The Daily Telegraph - Saturday
Police failed to arrest Calocane for assault weeks before killings
VALDO CALOCANE assaulted two people weeks before killing three others in Nottingham but was not arrested, it has emerged.
Yesterday, Leicestershire Police confirmed that six weeks before the killer took the lives of Barnaby Webber, Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates, officers were called after the 32-yearold assaulted two security guards at a warehouse where he was working.
At the time, Calocane had been on the run for several months after he failed to appear in court in August 2022 to face charges over assaulting a police officer in Nottingham.
The assaults happened on May 5 2023, while Calocane was working at Arvato Supply Chain Solutions, at a warehouse near East Midlands Airport.
The business reported the incident the same day, and Leicestershire Police attended, but Calocane was no longer there. The force confirmed that at the time of the killings it was investigating the warehouse incident.
It came as Barnaby Webber’s mother revealed she found out about her son’s death when she looked at a tracker on his phone, which began moving to a police station. Emma Webber told the
Daily Mail in an interview she was on a work call at 9am when she saw news reports about an incident in Nottingham. Mrs Webber said she and her husband David tried ringing his phone, which he is “normally good about answering”, but he didn’t pick up, so they checked the Find My phone app.
“Almost at that exact moment it came up on the news that the incident had taken place in Ilkeston Road. Dave said: ‘Barney’s phone is in Ilkeston Road.’
“My body just went cold. Then his phone started moving. We thought he’d picked it up. We were ringing and ringing but still no one was answering. That’s when we saw it had been taken to the police station.”
The Telegraph can also reveal to day that Calocane could become eligible for release after three years under the terms of the hospital order imposed by the judge. Paranoid schizophrenic Calocane was handed an indefinite order to be detained in a high-security hospital on Thursday after he pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the basis of diminished responsibility.
The order, under section 37 of the Mental Health Act 1983, entitles an offender to a review of their mental health every three years where they could become eligible for release if doctors assess they have recovered and are of sound mind. Under the terms of his sentence, Calocane is also subject to a section 41 order, which gives the Justice Secretary or a first-tier tribunal power to block his release on the grounds he is assessed to still be a risk to the public.
However, the judge did not impose a section 45a order, which would have meant that even if Calocane was judged safe to release, he would only be allowed to serve the rest of his sentence in jail, rather than in the community.
During his sentencing hearing, brief details of the incident at the warehouse were revealed. Calocane, originally from Guinea-Bissau, had only been working at the warehouse for four days at the time of the assaults. The court heard that a few weeks after the incident, on June 9, Calocane contacted the recruitment consultant who had got him the job and demanded that the company “delete all records relating to him”. When Calocane was told that wasn’t possible, he said he would be back in touch. It is not clear how the triple killer was able to get a job at the warehouse given he was already unlawfully at large following the assault on the police officer in 2021.
The Telegraph revealed on Thursday that Victoria Prentis KC, the Attorney
General, is to review the sentence after a complaint was lodged with her office that it was “unduly lenient”.
She has 28 days to decide whether to refer the case to the Court of Appeal to decide whether the sentence was appropriate and should be increased.
Legal experts suggested that one option would be to impose a section 45a so that Calocane would be required to serve his sentence in prison if he was to recover his mental health. The judge decided against the 45a order on the basis that the current prognosis is Calocane is unlikely to recover sufficiently to be released and is likely to spend the rest of his life in a secure hospital.
Calocane was originally charged with the murder but this was downgraded to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility because of his paranoid schizophrenia. A spokesman for the Attorney General’s office confirmed a complaint had been received that would now be considered by Ms Prentis and her legal team.
A CPS spokesman said: “Our thoughts and sympathies are with the families of the victims at this incredibly difficult time. Engagement with those who have been left bereaved is one of our highest priorities and in all cases, we continue to liaise with victims’ families throughout the legal process.”
Nottingham attacker may be eligible for release in just three years under terms of hospital order