The parents of a victim of the Nottingham attacks have called for medical staff to breach patient confidentiality when a patient poses a risk to others. Speaking at a news conference in London on Monday, the families of the three victims said authorities had protected Valdo Calocane at the expense of public safety in the years before the June 2023 stabbings.
Calocane, who has paranoid schizophrenia, killed Barnaby Webber, Grace O'Malley-Kumar, both 19, and Ian Coates, 65, in the early hours of 13 June 2023. He was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to an indefinite hospital order in January 2024. The families warned that without immediate government action, such tragedies would recur.
Grace's mother, Sinead O'Malley-Kumar, blamed psychiatrists for discharging Calocane months before the attacks, saying she would 'never forgive them for their lack of treatment and their incompetent discharge'. The public inquiry heard that Calocane was sectioned four times before the attacks, and a doctor had warned he could 'end up killing someone'.
Grace's father, Sanjoy Kumar, himself a doctor, said: 'I think the safety of society as a whole, even as a doctor, overrides the autonomy of a single patient.' He noted that guidelines require doctors to break confidentiality if a patient may harm others, but this did not happen in their case.
The inquiry also revealed failures in information sharing between police, medical staff, and Calocane's family. His mother, Celeste, said she was unaware of decisions about his care until after the attacks. Emma Webber, Barnaby's mother, described the hearings as 'brutal, bruising and harrowing beyond measure', adding that 'mental health services failed to treat and manage. Police repeatedly failed to act. Agencies didn't talk.'
The inquiry, led by retired judge Deborah Taylor KC, will hear closing statements in September, with a final report expected next year. Nottinghamshire Healthcare said it was committed to acting on lessons from the inquiry.
