Nottingham stabbing victim’s mother brands BBC Panorama episode ‘shameful’
The mother of one of killer Valdo Calocane’s victims has described a BBC Panorama episode about the Nottingham attacks as “shameful, cold, ill-judged”.
Emma Webber has criticised the programme which investigated the mental health background of her son Barnaby’s killer and asked “what lessons can be learned” from the attacks.
University students Barnaby and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both 19, and school caretaker Ian Coates, 65, were stabbed to death by Calocane in Nottingham on June 13, 2023.
The Panorama episode, which aired last month, titled The Nottingham Attacks: A Search For Answers, featured members of the Calocane family to help “shed light on the missed opportunities in his care”, according to the synopsis.
Ms Webber told The Mirror newspaper: “We believe what the BBC produced is a very imbalanced documentary - it’s shameful, cold, ill-judged, arrogant and thoughtless.”
Relatives of the victims have made a formal complaint about the Panorama episode as they believe it contains “inaccuracies, was too sympathetic towards the knifeman’s family and they were refused a preview screening”, according to the newspaper.
Ms Webber added: “We were not considered or consulted at any point to advise that this was being made.”
The families’ lawyer Neil Hudgell told the newspaper: “They were told as a ‘fait accompli’ when the piece was airing, they had no opportunity to be involved. Had they been consulted they could have pointed out some obvious factual errors.
“They believe they were excluded so the programme could promote the narrative that the Calocane family were victims too.
“They were not afforded an early viewing and were caused considerable additional anxiety in the run-up to its airing, having to speculate on what it may or may not cover. Their fears were confirmed.
“They have no interest in compensation, this is about proper accountability based on fair, proper and accurate reporting. It is about setting the record straight.”
Calocane was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order earlier this year.
He admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility after Nottingham Crown Court heard he had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
Relatives of Calocane’s victims reacted angrily to the sentencing after prosecutors decided not to pursue murder charges.
The parents of Mr Webber and Miss O’Malley-Kumar have also claimed the Independent Office for Police Conduct watchdog failed to examine some of the most serious alleged failings in the case.
These include the decision not to carry out a toxicology test on Calocane to ascertain whether he had used drugs, the Times reported.
Had he used drugs he would have faced a murder trial and not been able to plead guilty to manslaughter by diminished responsibility.
The watchdog also said that it would not investigate why officers dealing with Calocane in the weeks after the killings did not raise any mental health concerns, despite the fact he avoided a murder trial because he was said to be in the “grips of a severe psychotic episode”.
The watchdog also refused to investigate the killer’s first interaction with Nottinghamshire Police, when he was arrested in 2020 after terrifying a woman so badly she jumped out of a first-floor flat window.
A BBC spokesman said: “We have the deepest sympathy for the families, and the Panorama team has been extremely mindful of the sensitivities in handling this programme.
“They have been in contact with the bereaved families to tell them about the programme and to provide details of its editorial focus.
“This investigation, which is very much in the public interest, examines the decline in the mental health of Valdo Calocane and asks whether there were systemic failings in his interactions with mental health services in the three years leading up to the terrible events in Nottingham last year.
“The documentary has been produced in accordance with the BBC’s editorial guidelines.” They added: “Any complaints will be looked at according to our complaints procedure.”
