The parents of a 19-year-old student murdered by paranoid schizophrenic Valdo Calocane during the Nottingham attacks have delivered a scathing condemnation of police conduct, describing officers' actions as "disgusting and grotesque." Emma and David Webber, whose son Barnaby was stabbed to death, told a public inquiry they will "never forgive" Nottinghamshire Police after learning officers accessed graphic footage of the attacks and exchanged WhatsApp messages referencing their son's wounds.
"Properly Butchered": The Disturbing WhatsApp Exchange
During emotional testimony at the central London inquiry into the June 2023 attacks, Emma Webber revealed she discovered a police officer had sent a WhatsApp message describing the victims as "properly butchered" with "innards out." The parents only learned about this message because the Daily Mail intended to publish an article about it the following day.
"Reading the content of that WhatsApp message, it was so destructive, so destroying, so awful," Mrs. Webber told the inquiry. "I don't mind the words being made public because the author of that message chose to refer to our children in those terms. That's disgusting and grotesque."
Crossing the Line of Professional Conduct
The grieving mother acknowledged that emergency service workers often develop gallows humor to cope with traumatic situations, but insisted this case represented a clear violation of professional boundaries. "There is a clear line between gallows humor and a very clear need to be able to handle what is often a very, very difficult job," she explained. "But this steps over that mark."
Mrs. Webber expressed particular outrage that officers had viewed footage showing her son "lying on the road, having been brutally stabbed multiple times, fighting for his life and ultimately losing it." She added emphatically: "And that's wrong, that's so wrong, and I will never forgive them. And I hope that they're listening to part of this and rethinking their actions."
Victim Privacy Ignored While Killer's Rights Protected
David Webber highlighted what he described as a disturbing double standard in how authorities treated privacy concerns. "We were told all the way through this investigation that, for Valdo Calocane, privacy was massively important," he told the inquiry. "And it does seem to me that again, in this case, my son, who was the victim here, his privacy was not taken into consideration."
Mr. Webber emphasized that the privacy of all three victims—Barnaby Webber, Grace O'Malley-Kumar, and Ian Coates—had been disregarded. "You're thinking 'this is wrong, you can't have it both ways,'" he stated, his voice filled with frustration.
A Family's Shattered Trust in Law Enforcement
Despite coming from a family with police connections—his brother serves as an officer and his sister is a former officer—Mr. Webber said his faith in law enforcement has been profoundly damaged. "I have nothing but respect for the police and have always had respect for the police," he acknowledged. "However in this particular case, they have fallen very short of what I would expect someone who is there to effectively protect the public should be doing."
The father added with palpable emotion: "In this case, they have let us down. And they have acted in a way that I think is abhorrent. I can't forgive them for that because this is my son, again, at the bottom of this. He didn't ask for anything else, you know, he should have been protected by them and they didn't do it."
The Nottingham Attacks: A Timeline of Tragedy
Valdo Calocane killed three people and attempted to murder three others during a violent rampage in Nottingham on June 13, 2023. The 32-year-old paranoid schizophrenic first stabbed Barnaby Webber and his friend Grace O'Malley-Kumar, a first-year medical student, on Ilkeston Road in the early hours of the morning.
Calocane then fatally attacked 65-year-old school caretaker Ian Coates before stealing his van and using it to run over three pedestrians. The attacks were described by victims' families as "the stuff of nightmares" and "the true face of evil."
Legal Proceedings and Ongoing Inquiry
Earlier in their testimony, the Webbers described the "unfolding horror" of learning that prosecutors intended to accept Calocane's guilty pleas to manslaughter rather than pursue murder charges. "It's a bit of a state of shock because you've set yourself up for this is what we're doing—three counts of murder, three counts of attempted murder," Mr. Webber recalled. "Then all of a sudden it's a complete U-turn."
Calocane was detained indefinitely in a high-security hospital in January 2024 after prosecutors accepted his not guilty pleas to murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility. He had admitted manslaughter and attempted murder charges.
The public inquiry into the attacks and the police response continues, with the Webbers' powerful testimony highlighting serious concerns about victim privacy, professional conduct, and institutional accountability within law enforcement agencies.
