There have been “cover-ups” and “mistruths” surrounding the healthcare provided to the Nottingham attack killer before the stabbings, a mother of one of the victims has claimed.
Valdo Calocane, who had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, killed three people – 19-year-old students Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Barnaby Webber and 65-year-old caretaker Ian Coates – and attempted to kill three more in Nottingham in June 2023.
A February report into the care received by Calocane detailed how he was not forced to have long-lasting antipsychotic medication because he did not like needles, and how other patients at Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust also went on to commit “extremely serious” acts of violence.
Families of the victims met with Health Secretary Wes Streeting on Monday and said they told him they want the names of staff involved in treating Calocane to be made public.
Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain on the second anniversary of the attack, Barnaby Webber’s mother Emma Webber said of Calocane’s care: “We quite often say, imagine anything that could go wrong, did go wrong and Wes Streeting actually, to quote him, he said ‘sunlight is the best disinfectant’.
“That’s appropriate but, actually, I would say it’s simpler than that.
“I think truth is and once you’ve got the truth, then you’ve got somewhere to begin, and we’re still getting cover-ups, we’re still getting mistruths and we’re still getting those push-aside emails ‘well, the trust will deal with that, or the inquiry will deal with that’.
“But, no, we’re not going to stop.
“I don’t know when they’ll learn that we will not stop until we get those answers.”
Ms Webber added that the families’ calls for transparency were “not a witch hunt”.
She said: “I’m sure it can come across that we as families are just so vociferous in finding answers and trying to deal with our grief and our anger and rage at what happened.
“But it’s much deeper than that, and it’s greater than that, because there are individuals out there that they’re posing a risk themselves, but they’re posing a risk to the public, and we’re not on a witch hunt in what we’re doing.
“We do have the statutory inquiry coming up but that shouldn’t stop individuals who, just as basic as failing to do their jobs properly, from being held to account, and that’s through the professional means.
“I cannot understand how the NHS have not been able to confirm that anyone has had any disciplinary action against them for what they did or didn’t do during his care.”
Grace O’Malley-Kumar’s father, Dr Sanjoy Kumar, told the programme that the families do not have “detailed answers” and called for “full transparency” and “true accountability”.
He said: “At this juncture, I think it’s turned into a national representation case for us, because I think what we’ve realised is that every family that goes through a horrific tragedy like us, they’re not given answers, and they’re given a lot of kerfuffle about what happened when, that’s all very interesting, the timelines are interesting, but what we want is true accountability.
“Because when we have accountability, we can then have change and positive change for the country, and we’ve not had that, and that’s been really, really frustrating.”
Calocane was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order in January 2024 after admitting manslaughter by diminished responsibility and attempted murder.
He was admitted to hospital and sectioned under the Mental Health Act four times between 2020 and 2022 because of his violent behaviour and refusal to take his medication, before NHS services lost track of him and discharged him in the months before the attacks.
Three reports, including one by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), described failings in his care but none included practitioners’ names, Dr Kumar said after meeting Mr Streeting.
On Friday, the families of the victims will hold a memorial walk through Nottingham to remember their loved ones two years after their deaths.
They will meet at St Paul’s Church in Lenton Road at 11.30am before walking to the two locations of the attacks.
During the interview with Good Morning Britain, Ms Webber said she had a “visceral reaction” to returning to the city, adding that “feels almost like it was yesterday” that the attack happened.
She added that the group wanted to “walk in peace and love”, and that anyone who wanted to join was “very welcome”.
In a statement, Ifti Majid, chief executive of Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are committed to giving our fullest co-operation and support to the Nottingham Inquiry which has already begun to request documentary evidence from ourselves and other organisations in relation to the devastating events of June 2023.
“It would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.”
The Department of Health and Social Care has been contacted for comment.
