- Paranoid schizophrenic is entitled to Universal Credit payments while in hospital
- Victims’ families further enraged and call for speedy change in law
Triple Nottingham killer Valdo Calocane can claim taxpayer funded state benefits while he is detained in a psychiatric hospital, it has been revealed today.
The paranoid schizophrenic, 32, is entitled to up to £360 a month in Universal Credit while being held at high-security Ashworth Hospital, which he can use to splash out on clothes, electronics, books and food.
It’s a further blow for the victims’ families already enraged by the sense of injustice they feel about the decision not to put the knifeman behind bars.
Calocane fatally stabbed 19-year-old students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar before killing his third victim, Ian Coates – a 65-year-old school caretaker four months from retirement – and stealing his white van.
Prosecutors decided not to charge Calocane with murder and instead accepted his guilty plea of manslaughter with diminished responsibility.
It meant the killer was able to swerve being sent to a harsher Category A prison if he was convicted of murder, sparking the fury of the victims’ heartbroken relatives who raged against the decision.
Calocane is able to sponge off the state as he wasn’t classed as a prisoner when a judge sentenced him to be detained inside a high-security hospital.
If he was detained under a section 45 or 47 order he would be transferred to a prison upon his release from hospital.
Department for Works and Pensions secretary Mel Stride was said to be tonight urgently considering the case.
While charity Hundred Families – which supports families affected by mental health killings – has rallied around Barnaby, Grace, and Ian’s loved ones in support in calling for a speedy change in the law.
Barnaby’s grief-stricken mother Emma Webber was left devastated by the news in what is another low blow.
She told the Telegraph she wants the law to be urgently reviewed while adding it piled on more layers of grief and a sense of injustice.
‘Whilst we are desperately trying to process our enormous grief, battle to try and find a way forwards to return to work and support our families, this vicious monster not only has tens of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money spent to keep him inside, he can also amass a small fortune of state benefits,’ she said.
‘How can this possibly be fair?’
A Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust spokesman told MailOnline: ‘All our patients within Ashworth High Secure Hospital are entitled to state benefits depending on their personal circumstances, which are paid by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) according to their rules and regulations.
‘If a patient is already receiving PIP (Personal Independence Payment) payments on arrival at Ashworth, we would inform DWP that they were detained under the Mental Health Act in a secure unit. This would mean they were no longer entitled to PIP because they are not living in the community.’
A Government spokesperson told MailOnline: ‘We have been clear that questions need answering in all aspects of this case.
‘The Attorney General is already reviewing the sentence and there is a separate independent inspection into CPS’s handling of the case.
‘Entitlement to benefit is, by law, dependent on sentences handed out, and the Work and Pensions Secretary is looking at the specifics of this case.’
Calocane will already be able to watch DVDs, listen to vinyl records, and play musical instruments such as the guitar and saxophone inside his room at the NHS hospital in Maghull, near Liverpool.
According to the hospital’s patients possessions catalogue, he’ll be able to watch BBC iPlayer on a 24inch television and also play a games on a computer console.
He can decorate his room with ornaments, flags, pictures, and rugs, and can even gamble on the football pools.
The hospital’s catalogue lets people gift patients items worth up to £300, and allows one completed Lego model at any one time. Patients are then able to take a photo of the set before it is dismantled.
It means Calocane could build models such as the Ghostbusters ECTO-1 and the Star Wars X-Wing Starfighter.
Mrs Webber and Barnaby’s father David have called for a public enquiry into why Calocane was able to carry out his frenzied attack in Nottingham city centre on June 13 last year.
Speaking to Richard Madeley and Susanna Reid on Good Morning Britain last week, Mrs Webber said: ‘I will never accept anything other than Barnaby was murdered.
‘He was murdered by somebody that knew what he was doing, he knew that it was wrong and he did it anyway – and he’s admitted that. He’s actually said that.’
In a statement read on the court steps following Calocane’s sentencing, Mrs Webber said: ‘We as a devastated family have been let down by multiple agency failings and ineffectiveness.
‘The CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) did not consult us as has been reported – instead we have been rushed, hastened and railroaded.’
‘We were presented with a fait accompli that the decision had been made to accept manslaughter charges.
‘At no point during the previous five-and-a-half-months were we given any indication that this could conclude in anything other than murder.
‘We trusted in our system, foolishly as it turns out. We do not dispute that the murderer is mentally unwell and has been for a number of years.
‘However, the pre-mediated planning, the collection of lethal weapons, hiding in the shadows and brutality of the attacks are that of an individual who knew exactly what he was doing. He knew entirely that it was wrong but he did it anyway.’
Mr Justice Turner told the killer his actions had sentenced many relatives and friends of the victims to ‘a life of grief and pain’.
He told the triple killer: ‘There was never any doubt that it was you who had committed these appalling crimes.
‘It soon became clear, however, that the central issue in this case would relate to whether at the time of committing these offences you were suffering from symptoms of severe mental disorder.’
The judge added that the psychiatric evidence did not detract from the ‘horror’ and impact of the offences, but he said, in his view, Calocane’s abnormality of mind had significantly contributed to him perpetrating the string of attacks.
Calocane will ‘very probably’ spend the rest of his life inside the high-security hospital.
William Turner is a seasoned U.K. correspondent with a deep understanding of domestic affairs. With a passion for British politics and culture, he provides insightful analysis and comprehensive coverage of events within the United Kingdom.
