Schizophrenic Valdo Calocane was discharged from mental health services to his GP just months before he killed three people, an inquiry has heard. Healthcare workers could not find him, leading to his release from care.
Calocane, a former mechanical engineering student, had been under the Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust’s supervision for two years. During this period, a consultant psychiatrist had warned he would ultimately kill someone. His discharge by the trust’s Early Intervention in Psychosis (EIP) service occurred in September 2022, after he failed to attend appointments or make contact with the team.
Months later, he stabbed to death students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both 19, in Ilkeston Road, Nottingham, and caretaker Ian Coates, 65, in the early hours of June 13 2023, before he tried to murder three more people with a stolen van in the city centre.
Emma Robinson, who was a team leader at the trust, told the inquiry, which is looking into events leading up to the attacks, on Tuesday that Calocane’s care co-ordinator Gary Carter had attended his address, made calls to him and sent a letter, which went unanswered.
Tim Moloney KC, who represents the families of Mr Webber, Ms O’Malley-Kumar and Mr Coates, asked: “When you discharged, did you think about the risk to the public from this man, who EIP would not visit alone, would not visit at home unless absolutely necessary? Did you consider the risks to the public from that man?”
She replied: “We did consider that, but we felt that within the time of decision we had no holding powers, we couldn’t work with him, we couldn’t find him at this point. We just couldn’t find him to work with him.”
The inquiry heard that Calocane’s last engagement with the EIP team had been by phone on July 16, when he lied about being abroad. Mr Moloney asked “Had you lost him?”, to which Ms Robinson replied: “Yes.” The lawyer asked: “Is that primarily why you discharged him?” Ms Robinson said: “Yes, because we couldn’t find him to treat him or engage him.”
Mr Moloney said that by discharging Calocane to his GP, the trust “left him to the general public to deal with”. Ms Robinson said: “I wouldn’t say the general public to deal with. It’s not uncommon for us to discharge non-engaging patients, unfortunately, at that time. I think things are very different now.”
In a statement written by Ms Robinson explaining her rationale for discharging Calocane, she said: “It’s dire for me to think this now, but I used to think sometimes is it worse to have somebody open on caseloads that you’re not engaging with? Should we be discharging them instead? What does it look like if something happens and we’ve got this person open to us and we haven’t seen him for months and months and months?”
Asked to explain this statement by counsel to the inquiry Craig Carr, Ms Robinson said: “I suppose, from previous experience, I’m worried about how that’s looked – that we’ve got somebody that’s open to us, and perhaps we’ve not been able to treat them for nine months, or find them. So sometimes the decision’s better to discharge back to the GP.”
Mr Carr said it could be interpreted that Ms Robinson was suggesting that it is better to get someone “off the books” if they cannot be found. The witness said: “It feels safer to have somebody discharged back to the queue of the GP, than open to a secondary service when we can’t engage them, or we can’t do anything for them.”
Chairwoman Deborah Taylor said Calocane’s GP was “effectively sent very little information” after his discharge. Ms Robinson said: “I accept that.” The witness also told the inquiry that the trust did not tell Nottinghamshire Police that Calocane had been discharged from its services. The inquiry continues.
