The families of the Nottingham attack victims have said that doctors must be held responsible for their “failure” to treat triple killer Valdo Calocane appropriately.
Dr Sanjoy Kumar, the father of Grace O’Malley-Kumar, told a press conference he would be writing to health secretary Wes Streeting to order the mental health trust in question to hold individual clinicians “responsible”, adding: “We demand accountability.”
Following the release of a damning report into his care treatment, the families have criticised the NHS for releasing the “ticking timebomb” killer despite being scared to treat him.
Calocane, who had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order after killing 19-year-old students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar and 65-year-old caretaker Ian Coates before attempting to kill three other people, in a spate of attacks in Nottingham in June 2023.
An independent report released on Wednesday said Calocane was not forced to have long-lasting anti-psychotic medication because he did not like needles. It also revealed that other patients cared for by Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust also committed “extremely serious” acts of violence – including stabbings – between 2019 and 2023.
Dr Kumar said: “We will be asking the secretary of state for health to order the trust to hold individual doctors responsible as they know Valdo Calocane was an evil, violent man – a known risk to the public who did not take his medication.
“He [Valdo Calocane] was sectioned four times. Four times. The psychiatrist failed to change his treatment four times.
“They failed to put provisions in the community to make sure he took his medication, ultimately irresponsibly discharging him into the community to do harm. They failed to consider public safety in Nottingham.”
The mother of Grace, Dr Sinead O’Malley-Kumar, said there had been poor decision-making and “laziness” among health staff who treated her daughter’s killer.
“If any of them knew that Valdo Calocane was going to go out and share student accommodation with their children, I suspect their choices may have changed,” she said.
“Accountability on an individual level is essential.”
Emma Webber, mother of cricket-loving Barnaby claimed the Crown Prosecution Service and agencies hoped the findings would be “brushed under the carpet”.
She told reporters that Calocane had "got away with murder”.
“In September 2022 Calocane was discharged for a fourth time after being sectioned for serious violent assaults against others. He was released and discharged to his GP but there wasn’t a red flag or letter raising awareness.
“He was so dangerous that community teams were refusing to visit him alone.
“They were told to plan their exit routes. These staff members did try to repeatedly raise their concerns. Those voices fell on deaf ears up the ranks.”
She continued: “We delivered our baby to Nottingham to study, to grow up and play cricket and make a whole range of friends in a city he had grown to love.
“Little did we know what an unsafe city he was being left in and what evil was waiting in the shadows of the morning of 13 June 2023.”
Holding up the report she pointed to “evidence of the catastrophic failures” that led to the deaths, she asked where is the individual or organisational accountability.
She said: “To the prime minister, and the rest of the government, make this trauma stop and make our fight stop.
“You have confirmed there will be a public inquiry, but agree the terms that we’ve been pleading for, make it statutory so all of the agencies, organisations, institutions and, vitally, individuals must … and will be compelled to attend, give evidence and tell the truth.
“Do the right thing. We are and we won’t stop until that happens.”
James Coates, the son of Ian Coates, told reporters that the people of Nottingham are not safe.
“I want to be proud but I can’t,” he said.
“The city, as a whole, is a failure.”
Talking about the city’s NHS services, he said: “If they take shortcuts, it puts people’s lives at risk.”
Solicitor Neil Hudgell, acting on behalf of the victims’ families, told a press conference: “Without the full report you wouldn’t know today how frightened health professionals were to visit Valdo Calocane.
“How they withdrew on occasion, how they planned their exits – yet at the same time were willing to discharge him from care in the face of very obvious risks of danger. You wouldn’t know the extent of his condition. He got better in hospital; he got worse when released.
“He didn’t like needles. He knew what not taking his medication did to him, it made him paranoid and violent.
“Undoubtedly he wasn’t well but he had insight and knowledge. He was discharged nine months before the attacks and left for the general public to cope with. The NHS washed their hands of him. He was discharged effectively as a ticking timebomb.”
Mr Hudgell said NHS England’s initial decision not to disclose the full report into Calocane’s care added “trauma upon trauma” for the families.
He said: “This has been trauma upon trauma for them.”
As the press conference drew to a close, Emma Webber told reporters: “I do think it’s time now that we get the opportunity to meet with the prime minister.”
In a statement released after the report’s publication, health secretary Wes Streeting said: “The findings will help to support an inquiry into this attack and we’ll set out the next steps as this develops.
“It’s clear there were failings in how the care provided to Valdo Calocane was managed at every level, which is why I’ve personally called for all the recommendations made in the CQC [Care Quality Commission] report to be implemented across the country.
“I want to see the recommendations from this new report implemented as soon as possible and I will be keeping track of progress and performance to make sure that they are.”
