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Nottingham attacks
Three people tragically lost their lives to killer Valdo Calocane
A psychiatrist who assessed killer Valdo Calocane told the Nottingham attacks inquiry: “We simply don’t know why these two students were the people he assaulted.”
Evidence also revealed how the man who savagely stabbed to death three people on the city’s streets had watched terrorism videos on is phone ahead of his rampage on June, 2023.
University of Nottingham students Grace O’Malley-Kumar, Barnaby Webber and school caretaker Ian Coates were all stabbed to death by Calocane in the early hours of June 13, 2023.
The killer then took Mr Coates’ van from where he killed him in Magdala Road, Mapperley Park, and deliberately drove it into Wayne Birkett, Sharon Miller and Marcin Gawronski in the city centre as they went to work.
Following his horrific rampage Calocane, formerly of Burford Road, Forest Fields, was initially charged with three counts of murder and three of attempted murder in relation to the six victims.
But after a number of medical experts assessed the paranoid schizophrenic’s mental state, it was concluded that he had what is called “a partial defence” of diminished responsibility.
As such, after reviewing the evidence the Crown Prosecution Service took a decision to accept his guilty pleas to a lesser charge of manslaughter in relation to Grace, Barnaby and Ian.
The inquiry this week will therefore explore that decision-making process and how it was communicated to the families of those killed.
In the opening statement, it says: “This Inquiry is tasked with considering the handling by the CPS of the case between June 13, 2023 and the commencement of the Sentencing hearing on January 23, 2024.
“Whilst the issues that arise are varied, they will focus in particular on the charging decision and ultimate acceptance of pleas as well as the communication with, and treatment of, the bereaved families and survivors throughout this period.”
Recap our live coverage of the hearing from Mary Ward House, in London, below:
The inquiry continues.
Today’s evidence at the inqury is done. Thank you for following and we hope you have found it interesting and informative?
Please join us tomorrow as we look at what the Crown Proscution Service says about its charging decisions.
The final witness of the day was Dr Ross Mirvis, a third psychiatrist who interviewed Calocane where he is serving his hospital order in Ashworth Hospital.
He told the inquiry how the killer told him he’d tried cannabis once in his life at the age of 28 and that it left him feeling “that his arm was going to be cut off and he would die”.
Rachel Langdale KC, counsel for the inquiry, said: “That seemed quite a dramatic reaction. It does seem an extreme response, doesn’t it?”
The doctor replied: “I was quite satisfied that cannabis, in this instance, wasn’t a perpetuating factor.”
Ms Langdale said: “You asked him if he’d made any preparations or plans for the index offences (the Nottingham attacks) which he denied. How much information did you have when you were interviewing him?”
He replied: “I was aware of certain things but I don’t think I was aware of specific hiding prior to the violence
“I mean, he told me his recollection was limited but potentially that might have been something we talked about.”
Counsel asked him: “We know he was resistant to taking medication and didn’t believe he was medically ill?”
He replied: “Yes. I would say he was chaotic and indiscriminate in the way he acted that night. He saunters (from the stabbings in Ilkeston Road) and really doesn’t appear to be trying to evade detection.
“I think overall,in my view, I think it is clear he was suffering with psychotic symptoms but the nature of this work is that we don’t have a running commentary of someone’s mindset when they’re actually commissioning violence.”
Mr Straw, for Calocane’s mother and brother, asked the witness: “In your report you say VC’s index offences were highly attributable to his mental disorder. Do you stand by that?”
He replied: “I do. I also had the benefit of being the person who spent the most time with him, interviewing him daily, observing him in a very focussed setting to come to those conclusions.
“I thought it was helpful to highlight in my report that his not taking medication is due to his lack of insight rather than driving anything else.”
The doctor has told the inquiry that since Calocane has been at the high security Ashworth Hospital he has been taking prescribed anti-psychotic drugs, that his lack of aggression has “improved” and his interactions with others “has warmed”.
A new witness Dr Richard Latham, a second psychiatrist instructed by the prosecution, was questioned by Julian Blake KC, counsel for the inquiry.
He too reached a conclusion that Calocane had a partial defence of diminished responsibility in relation to the killings.
He was asked if additional material that could have been provided to him ahead of his assessment could have helped.
He replied: “I don’t think it would have been helpful in terms of my ultimate opinions.
“I think it would have been useful in terms of completeness but I don’t think it would have been helpful in having any likely impact on the ultimate opinions.
“I don’t think any of it (which) has (now) been shown would contradict that.”
Mr Blake has asked him about concerns raised in a letter sent by Sanjoy Kumar, Grace’s father, about Prof Blackwood’s findings.
He said: “When, in your view, is the ideal time to have that assessment (of Calocane)?”
