Police force ‘should have done more’ to stop tragic Grace’s killer
Many chances missed to pick up the fugitive before rampage
Left free to roam the city ‘I’m literally dizzy with grief’
THE heartbroken mother of stabbing victim Grace O’Malley-Kumar has called for mandatory jail for anyone caught carrying a knife.
Aspiring doctor Grace, 19, was killed by Valdo Calocane in Nottingham while heroically trying to protect her university friend Barnaby Webber just after 4am on June 13 last year.
Her mother Dr Sinéad O’Malley, from Dublin, said a ‘massive deterrent’ must be put in place to stop people using knives.
It comes as UK police admitted yesterday they ‘should have done more’ to stop triple killer Calocane before he went on the stabbing rampage that also killed 19-yearold student Barnaby, as well as school caretaker Ian Coates.
It comes after it was revealed a litany of missed chances left Calocane free to roam the city before he knifed three people to death and tried to kill three more.
The triple killer had been in and out of a mental health hospital for more than three years and a warrant was out for his arrest when his killing spree brought terror to Nottingham.
The UK National Health Service, police, university officials and even his employer missed at least eight opportunities to deal with him before then.
Breaking down in tears during an emotional interview with BBC Breakfast, Dr O’Malley said that carrying a knife is ‘no different’ to carrying a gun. ‘I believe there has to be mandatory prison sentences for carrying a knife,’ she said. ‘It is not just an offensive weapon or something you could eat your food with. It is a lethal weapon.’ Dr O’Malley is a consultant anaesthetist and Grace’s father Dr Sanjoy Kumar is a GP. Grace’s grandfather is Professor Kevin O’Malley, 82, the former registrar and chief executive of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Dr Kumar described knife crime in England as an ‘epidemic’ and said the current legislation on the problem appears ‘easy-going’. ‘Every day it seems there is a story about someone being stabbed to death and it feels like nothing is being done about it,’ he said. Grace’s teenage brother James echoed his parents sentiments, saying it seems ‘easier to get access to a knife than alcohol’.
He told Sky News yesterday that he has been left ‘completely lost’ without his sister, adding that he confided in her about everything.
Meanwhile, her heartbroken parents said they thought her phone had just run out of battery when they tried getting in touch with her after hearing of a terrorist attack in Nottingham.
Dr Kumar told BBC Breakfast: ‘I was at work and Sinéad texted me when she first heard the news in the morning.
‘Immediately, just being a dad, I rang Grace’s phone. I remember I rang it at least eight times and it just rang out.’
During the emotional interview, Dr Kumar said: ‘The fact that I will not see her graduate, the fact that I will not see her marry, the fact that I will not see grandchildren, is brutal.’
He added: ‘She was the best. She was the glue that held the family together.’
Dr O’Malley said: ‘I miss her so much. She was my little friend, she was my pet, I’m literally dizzy with grief, and it’s the same every day.
‘She was a beautiful child. We were incredibly proud of her. She was such a great athlete, she was a cricketer, hockey player, and she had so much fun doing that. She was such a lovely girl.’
James added: ‘She was the best to me. Since everything’s happened in June I’ve been completely lost without her. I’ve not just lost my older sister but a best friend, someone I’d go to about everything.
‘I’d call her if there were any problems I had, any concerns, she was the first person I’d go to. Because it was Grace she’d come back with the best advice.’
Dr Kumar slammed the decision not to put the killer on trial for murder and said: ‘Justice has not been done.’
Calocane, a graduate engineering student, was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia when he ‘deliberately and mercilessly’ stabbed Barnaby, Grace and Ian in the early hours of the morning.
He has pleaded guilty to three counts of manslaughter and three of attempted murder after hitting three pedestrians with a van. He was ‘unlawfully at large’ at the time of the stabbings and wanted for assaulting an emergency worker.