Psycho was his nickname
» ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ as student » He’d yell in faces of classmates » Killer attacked cop at flat
EXCLUSIVE
RAMPAGE killer Valdo Calocane was nicknamed The Psycho by university students because of his chilling behaviour.
One ex-flatmate was so scared of the mature student they put a lock on the inside of their bedroom door.
They said: “He was like Jekyll and Hyde. Chilled one minute, raging the next. We called him The Psycho behind his back.”
Calocane, now 32, was nearly a decade older than other freshers when he started at the University of Nottingham in 2019. Classmates on his mechanical engineering course described him as “quiet” and “aloof ”.
But it was behind closed doors, in a string of shared student digs, where he showed his true colours.
Flatmates recalled how Calocane, who thought he was being spied on by MI6, would snap if disturbed.
One former student said: “He would lose it if we came back late from a night out and woke him up.
“It was a bad mix. He was a guy in his late 20s, we were party animals barely out of our teens. Valdo was so
Valdo was so volatile. He’d storm out of his room in a rage & shout in our faces
FORMER FLATMATE OF KILLER VALOCANE IN STUDENT DAYS
volatile. He came storming out of his room in a rage without warning. He didn’t attack any of us, he would just erupt shouting and get in our faces.
“A few times he literally came into my room and was ranting and raving because I had my music on.
“It freaked me out, so I got a sliding lock put on the inside of my door.”
A previously unearthed video showed Calocane putting a flatmate in a headlock during a row.
He moved between various student accommodation during his time at the University of Nottingham.
One block of flats was a stone’s throw from where Grace O’MalleyKumar and Barnaby Webber, both 19, were stabbed to death.
Calocane eventually ended up in a halfway house and failed to turn up for his graduation ceremony in 2022.
His difficulties in Nottingham were a far cry from his “idyllic” upbringing in the Welsh market town of Haverfordwest in Pembrokshire.
Born in Guinea-Bissau, he moved with his family to Madeira and later to Lisbon. They moved to the UK in 2007, when he was 16.
Neighbours in Haverfordwest described him as a polite churchgoer from a good family. He attended the Calvary Church along with his carer dad Amissao, 56, nurse mum Celeste, 44, and two younger siblings.
Neighbour Marlene Raymond, 55, previously said: “He was very smart
and handsome. He was very bright, all three children are.”
Calocane shunned the chance to study for his A-Levels and got work as a labourer and cleaner. But he went to college in his early 20s and got the qualifications needed for university.
Calocane eventually enrolled in Nottingham in 2019 – but soon began showing signs of mental illness.
In May 2020 he turned up at a hospital in a distressed state believing he was having a heart attack.
He was arrested later the same day for breaking into two apartments in the same block where he was living.
Calocane was assessed as “psychotic but low risk to others” and admitted onto a psychiatric ward.
He was discharged in June 2020 but readmitted after breaking into a third apartment. Calocane had his antipsychotic medication increased and was managed “in the community”.
But the court was told he stopped taking his drugs and was “actively concealing symptoms of psychosis”.
In September 2021 he attacked a police officer when his flat was raided for a mental health assessment.
He spent two more months as an in-patient under the Mental Health Act before again being released.
In January 2022 he got into a fight with a flatmate but psychiatrists said he did not need in-patient treatment.
Within days, he was back in hospital for another three weeks. He then spent months collecting his antipsychotic drugs, but not taking them.
During a hearing at Nottingham crown court last year, prosecutor
Karim Khalil KC, said: “The theme is a constantly recurring one.”
Calocane was charged with the assault on the officer in September 2022 but failed to turn up to court and was still a wanted man when he killed Barnaby, Grace and Ian in June.
Last May, just before the killings, he allegedly attacked two colleagues at a warehouse in Kegworth, Leics.
In a phone call to his brother days before the attacks, he insisted he was not mentally ill. He said: “But there is two-way communication and 24/7 voices in my head. They are intelligent and are making threats.”
Calocane denied murder but pleaded guilty to three counts of manslaughter on the basis of diminished responsibility. He also admitted the attempted murder of three others.
His family have never spoken publicly since he carried out the attacks. His mother Celeste and brother Elias watched yesterday’s proceedings via an online video link.