Six missed chances to snare Valdo Calocane before he killed 3 in Nottingham – including visiting MI5 & cop assault
COPS have admitted there were six missed chances to snare a knifeman who killed three people on the streets of Nottingham.
Valdo Calocane was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia when he “brutally” stabbed students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both 19, in the early hours of June 13 last year.
He also fatally knifed 65-year-old Ian Coates before stealing his van and ploughing into pedestrians.
Calocane has admitted three counts of manslaughter and three of attempted murder after hitting three other pedestrians with a van he stole from Mr Coates.
Ahead of his sentencing, Nottinghamshire Police said there were missed chances to stop Calocane.
Officers said there were a “number of occasions” between 2020 and 2022 where they had engaged with the triple killer.
We should have done more to arrest him
Rob Griffin
Spring 2020
In the spring of 2020 Calocane, 32, allegedly followed a female student to her accommodation and threatened her.
She was so terrified she jumped out of a window to escape.
During the same period, the university is understood to have made attempts to seek mental health care for the killer.
He was also arrested for criminal damage after smashing down a door at his flat.
Calocane was told to take anti-psychotic medication during which time he should have been monitored.
Summer 2020
He is then said to have broken into a neighbour’s flat and threatened the occupants in the summer of 2020.
He was detained in hospital under the Mental Health Act.
The missed chances to stop Calocane
Spring 2020 – Calocane allegedly followed a female student to her accommodation and threatened her. She was so terrified she jumped out a window to escape. The university is understood to have made attempts to seek mental health care for the killer.
July 2020 – He is said to have broken into a neighbour’s flat and threatened the occupants. He was detained in hospital under the Mental Health Act until the end of that month.
May 2021 – Calocane visits MI5 and asks them to stop “controlling him”. A photo is taken at their London headquarters of him.
September 2021 – Calocane is sectioned under the Mental Health Act but assaults a police officer on the way to hospital. He fails to attend court and a warrant is issued for his arrest.
January 2022 – Police were called after Calocane got housemate in headlock in row over dirty kitchen.
February 2022 – He attacked a flatmate and had his university halls of residence terminated. He faced no further action from the police.
May 2021
Calocane visited MI5 in May 2021 and asked them to stop “controlling him”.
A photo of him was taken at their London headquarters.
Calocane’s barrister Peter Joyce KC said: “He (Calocane) tried to surrender to MI5 at their headquarters to try and stop them controlling him. That’s not a concoction by him.
“There is a photograph taken by their systems at Thames House, saying ‘please arrest me’ – effectively ‘stop controlling me’.”
September 2021
In September 2021 he was sectioned under the Mental Health Act but on the way to hospital he assaulted a police officer.
Calocane later failed to attend court and a warrant was executed to gain access to his flat where seven months of untaken medication was found.
January 2022
Police were also called after Calocane attacked a housemate in a row over a dirty kitchen in January 2022.
Video shows Calocane holding Chris Young in a headlock just a year before the rampage left three dead.
Pals told how the violence broke out when mature student Calocane snapped at being asked to pick up dirty washing at the apartment.
The clip shows panicked Chris begging for room mates to “call police” and screaming “Valdo, get off me” during the attack at Rayleigh Park halls, in March 2022.
Officers attended the scene and escorted Calocane away – before university officials pushed for him to not face prosecution.
Instead the would-be killer was offered mental health support to allow him to finish his mechanical engineering degree, last summer.
February 2022
Finally, in February 2022 he attacked a flatmate and had his university halls of residence terminated, but faced no further action from the police.
Assistant Chief Constable Rob Griffin admitted: “We should have done more to arrest him.”
The officer continued: “Because of the circumstance 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.”
Calocane began his rampage just after 4am on June 13 as Grace and Barnaby walked back to their halls from a night out.
The killer pounced after lurking in the shadows and began stabbing at Barnaby with a dagger.
As he collapsed to the ground, Grace showed “incredible bravery” by attempting to fight the killer off.
She managed to shove raging Calocane into the road but this caused him to turn his attention to her instead.
Calocane was then seen “calmly” walking away as he continued his gruesome spree when he came across Ian.
After stabbing the dad to death, Calocane stole his van and used it to ram three pedestrians – leaving Sharon Miller, Marcin Gawronski and Wayne Birkett injured.
