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When the lives of three innocent people were taken, families hoped the assailant would get what he deserved...
Teenagers Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both 19 and students at Nottingham University, were stabbed to death as they walked home through the city in the early hours of June last year.
Just over an hour later, their attacker Valdo Calocane knifed caretaker Ian Coates, 65, before stealing his van and ploughing down three people.
Calocane was located by police shortly afterwards, tasered, arrested and charged with three counts of murder and three attempted murders.
The victims’ grieving families spoke with heartfelt emotion about Barnaby, Grace and Ian. Emma and David Webber – Barnaby’s parents– and his brother Charlie released a statement saying he was a ‘beautiful, brilliant, bright young man, with everything in life to look forward to’. They added that ‘complete devastation is not enough to describe our pain and loss at the senseless murder of our son’.
As the horror unfolded, it became apparent that Calocane had mental health problems and was already known to police after an altercation with a flatmate, attacking an officer and a member of a community care team, after being assessed a few times under the Mental Health Act.
It’s been said that police, the NHS and university officials missed eight opportunities to deal with Calocane, now 32.
In November last year, the Cr
