Prosecutors have accepted Valdo Calocane's plea of manslaughter on the basis of diminished responsibility. Photo / Nottinghamshire Police
Prosecutors have accepted Valdo Calocane's plea of manslaughter on the basis of diminished responsibility. Photo / Nottinghamshire Police
Nottinghamshire Police has admitted it could have done more to arrest a knifeman who had been on the run for nine months before going on to kill three people.
Calocane, originally from Guinea-Bissau, is currently being sentenced at Nottingham Crown Court after pleading guilty to manslaughter on the basis of diminished responsibility.
Before proceedings began, it emerged the 32-year-old was wanted by police at the time of the killings in relation to an assault on a police officer in September 2021, who was attempting to have him sectioned.
Calocane had been due to appear in court in August 2022 and a warrant, which was still outstanding in June 2023, had been issued for his arrest.
On Wednesday, Assistant Chief Constable Rob Griffin admitted more could have been done to locate Calocane before he carried out the killings.
He said: “I have personally reviewed this matter and we should have done more to arrest him.”
“However, because of the circumstances prevailing, at the time of the alleged assault, in my opinion, it is highly unlikely that he would have received a custodial sentence.
“Of course, an arrest might have triggered a route back into mental health services, but as we have seen from his previous encounters with those services, it seems unlikely that he would have engaged in this process.”
(From left): Barnaby Webber, Grace O'Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates were stabbed to death in Nottingham, England by Valdo Calocane in 2023.
Despite the force’s insistence that Calocane’s arrest would not have resulted in a custodial sentence, in court, his barrister Peter Joyce KC, suggested his mental health worsened during his time “unlawfully at large”.
Joyce said that at the time, Calocane was “suffering from the torture of schizophrenia” and believed healthcare professionals and police were part of the conspiracy against him.
He told the court: “He had been wanted on a warrant in this very city for nine months for an assault on a police officer.”
“And what was the police officer doing when he was assaulted? He was trying to detain him under the Mental Health Act.
“He should not have been on the streets of Nottingham, but the fact he was is not his fault.”
The court heard Calocane believed his thoughts and actions were being influenced by radio and sonic control.
Professor Nigel Blackwood, a forensic psychiatrist, said in a report on Calocane that he was “an intelligent man who strove to conceal his madness from clinicians”.
Blackwood said Calocane’s degree in mechanical engineering had contributed to the nature of his paranoia.
He added: “Inevitably, he uses his mechanical engineering degree to inform his psychological understanding.”
Calocane has never offered any explanation for the killings, but psychiatrist Dr Liam McSweeney, who assessed him, said that he “had for years experienced a “pressure” involving voices and persecutory beliefs”.
“He gave some explanation for what happened. He said this pressure had reached a certain point and if he did not act in a certain way, something atrocious would happen to his family.
Prosecutors have accepted Valdo Calocane's plea of manslaughter on the basis of diminished responsibility. Photo / Nottinghamshire Police
“He appreciated his actions would mean he would likely end up in prison, recognising they were wrong.
“He certainly implied he felt impelled to cause vast amounts of harm.”
The court heard that after carrying out the three killings, Calocane claimed the voices told him to hurt more people or he would be punished. He went on to drive a van at three pedestrians, who survived.
It also emerged during the hearing that in May 2021, Calocane visited MI5′s London headquarters, asking them to stop “controlling him”.
Peter Joyce KC said: “He [Calocane] tried to surrender to MI5 at their headquarters to try to stop them controlling him.”
“That’s not a concoction by him.
“There is a photograph taken by their systems at Thames House, [implying] ‘please arrest me’ – effectively, ‘stop controlling me’.”
Dr Sanjoy Kumar, Grace’s father, previously accused the mechanical engineering graduate of “concocting” a story of mental illness after his arrest and said he had “deceived” psychiatrists.
The hearing heard possible sentencing options for Calocane include a “hybrid” life sentence with a hospital direction or a hospital order under the Mental Health Act.
Joyce urged Justice Turner not to impose a whole life order, meaning Calocane could never be released from hospital, or prison, arguing such sentences were typically reserved for murderers.