The witness replied: “If it is an expert witness when the instructions are specifically about diminished responsibility or insanity or fitness to plead, then as soon as possible. “But once he was in police custody arrested on suspicion of these offences there weren’t going to be many chances taken in terms of risk.
“One of the things, I think, with risk in mental health care is there are different levels of risk assessment. There is risk formulation and a risk formulation plan.”
Mr Blake has moved on to Dr Latham’s report.
The witness said: “In my opinion the conclusion of diminished responsibility was the correct one.”
Mr Maloney, on behalf of the bereaved families, also asked this witness questions.
He said: “Mr Blake read out a list of things you didn’t see (ahead of his assessment) and you said none of that would have affected your ultimate opinions. I’m not criticising but did you ask for them Dr Latham?”
He replied: “I assumed everything had already been asked for. There were some additional records, I asked for prison ones and the Ashworth hospital ones but I didn’t ask for GP records.”
Mr Maloney said: “You gave an opinion on VC’s credibility.
Dr Latham replied: “I don’t think I did directly.”
Counsel asked: “You said it was unlikely that he fabricated symptoms, but you didn’t see him.”
He replied: “No I didn’t.”
He was asked: “Would you have liked to have interviewed VC before producing your report?”
Dr Latham said: “I was prepared to do the report I did but if I did another type of report I would have needed longer and time to go and see him.”
Jacqueline Carey KC, who represents the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) at the inquiry, also asked the witness questions.
She told the inquiry he was instructed by the CPS to assess Calocane by prosecutor Alan Murphy following the killings.
She said: “From your perspective was there any evidence that was missing from the evidence you were sent (by Mr Murphy)?”
He replied: “No (and) additional information supports my conclusions.
“I bear in mind the family’s difficulties perhaps in that they don’t simply sit down with my report and go through it and evidence is being presented to them potentially piecemeal and he’s focussing far too much on what he’s being told in Ashworth (hospital).”
Ms Carey asked: “Do all psychotic people behave in the same way?”
He said: “No there isn’t, there are different clusters of symptoms within schizophrenia.”
Ms Carey said: “The suggestion may be being made that he was not so unwell, not so psychotic that the partial defence of diminished responsibility was not available to him. Do you concede that is realistic?”
He replied: “No I do not. He always had that partial defence available to him but that does not mean I pre-judge. I go in and carefully spend time with him, think about it with him, think about it with his treating clinicians, review all the material before coming to my final conclusion.”
Adam Straw, who represents Calocane’s mother and brother, questioned Prof Blackwood.
The witness said: “There is never any doubt about the underlying diagnosis.
“This was always treated as a psychiatric illness and I think the term ‘schizophrenia’ should have been used earlier than it was.”
Mr Straw asked: “The symptoms that were described by the psychiatrists, did they include classic symptoms of schizophrenia?”
He replied: “Yes they did. So classic hallucinations, insertions of thought. He finds support for his beliefs from the internet in terms of mind control and gang stalking.
“His presentation is driven by his experiences of reality distortion. His psychosis comes from those symptoms of reality distortion which he hides from others and has done for years.”
Mr Straw asked: “In summary, is it fair to say in addition to what VC told you there was a large number of other sources that was consistent with the account he gave you which supported your conclusion that his offending was entirely attributable to his illness?”
He replied: “Yes, there were. He is driven by his psychosis to act in the way he does.”
Mr Straw asked: “Is it right he believed his hallucinations he was suffering were real?”
The professor said: “Yes.”
Mr Straw asked: “Is it right that the voices told him to stop taking medication?”
He replied: “That is his account, yes.”
Counsel asked: “What led him to be guarded and conceal his symptoms?” Was it the voices at times?”
He replied: “Yes, that’s one possible explanation.”
Mr Maloney said: “Can I ask you about cannabis just very briefly? This is what he said to you about cannabis.
“That he only had it once at university and did not like it.
“On one view and I appreciate there could be others he has lied to you understanding the implications in the development of psychosis.
He replied: “Yes, that’s what we have to bear in mind. I am used to people not telling me the truth and I have to use other information to weigh up what they tell me.”
Asked about the terrorism and mass killing videos Calconace admitted to watching ahead of the killings, the witness said: “He is beginning to entertain murderous intentions and that is consistent with some of the things he has been looking at.”
Mr Maloney said: “Can I ask you about his appreciation of right and wrong?
“He tells you he felt like an automaton on his return to Nottingham being carried by a stream or under a current and that he was in the control of an outside force,
“He tried to resist the force’s control in his mind but ultimately yielded to their demands.
“He resisted until he got to Ilkeston Road but then the students came along and he could resist no more.
