The son of one of the victims of the Nottingham attacks has criticised police failures during a public inquiry into the killings. Valdo Calocane, who has paranoid schizophrenia, killed three people and seriously injured three others in June 2023. The inquiry heard that an arrest warrant had been issued for Calocane in September 2022, but was not executed.
Nottinghamshire Police and Leicestershire Police have apologised for failing to act on the warrant. John Beggs KC, representing Nottinghamshire Police, described the failure as a 'serious failure' and offered an 'unreserved apology' to the families and survivors. Leicestershire Police also apologised for 'operational failures', including an officer not checking Calocane's records when attending a previous assault incident.
The NHS and the trust that cared for Calocane also apologised, with a lawyer stating: 'The NHS and the system as a whole failed you with devastating consequences.' The inquiry heard that Calocane had stopped taking his antipsychotic medication and was discharged from care in late 2022, which his family's lawyer described as 'disastrous'.
Tim Moloney KC, representing the bereaved families, criticised any suggestion that arresting Calocane would have made no difference, calling it 'cowardly, highly offensive and insulting'. He said the attacks represented 'the culmination of decades of unconscionable but entirely predictable structural and systemic individual failures'.
The three survivors, including Wayne Birkett and Sharon Miller, suffered 'appalling and life-changing injuries', the inquiry heard. Birkett has said he wishes his life had been taken instead of those who were killed.
