The victims of the 2023 Nottingham attack were failed by “every single agency”, their families have said as they call on the government to act on failings exposed in a public inquiry.
Emma Webber, the mother of student Barnaby Webber, who was stabbed to death by Valdo Calocane, told a press conference on Monday: "A monster was left at large in the shadows to stalk his prey. For months, we've sat through the statutory public inquiry and watched the evidence unfold. It has been brutal, bruising, and harrowing beyond measure, but it was so very necessary. Just look at what it has uncovered. Every single agency failed. Every single one. Without exception.
“Mental health services fail to treat and manage. Police repeatedly failed to act. Agencies didn't talk. Individuals chose to look the other way. Warnings were ignored. People chose not to care or be curious. And the fear of stigma and bias was placed above safety and duty. And when it went wrong, too many closed ranks. Instead of owning their mistakes."
Speaking alongside the families of Calocane’s three other victims, Ms Webber called for a meeting with the government within the next month.
Calocane, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, killed history student Barnaby Webber, aspiring medic Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both 19, and caretaker Ian Coates, 65, in Nottingham in June 2023. He then stole Mr Coates’s van and drove into three other people – Wayne Birkett, Sharon Miller, and Marcin Gawronski – leaving them seriously injured.
A public inquiry began hearing evidence in February and heard its final evidence last week.
Failings by both the NHS and police have been exposed throughout the hearings, including the fact that months before the killings, Calocane was discharged by Nottinghamshire Healthcare Foundation Trust’s Early Intervention in Psychosis (EIP) service because he failed to turn up for appointments, and the team had “lost” him.
Calocane had been sectioned four times while under the care of Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT), before he was discharged to his GP in 2022.
More to follow...
