The mother of Valdo Calocane, who killed three people in Nottingham in 2023, has told an inquiry that the mental health system is broken and that no one listens until a crisis occurs. Celeste Calocane gave evidence for the first time at the inquiry into the attacks, which examined events before and after the incident.
Valdo Calocane, who has paranoid schizophrenia, was sentenced to a suspended hospital order in January 2024 after killing students Barnaby Webber and Grace O'Malley-Kumar, both 19, and caretaker Ian Coates, 65, on 13 June 2023. He also attempted to kill three others. Calocane was sectioned four times between 2020 and 2023.
Ms Calocane described repeatedly raising concerns to medical staff but said no one acted on them. She said: 'I was doing a mental health job for them, even though I wasn't trained, I was the one raising the flags … no one was acting on it, until I said something.' The inquiry heard that in May 2020 she warned of her son's 'risk to others' after he tried to break into a neighbour's flat.
During Calocane's first hospital admission, his brother Elias compiled a dossier of violent and paranoid messages, including one where Calocane said he was 'thinking about red rum' (murder spelled backwards) and that he wanted to 'hurt permanently'. Ms Calocane said she did not look at the document and doctors did not respond, so she thought it was not useful. Calocane was discharged on 13 June 2020 against his mother's wishes.
One month later, Ms Calocane alerted the crisis team about her son's mental state. Two days later, Calocane tried to break into a neighbour's flat again and was sectioned for a second time. She said: 'I phoned the services and they just didn't do anything about it until he was in crisis.' The inquiry was previously told that during this admission a doctor said Calocane could 'end up killing someone' and his diagnosis was 'likely schizophrenia', but Ms Calocane said she was not informed.
Ms Calocane also told the inquiry she was denied information because her son instructed staff not to share details. On the morning of the attacks, her son Elias received a call from Calocane saying it would be the last time he heard from him and that something was 'already done'. Ms Calocane said she feared he had attempted suicide, but by then he had already killed two people. Asked why she did not leave work, she said: 'Looking back, maybe that's what I should have done, but I didn't do that because this is something I've been living with for the last three years.'
