The mother of a university student stabbed to death by Valdo Calocane has claimed there were “no obvious” signs of psychosis before his killing after prosecutors said medical evidence was “overwhelming”.
Emma Webber, whose son Barnaby was killed along with Grace O’Malley-Kumar and caretaker Ian Coates in Nottingham on June 13 last year, told ITV’s Good Morning Britain the accepted manslaughter plea was a “huge insult”.
After Calocane was initially charged with murder, the 32-year-old killer pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the basis of diminished responsibility on Thursday.
At Nottingham Crown Court, he was handed an indefinite order to be detained in a high security hospital.
Speaking to ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Mrs Webber said there were questions to answer for prosecutors after it was determined Calocane was impaired by psychosis resulting from paranoid schizophrenia.
She said: “What really concerns us is it’s not been delved into how he (Valdo Calocane) acted, we sat through six hours of the most traumatic images and timeline of what this monster did.
“From leaving St Pancras in London to when he was arrested we’ve seen his movements and they really alarmed us, there was no obvious psychosis.
“He encountered lots of other people, didn’t do anything, we didn’t even know he had a rucksack full of weapons with him.
“He changed his clothes, there’s very little reference to the Slazenger bag that’s gone missing, he hid in the shadows for nearly 10 minutes waiting for our kids and then he calmly walks away, phones his brother, admits what he’s done, and goes to the secure unit and has a face-to-face interaction with the warden, doesn’t attack him.
“But that wasn’t even raised properly last week in court and so for us we’re questioning how can this be the actions of somebody in such a psychotic state?”
In a separate interview on Sky News to be broadcast on Monday night, Mrs Webber said she was “ill-prepared” to learn when the manslaughter plea was being accepted.
She said: “I do feel now with hindsight I was foolish to just trust in our legal system. I hate to say that because I do feel let down.
“We were led to believe all summer that it would be a murder charge for our son, for the other two victims and then attempted murder for the other three victims.
“It’s a massive heinous crime, so we were ill-prepared for being told on the Friday before the pre-trial hearing that they were going to be accepting a diminished responsibility which meant manslaughter. That was the moment everything turned.”
In a statement issued after Calocane’s sentencing, Janine McKinney from the CPS said the manslaughter plea was only accepted after “overwhelming” medical evidence.
“Valdo Calocane’s actions that morning sent shockwaves through our entire community. He left three bereaved families devastated by grief and others with life changing physical and emotional injuries.
“These were savage, ferocious attacks against entirely innocent people who had no way of defending themselves.
“His pleas to manslaughter were only accepted after very careful analysis of the evidence. We reached this conclusion because the expert medical evidence was overwhelming; namely that his actions were substantially impaired by psychosis resulting from paranoid schizophrenia. During this lengthy and complex sentencing exercise, the prosecution’s case has been that Calocane was criminally responsible for what he did, as well as being impaired by his mental health.
“My heartfelt sympathies go out to the families and loved ones of Grace, Barnaby, and Ian for this tragedy, and to Wayne Birkett, Marcin Gawronski and Sharon Miller for the ordeal that Calocane has put them through.”
The Telegraph has approached the Crown Prosecution Service for further comment.
Calls for public inquiry
Last week, Mrs Webber called for a public inquiry into the killings, after it emerged Calocane had been sectioned four times since May 2020, but discharged on each occasion.
Some Conservative MPs and Labour have backed the move, arguing something had gone “badly wrong” because Calocane was known to the police and mental health services before he carried out the attacks last year.
The former engineering student had not been taking his anti-psychotic medication and had a warrant out for his arrest after attacking a police officer.
It comes as a special review was today ordered into the NHS trust in Nottingham where Calocane was treated before he fatally stabbed his victims.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) will have until March to report back on the conduct of the Nottinghamshire Healthcare Foundation Trust, in the hope of providing further answers for the grieving families.
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2024-01-29 09:26:00Z
CBMiZGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnRlbGVncmFwaC5jby51ay9uZXdzLzIwMjQvMDEvMjkvbW90aGVyLWJhcm5hYnktd2ViYmVyLWtpbGxlci1uby1vYnZpb3VzLXNpZ25zLXBzeWNob3Npcy_SAQA
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