Officers shared details of murders on Whatsapp
POLICE officers in Nottingham shared graphic details about the injuries of three murder victims on Whatsapp after they were stabbed to death by a paranoid schizophrenic, it has emerged.
Nottingham University students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’malley-kumar, both 19, and caretaker Ian Coates, 65, were murdered by Valdo Calocane on Jun 13 last year.
Graphic details surrounding the horrific nature of their injuries were shared on a Nottinghamshire Police Whatsapp group before being forwarded to others outside the force, it was reported last night.
According to the Daily Mail, one Nottinghamshire Police officer reportedly posted a message to a Whatsapp group before another officer, Pc Matthew Gell, sent it to his wife and a friend.
A source told the newspaper that a shift Whatsapp group, which included Pc Gell, was sent details of the injuries as well as information on how the force was responding to the incident as it unfolded.
The families of the victims said they were officers the Daily “sickened” actions Mail. which to learn were reported about the by
Emma Representing Webber, whose all three son Barnaby families, was first attacked by Calocane, said: “What an abhorrent way to conduct an investigation.
“We cannot emphasise how painful this tragedy is for all our families, and to learn there has been internal needless voyeurism of the vicious knife attacks on our loved ones is unforgivable. We were not, at any point, made aware of this data breach.”
Last month, Pc Gell received a final warning after he accessed files on Calocane without authorisation.
A police misconduct hearing was told Pc Gell had used the police system to look up custody records for Calocane two days after the attacks.
Nottinghamshire Police said his actions represented a data protection breach because the officer had “no role whatsoever in the investigation”. The hearing was told Pc Gell also breached professional standards by sharing information about the killings in a text message on Jun 13. Pc Gell admitted his “lapse of judgment” amounted to gross misconduct following an investigation by Nottinghamshire Police’s Professional Standards Directorate (PSD). Police said the officer who sent the original message had been dealt with “informally” and had carried out “developmental learning”. In a statement provided to the Daily Mail, Nottinghamshire Police said: “The messages are crude and distasteful and we have taken this matter extremely seriously, resulting in one officer being handed a final written warning and the other officer receiving management intervention.
“This misconduct hearing was held in the public domain and was overseen
‘To learn there has been internal needless voyeurism of the vicious attacks is unforgivable’
by an independent legally qualified chairman.”
Earlier this month, it was reported that Nottinghamshire Police’s contact with Calocane before he killed is being investigated by the independent watchdog.
At the time, a warrant was out for Calocane’s arrest after he assaulted a police officer in the city in 2021.