Knife rampage mum’s emotional plea to police over ‘callous’ messages
‘Did you stop to think about the absolute terror that they felt?’
THE mum of Nottingham attacks victim Barnaby Webber has written a heart-rending open letter to police officers who shared “abhorrent” WhatsApp posts about the deaths.
Emma Webber told group members that comments about her son and another slain student, Grace O’Malley-Kumar, were “callous, degrading and desensitised” and had caused “more trauma than you can imagine”.
She had been forced to make her letter public, she said, after repeated requests to address the WhatsApp group “privately and anonymously” were refused by Nottinghamshire Chief Constable Kate Meynell – whose son was in the group.
Respect
Addressing the unidentified person who described Barnaby and Grace as being “proper butchered”, she wrote: “Dig a little deeper for compassion and care. Show the respect in the future that you did not afford Barney.”
The distressing messages also told of victims having their “innards out and everything”. Barnaby and Grace, both 19, and Ian Coates, 65, were fatally stabbed in June byValdo Calocane, 32.
In January he was given an indefinite hospital order for manslaughter by diminished responsibility by Nottingham Crown Court, after being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. A sentence review hearing is set for May 8 after the Attorney General ruled it was “unduly lenient”.
In her two-page letter, Mrs Webber offers contact with the officer who made the “butchered” comment in confidence. Speaking yesterday she said it was the “saddest and most salient” part of the WhatsApp conversation.
She also said she started writing the letter when the WhatsApp transcripts were finally revealed to the family at the end of February.
She added: “I’ve asked for it to be shown to the group of officers privately. I haven’t asked to see them, berate them, be in a room with them. Unfortunately, that has been denied.
“The national repetition of this type of thing has to be addressed. We are not an isolated case.”
In February, one officer received a final written warning for sharing information about the case in a text message. Another officer received “management intervention” in relation to a “crude and distasteful” message.And a special constable has been dismissed for viewing footage showing the aftermath of the attacks.
Nottinghamshire Police, which is being investigated by the Independent Office for Police Conduct over its handling of the attacks, said yesterday that it would be “inappropriate to comment” while the probe is ongoing.
The Force’s Professional Standards Directorate said it had “acted immediately” after finding one “crude and distasteful” WhatsApp message.