His flatmates thought he was so strange they’d already called him ‘serial killer’
STUDENT flatmates of Valdo Calocane thought he was so unstable they gave him a disturbing nickname.
They said he rejected offers of friendship – and said he was viewed as a ‘ticking timebomb’ who they dubbed ‘serial killer’.
A source said: ‘Everyone in the flat knew Valdo was not right. They nicknamed him “serial killer”... He barely talked – and when he did he was aggressive and actually pretty terrifying.
‘It sounds petty but he never did any housework or cleaning and that drove the others mad. He was obviously really bright – but that didn’t make him above doing his bit.’
Another former housemate, who lived with Calocane for much of 2020, said the killer ‘seemed like a normal guy’ back then – but admitted grappling with his mental health.
‘I didn’t know him too well but he didn’t do drugs or drink much’, the former student said.
‘He said he heard and saw things that weren’t there. I didn’t talk to him much.’
Nottingham University student Valdo Calocane was born in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa, his family moving to the Portuguese island of Madeira when he was a toddler and then on to Lisbon when he was around eight.
His 55-year-old father, Amissao, moved to Pembrokeshire almost 20 years ago to work on construction at an oil refinery in Milford Haven. His nurse wife, Celeste, 43, followed with their three children in 2007, after he found a house and schools for the children. To this day, Calocane’s parents remain in Haverfordwest. Around a year ago his father had a career change when he began work as a carer, while his mother works as an intensive care nurse.
Their plight elicits sympathy in the area as they keep their counsel in the face of such awful events. Reverend Adrian Vaughan, minister at the town’s Calvary Church which the family attend, said: ‘His parents are strong Christians and settled in well with us.
‘When Valdo moved out of the family home he rented a place with friends. I would still see him in the town centre – he always greeted me and was polite.’
The minister described the
Calocanes as ‘hard-working, gentle, honest people’, adding that ‘their children have had a good upbringing’.
Valdo was the oldest child, aged 16 at the time, and was soon noted as being somewhat quiet and withdrawn.
He did not sit A-levels because he didn’t think he would achieve adequate grades, the court has heard, and instead found menial work such as labouring or as a cleaner. By 17, the Mail was told, Calocane had moved out of the family home – against his parents’ wishes – and rented a flat with friends nearby. Rev Vaughan said the Covid pandemic ‘impacted him in a very bad way’, adding: ‘He nosedived into depression and was on very strong anti-depressants.
‘What he did was horrific and his parents accept that, that’s why they are so distraught. How do you come to terms with the fact that your son has done such a thing?
‘They are finding it very difficult to understand but there is nothing in Valdo’s background that could have led to such a thing.
‘It can only be that he developed a mental condition that led to it. I don’t know what the victims’ families will feel about that, you want punishment in some way.’
Rev Vaughan’s wife, Hazel, said of Calocane’s decline: ‘His parents had no idea he was as bad as he was. Those anti-depressants didn’t suit him. He was getting help, and I’m guessing his meds weren’t working properly.’
She said Calocane’s parents used to travel to Nottingham to visit him ‘and have been to see him since this happened’, but described them as ‘very private people’.
She said that when she knew Valdo at church he was ‘very committed – he was not an outgoing lad but quite stable at that time’.
She added: ‘He was a little withdrawn but he was a good lad. His parents still come to church. Without their faith I don’t know how they would have coped. They are a lovely couple and their neighbours have been supportive.’
After leaving home, the killer is believed to have moved to Birmingham, where he drifted between bedsits, before rediscovering education and ‘studying well’.
After settling in Nottingham, he enrolled at the city’s university as a mature student on its mechanical engineering course, and graduated in 2022. An online CV suggests he found work at a branch of fashion retailer Next during his studies.
‘He saw things that weren’t there’