Judges reject appeal over triple killer’s hospital order

TOP judges have refused to jail triple killer Valdo Calocane for life after concluding the public is better protected by an indefinite hospital order.

The 32-year-old killed Barnaby Webber, Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates and tried to kill another three victims in a violent rampage in Nottingham last June. He was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia at the time, and admitted manslaughter by diminished responsibility.

In January, a judge ordered that the killer be held indefinitely in a secure hospital to receive treatment for his mental health condition.

The case sparked a public outcry, and Solicitor General Robert Courts brought a challenge to the sentence, arguing it should be upgraded to a “hybrid” order — with a life prison sentence to follow once he had received treatment. But Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr, Lord Justice Edis and Mr Justice Garnham, sitting in the Court of Appeal, rejected the argument today, insisting the original sentence best protects the public.

She said it is “likely” Calocane “will spend the rest of his life in a secure hospital”. She told the hearing that doctors had agreed that the killer was “in the grip of a severe psychotic episode” when the attacks took place. She added: “Had the offender not suffered the mental condition that he did, the sentencing judge would doubtless have been considering a whole life term.” Calocane killed students Mr Webber and Ms O’Malley-Kumar, both 19, and school caretaker Mr Coates, 65, in the early hours of June 13.