Failure to Arrest Valdo Calocane Before Fatal Stabbings
A warrant to arrest Valdo Calocane prior to his killing of three individuals was not executed by police for several months, a lapse described as a "serious, systemic and operational failure."
On 13 June 2023, Calocane stabbed Barnaby Webber, Grace O'Malley Kumar, and Ian Coates to death, and seriously injured three others in Nottingham.
Inquiry and Police Response
As the judge-led inquiry into the Nottingham attacks proceeds, Nottinghamshire Police indicated it was not "realistic" to expect that Calocane would have been prosecuted and imprisoned had the warrant been enforced.
However, Tim Moloney KC, representing the bereaved families, criticized any suggestion that arresting Calocane would not have altered the outcome as "cowardly and insulting."
Background on Calocane's Legal Issues
Calocane, who was sentenced to a hospital order in January 2024, had previously been accused of assaulting a police officer in 2021 and was summonsed to Nottingham Magistrates' Court in September 2022.
After failing to attend court—ten months before the fatal attacks—a warrant was issued for his arrest but was designated a "low priority," according to the Nottingham Inquiry.
Approximately one month before the attacks, Calocane was alleged to have assaulted two colleagues at a factory in Kegworth, Leicestershire, yet he was not arrested at that time.
Details of the Attacks
Calocane fatally stabbed students Barnaby and Grace, both aged 19, as they walked home from a night out on Ilkeston Road, Nottingham.
He subsequently killed Ian, aged 65, before stealing his van and driving into three pedestrians—Wayne Birkett, Marcin Gawronski, and Sharon Miller—in Nottingham city centre.
At the time of these attacks, the warrant for Calocane's arrest had been outstanding for ten months.
Family and Legal Representatives' Statements
Moloney stated that police "just left him out on the streets."
"Any attempt by the police to say arresting him would have made no difference to what was to happen on June 13 2023, sheltering behind some notion that he may not have been convicted and may not have received a custodial sentence, would be cowardly, highly offensive and insulting to the intelligence of the brave families."
"If the police do say that executing a warrant for his arrest would have made no difference, then the people of Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire have a lot to worry about in relation to keeping them safe."
John Beggs KC, representing Nottinghamshire Police in the inquiry, acknowledged that the force should have executed the warrant in a "timely manner," adding: "They failed to do so at all."
Hugh Davies KC, representing two Leicestershire Police officers who attended the warehouse incident weeks before the fatal stabbings, noted that an officer did not review records of Calocane's previous police encounters. He added that if she had, "she would have been able to discover that [he] had an outstanding warrant for his arrest."
Ongoing Inquiry
The inquiry, expected to hear evidence in London over nine weeks, continues.
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