A doctor warned that Valdo Calocane’s mental illness was so severe he could kill someone, three years before he stabbed three people to death in Nottingham, his medical records reveal.
Calocane’s family, who were shown the records only after he was sentenced to indefinite detention in a high-security hospital for the attacks, have criticised the missed opportunities they believe could have prevented the killings.
They shared a 300-page summary of Calocane’s medical notes with BBC’s Panorama programme, which they say shows how he was let down by the NHS.
In June 2023, Calocane fatally stabbed 19-year-old students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar and a school caretaker Ian Coates, 65, in Nottingham. He also injured three people while driving a stolen van.
The victims’ families are reported to have complained to the BBC that the programme was made without their involvement. A source close to the families told the Daily Telegraph that they have demanded the inclusion of a disclaimer pointing out that programme had been made without their knowledge or consent.
They are reported to be unhappy that the BBC told the families only an outline of the programme’s content and not the full details.
Calocane had pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of the three people on the grounds of diminished responsibility, and to the attempted murder of three other people. His sentence was referred to the court of appeal in February but three judges ruled the hospital order was not “not arguably unduly lenient”, stating the court could not ignore medical evidence related to his paranoid schizophrenia.
He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2020 and discharged into the care of a community mental health team. He was sectioned four times in less than two years. The second time he was sectioned was in July 2020 after he violently broke into a neighbour’s flat.
Notes from a medical meeting after that attack recorded that a psychiatrist said Calocane showed no “insight or remorse and the danger is that this will happen again and perhaps Valdo will end up killing someone”, BBC’s Panorama reported.
Speaking for the first time, his brother and mother, Elias and Celeste Calocane, told the BBC that the mental health system was “broken” and that the “tragedy that could have been prevented”.
They are also seeking a public inquiry and an overhaul of mental health services.
His brother said: “I don’t think he was ever really treated. He was sort of managed so he had interventions. But with regards to a proper treatment plan, I’m not sure that we ever saw that.”
The family say they knew Calocane was unwell but they were never told that he had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
According to the BBC, Calocane’s medical notes reveal that in autumn 2020 he admitted lying to doctors about no longer hearing voices so that he could be discharged from hospital, and that in 2022 the community mental health team discharged him to his GP on the day an arrest warrant was issued for him over the assault of a police officer.
Nottinghamshire healthcare NHS trust told the BBC it was committed to preventing such a tragedy happening again. The health watchdog the Care Quality Commission is due to publish a report on Calocane’s care on Tuesday.
The Nottingham Attacks – A Search for Answers will be broadcast on BBC One at 8pm on Monday.
Sophie Anderson, a UK-based writer, is your guide to the latest trends, viral sensations, and internet phenomena. With a finger on the pulse of digital culture, she explores what’s trending across social media and pop culture, keeping readers in the know about the latest online sensations.