“Did that come from him blocking right from wrong or did you ask him about that?”
The professor replied: “No, I think that was spontaneously said to me.
“I think he understood exactly what he had done and that he had killed these individuals..”
Mr Maloney said: “Isn’t his appreciation of whether or not he was doing something right or wrong fundamental to this case?
“On one view he was setting up for himself a defence of insanity.”
He replied: “I think he’s recounting in a fairly long stream the impact of the psychotic experiences on him.”
Ms Langdale asked the professor about a letter Sanjoy Kumar, Grace’s father, wrote to the CPS expressing concerns about the charges.
He replied: “I was aware of some of the family’s concerns, all three families of the deceased, about VC’s various behaviours and the lack of toxicology (which was not taken following his arrest).”
Ms Langdale asked: “Would it have been helpful for you to have seen them?”
He replied: “I don’t think there is anything here that was not put to me and I did not consider.”
She asked: “Did you have a view quite early on in the case this was going to be a case of diminished responsibility?”
He said: “I think when I looked at the materials before I had seen him it was clear he had a major mental illness – schizophrenia which was untreated at the time of these events and which reemerged in prison.
“So my preliminary thought was that this was likely to be a case of diminished responsibility.”
Counsel Tim Maloney, for the families, asked Professor Blackwood about his interview with Calocane which took place at Ashworth Hospital, in Merseyside, which took place over five hours in November, 2023 and the reports he filed following it.
He said: “You have accepted today that some people who are suffering from a psychotic disorder are capable of not telling the truth in pursuit of what they believe to be their own interest?”
The witness replied: “Absolutely, yes.”
Mr Maloney asked: “It is important to have as much material as possible provided to you by the police in order to ensure that your assessment is as informed and rigorous as possible?”
He replied: “Yes.”
Counsel asked: “Did you feel there was any gap in your knowledge as to VC’s developmental history?”
The professor said: “I think we had a very full dataset. What we don’t have is his school records partly because he was in Madeira, then Portugal and didn’t come to a British school until later on.”
Mr Maloney said: “We have heard he didn’t have friends, he was a loner, he was moving from one part of the country to another, there are a few things emerging that you didn’t really know about at the time aren’t there?”
He replied: “That is absolutely correct, yes.”
Ms Langdale continued to talk through Prof Blackwood’s report on Calocane with him.
She asked about Calocane wearing all black on the morning of the attacks and how other people walked past him as he lurked in the shadows off Ilkeston Road before claiming his first two victims.
The witness said “I think he’s in the grip of strong psychosis at this moment and the fact that other people passed before he decided who to assault before coming out to assault others is informed potentially by that – there is an internal struggle with command, hallucinations, for example.
“Quite why he decided to come out of the shadows and attack two students at this point I don’t know.
“We simply don’t know why these two students (Barney and Grace) were the people he assaulted.”
“The emotional impact of his symptoms, the emotional impact of those symptoms, his anger, his fear were such that I argued his responsibilities for these events was diminished.
“That there were substantial impairments to his actions to form a rational judgement and to exercise self-control.
“The acts would not have occurred but for his psychosis.
“The facts that he lacks insight into his illness then him not taking his medication should not be viewed as a culpable omission.”
Ms Langdale said: “That is one view isn’t it? Another is that he personally resisted taking his medication.”
Prof Blackwood replied: “Yes, he lacked insight into having this illness.”
Counsel asked: “When you described the complete lack of empathy, care, that’s his personality as a consequence of the psychosis?”
He said: “Yes, you can view that lack of remorse, lack of reaction to what he has done, as a result of the disorder.
“What is clear is that his violence emerges in the context of his psychosis.”
Ms Langdale told the inquiry that Calocane had been looking at real-life “terrorism and shootings” on his phone.
She asked the professor: “He’s a dangerous man isn’t he?
He replied: “I think his risk to others has increased as a result of his psychotic illness,
“This may be reflective of the fact that he’s beginning to have murderous intentions.
“We know he buys a knife in 2022, he buys knife-sharpening equipment, so there is a new interest in weaponry at this point. He is concerned that the powers that be are interfering with his mind.”
Ms Langdale asked: “Is there anything in his behaviour that you view as manipulation?
Prof Blackwood replied: “Well being manipulative is being aware of what an individual is seeking and while being aware of that, going out of your way to frustrate that aim.
“So there is nothing in his police interviews I would ascribe to manipulation.
“Were you aware how many weapons he had in his rucksack that night (of the killings in Nottingham)?”
He replied: “Yes, I think there were four in the rucksack and there was a piece of piping.
She asked: “Calculated to cause harm?”
He said: “Absolutely, they speak to his murderous intentions.”“
Ms Langdale took the professor through his first report in which he began by exploring Calocane’s adolescence and early adulthood.
