Complacency’s toll

The statements of the parents of the two Nottingham students killed by a paranoid schizophrenic evince a pain that will never leave them. They raise serious questions about how the killer Valdo Calocane was allowed to roam the streets looking for innocent victims.

He pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and was sentenced yesterday to be detained indefinitely in a high-security hospital.

This appalling case has reflected badly on many aspects of the criminal justice and care systems.

Calocane was a ticking time bomb who had been in and out of mental institutions. He should have been sectioned but wasn’t. He should have been arrested for assaulting a police officer but wasn’t. He should have been tried for murder but wasn’t.

The families are rightly angered by the set of circumstances that was allowed to develop to snuff out the lives of two 19-year-olds and 65-year-old school caretaker Ian Coates. It is a wretched story of incompetence and complacency.

The mother of Barnaby Webber, who died with his friend Grace O’malley-kumar, said it was not true that the Crown Prosecution Service had brought the families along with their decision to prosecute Calocane for manslaughter, not murder. “We’ve been rushed, hastened and railroaded,” she said.

While she did not dispute he was mentally unwell, the level of premeditation suggested someone who knew what he was doing. Like Peter Sutcliffe 40 years ago, he should have been tried for murder even if the end result is the same.

The police have apologised for failing to follow up an arrest warrant against Calocane for months. Mrs Webber said they had blood on their hands and the entire system had let down those it was supposed to protect. It is a harsh verdict but one that cannot be gainsaid.