Timeline of Nottingham killer’s run-ins with law and mental health services

The man who took the lives of 19-year-old university students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar before killing 65-year-old school caretaker Ian Coates in a series of violent attacks in Nottingham was sentenced to detention in a high-security hospital.

The judge told Valdo Calocane, 32, that he would “probably” spend the rest of his life there.

It comes as his victim’s families said they were let down by multiple failures.

Calocane, whose manslaughter plea was accepted on the grounds of “serious” mental illness, had several run-ins with both the law and mental health services.

May 23 2020: Calocane attends A&E, believing he is having a heart attack. After returning to his Nottingham flat and knocking down a door to gain entrance to another apartment in the block, he is arrested for causing criminal damage. An assessment under the Mental Health Act concludes that he is psychotic, but that the risk to others is low.

May 25 2020: Calocane is again arrested for criminal damage after knocking down another door to a different apartment in the block and admitted to inpatient psychiatric services at Highbury Hospital.

June 17 2020: Calocane is discharged to the care of the Nottingham City Crisis Team after being treated with an antipsychotic medication. He is advised to take the medication for a minimum of six to nine months, and to seek medical advice if he wishes to stop taking it.

July 14 and 31 2020: Calocane is readmitted to Highbury Hospital under Section 3 of the Mental Health Act after again forcing his way into a flat having stopped taking his medication. This is the third apartment in the same block to which he has attempted to gain forced entry. The antipsychotic medication is restarted and increased. Thereafter, he is managed in the community by the Early Intervention in Psychosis team. His medication is increased twice.

May 2021: Calocane goes to Thames House, MI5’s London headquarters, and begs them to “stop controlling him”.

May 2021: Calocane’s family are increasingly concerned about his mental health, including voices telling him his family members would die.

Aug 10 2021: A home visit by medics shows Calocane is actively concealing symptoms of psychosis.

Aug 31 2021: Calocane admits that he has stopped taking his psychotropic medication and that he has no intention of continuing with his treatment.

Sept 3 2021: A Section 135 of the Mental Health Act warrant is executed to gain entry to Calocane’s property so that an assessment can be conducted, during which he assaults a police officer. A bag of unused medication dating from Feb 2021 is discovered in the flat.

Sept and Oct 2021: Calocane is admitted to inpatient services under Section 2 of the Mental Health Act and managed. But thereafter, he has limited contact with his community team, appearing confrontational and missing appointments.

Mid-Jan 2022: Calocane is involved in an altercation with a flatmate. An assessment under the Mental Health Act concludes that Calocane can continue to be treated in the community. However, he fails to engage adequately with the Home Treatment Team.

Jan 27 2022: After a further Mental Health Act assessment, Calocane is admitted as an inpatient before being discharged on Feb 24 2022 to the care of the City South team.

May 5 2023: Calocane attacks two fellow employees at an Arvato warehouse in Kegworth.

June 12 2023: Just after 7pm, Calocane telephones Elias, his brother, with a warning that something is about to happen.

4am, June 13 2023: Calocane launches his killing spree, stabbing to death Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar.

5am, June 13 2023: Calocane stabs Ian Coates to death and steals his van.

5.25am, June 13 2023: Calocane mounts a kerb, injuring three people on Milton Street.

5:35am, June 13 2023: Officers in a marked police vehicle follow Calocane along Alfreton Road, towards Forest Road and then on to Bentinck Road, where his vehicle is stopped. Calocane produces a knife, at which point two officers deploy their Tasers, forcing him to drop the weapon. He is arrested.

June 16 2023: Calocane is charged with a number of offences, including murder.

June 17 2023: Calocane makes his first court appearance at Nottingham magistrates’ court, where he is charged with the murder of Barnaby Webber, Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates.

Nov 14 2023: Calocane is assessed by Dr Nigel Blackwood, a forensic psychiatrist, who had been instructed by the Crown Prosecution Service in August. Emma Webber, Barnaby’s mother, has questioned why it took him so long to assess Calocane. Dr Blackwood is one of three psychiatrists to assess him while on remand.

Nov 24 2023: The victims’ families have their first meeting with the Crown Prosecution Service, a few days before the pre-trial plea hearing on Nov 28.

Nov 28 2023: Calocane pleads guilty at Nottingham Crown Court to manslaughter on the basis of diminished responsibility, but denies murder.

Jan 23 2024: Prosecutors tell Nottingham Crown Court they accept Calocane’s plea of guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility due to “serious” mental illness. Nottinghamshire Police admit that in Sept 2022 – nine months before the killings – they did not arrest Calocane when he failed to appear in court in connection with the assault on the officer taking him to hospital for mental health treatment.

Jan 24 2024: The force’s Asst Chief Constable Rob Griffin says police should have “done more to arrest” Calocane after he failed to appear in court in connection with the assault.

Jan 25 2024: Calocane is sentenced to an indefinite hospital order and told by Judge Mr Justice Turner that he will be detained in a high-security hospital “probably for the rest of your life”.

Outside court Emma Webber, Barnaby’s mother, tells Nottinghamshire Police “you have blood on your hands” and that if they had done their jobs properly her son would still be alive.

She says the families of Calocane’s victims were “railroaded” by prosecutors into accepting the triple killer’s manslaughter plea.