentenced to a hospital order on Thursday for killing 19-year-old students Barnaby Webber and Grace O'Malley-Kumar, and 65-year-old school caretaker Ian Coates.

The attorney general is considering whether judges should review the sentence, following anger from the victims' families about the handling of the case.

Calocane, 32 - who was known to have serious mental health problems - was already a wanted man when he attacked his colleagues, because he had previously assaulted a Nottinghamshire Police officer in September 2021.

Police have not publicly given details of the assault, but Mr Webber's mother Emma said it was "such a violent assault that he was Tasered".

He had been charged in relation to this, but failed to turn up at court, so a warrant was issued for his arrest in September 2022 - a year after the assault.

Ian Coates, Barnaby Webber and Grace O'Malley-Kumar were all stabbed to death

In the meantime, Calocane was in and out of Highbury Hospital due to his mental health problems, and also in the care of a community team.

Despite the warrant, Nottinghamshire Police did not succeed in arresting Calocane and the force has already said that it "should have done more" to detain him.

The BBC asked Nottinghamshire Police why they did not arrest Calocane, but the force has not explained.

While the warrant was outstanding, Calocane managed to get a job with Arvato Supply Chain Solutions, at a warehouse the business has near East Midlands Airport.

Calocane assaulted two colleagues at Arvato, but police did not arrest him

He started there on 1 May 2023 and assaulted two of his colleagues only four days later.

The business reported the assaults on the same day they happened, and Leicestershire Police attended, but Calocane was no longer there.

A Leicestershire Police spokesman said: "I can confirm officers were called to the warehouse in Wilders Way, Kegworth, shortly before 6pm on 5 May following a report two people had been assaulted.

"No serious injuries were reported. It was reported Calocane had been escorted from the site by security staff prior to police arriving.

"Our enquiries to establish the full circumstances of the report concerning the incident in Kegworth were ongoing at the time the incident in Nottingham occurred."

The BBC has asked Leicestershire Police why officers did not find and arrest Calocane afterwards, and asked whether or not officers were aware of the outstanding arrest warrant, but the force would not say.

Relatives of the three people killed by Calocane have said they feel let down by police.

Referencing Nottinghamshire Police's failure to arrest Calocane, Emma Webber said: "If you had just done your jobs properly, there's a very good chance my beautiful boy would be alive today."

Speaking outside court after Calocane was sentenced on Thursday, she expressed her frustration with Nottinghamshire Police for not being open about the details of the arrest warrant.

"It took repeated questioning from us to finally receive an answer late last Friday afternoon to the question of his outstanding warrant, issued September 2022, for a vicious attack on a police officer," she said.

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She also claimed Nottinghamshire Police had misled the victims' families in relation to Calocane supposedly not having a fixed address.

She said: "Why were we repeatedly told through the summer that the offender was a sofa surfer and had no real abode?

"Not true. He did. One that was registered in his name in Nottingham, and one that he had been in for six months prior to his eviction on only 11 June last year. Why?"

Calocane has paranoid schizophrenia, and the victims' families are angry with NHS mental health services due to what they believe were failings in how he was treated.

They are also angry with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for accepting Calocane's manslaughter pleas, rather than prosecuting him for murder, which Mrs Webber said they were "horrified" by.

"The CPS did not consult with us, as has been reported. Instead, we have been rushed, hastened and railroaded," she said.

Mr Coates's son, James Coates, said: "The failures from the police, the CPS, the health service have resulted in the murder of my father and these two innocent students.

"The NHS mental health trusts have to be held accountable for their failures along with the police."

Wayne Birkett - who suffered serious injuries including a fractured skull when he was hit by a van being driven by Calocane - has called for a public inquiry into the case.

He said felt "let down by the system that is meant to protect them".

Dr Sanjoy Kumar said the victims' families had "been through absolute hell for the last few days"

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has backed calls for an inquiry.

Speaking to ITV's This Morning, he said: "I am very worried by what appear to be a number of points at which action could have been taken that would have prevented this happening.

"The family are saying there needs to be an inquiry into that. I think they're right about that."

On Thursday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak declined to commit to a public inquiry while speaking to reporters in Scarborough.

On Friday, a spokeswoman for Mr Sunak said: "We believe that it's important that as the first action that the relevant agencies look back and ensure that all the proper processes were followed and that reasonable steps that could have been taken were taken to ensure that where there are lessons to be learned, we do so.

"That is the first thing that needs to happen."

Ms O'Malley-Kumar's father, Dr Sanjoy Kumar, said the families would regroup to consider their next steps.

"We will look for answers regarding missed opportunities to intervene and prevent this horrendous crime," he said.