She said: “We’ve had no evidence that he had friends at university and was somewhat a loner.”
He replied: “It’s not particularly unusual for individuals with psychosis to think they’ve developed a greater degree of friendship than they actually have.”
Counsel said: “In your report you note how in telephone contact with his family members he appeared agitated and tearful, saying he was hearing voices. He was experiencing dark thoughts that he wanted to hurt permanently. So he’s talking about harming people.”
He replied: “Potentially, yes, I think these messages are particularly to his brother where he’s worried about going insane.”
Ms Langdale said: “He started developing delusions that the thoughts in his head were from an external source which he believed was MI5 and other services in Nottingham and which were behind this and covering it up. That was his concern, yes?”
The expert replied: “Yes.”
Ms Langdale said: “What emerges post arrest and in prison was more about his family being in physical danger.
Prof Blackwood replied: “Yes he’s fearful for their safety and that they will be subject to the same experiences that he is experiencing.”
Ms Langdale asked Prof Blackwood: “You were told by him he had stopped taking his medication in October 2020. Did you challenge him on that?”
He replied: “Yes, that’s what he told me but that is not what he was telling his clinicians at the time.”
Counsel asked: “When you realised that duplicity, did you say ‘why did you not tell the clinicians that?”
He said: “No, I think that emerges from understanding his illness. He was a complex man to assess.”
She said: “We are dealing with somebody not taking their medication and managed to complete a degree?”
The witness replied: “That’s correct.”
Prof Blackwood told the inquiry he was not sent footage of a previous assault on a police officer.
Ms Langdale said: “Did you have video footage of (a previous) assault on Christopher, one of his flatmates?”
He replied: “No.”
She asked: “Have you seen it since?
He said: “Yes.”
Counsel said: “VC is using his body to keep him in a headlock and permitting one of the flatmates to leave but not two others. Would you agree that behaviour was bullying and intimidating?”
Prof Blackwood replied: “Well he’s psychotic at that point, he’s hearing screaming elsewhere in the flat, he’s had a conflict with that flatmate about his hygiene as I understand it. But yes, he is clearly asserting this physical dominance over that flatmate.”
Rachel Langdale KC, counsel for the inquiry, questioned Dr Nigel Blackwood, professor of forensic psychiatry at Kings College London.
He was instructed by the prosecution to assess Calocane’s mental state.
He confirmed he prepared two reports for the criminal proceeding in respect of the killer.
Ms Langdale said: “What is the difference when you are instructed by the prosecution or defence”
He replied: “Your overarching principle is your duty to the court and your duty is to aid the court.”
She asked: “Are you taking different factors into account or not?”
The expert replied: “No.”
Ms Langdale asked the witness about his observations as to how the killer behaved in police interviews.
She said: “Did you observe anything in particular about the questions he chose to answer?
“Yes he largely gave ‘no comment’ interviews throughout. He engaged appropriately with the interviews. There was no emotional reaction despite the highly arousing material he has to view.”
She said: “He is very calculated in a number of ways? Calculated in his actions and thoughts?
He replied: “Yes, he’s an intelligent man. Lanter, with a lack of insight, he does become entirely convinced of his own view which is happening.
Monday’s hearing saw see Prof Blackwood give evidence along with Dr Richard Latham, who was also instructed to assess the killer on behalf of the CPS.
The day concluded with Dr Ross Mirvis, of Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust.
He gave evidence at the sentencing hearing at Nottingham Crown Court in January, 2024 as the responsible clinician at Ashworth Hospital where Calocane has been since being handed a hospital order by Mr Justice Turner.
In it he said: “In my opinion Mr Calocane’s offences appear to be highly attributable to his illness. There is no evidence of antisocial behaviour or significant substance misuse in his background.
“All episodes of previous aggression and violence appear to be closely linked to psychotic symptoms at the time.
“Similarly he reports that the purchase of a knife was in response to hearing voices.”
Mr Murphy retained the services of Dr Nigel Blackwood, a professor of forensic psychiatry at Kings College London, who later assessed Calocane.
Ahead of it he has been given a prior assessment from a Dr Leo Sweeney, a separate psychiatrist instructed by Calaocane’s defence team, who concluded the partial defence of diminished responsibility was available to the killer.
Prof Blackwood then interviewed Calocane at Ashworth Hospital where he was being detained and following five hours of assessment reached the same conclusion.
The inquiry says: “At that point, the prosecution’s view was that those two reports provided evidence to support the partial defence of diminished responsibility and that, subject to anything contrary in a third report, if pleas were offered (to manslaughter) on that basis they would be accepted.”
The day after the attack, on June 14, 2023, CPS prosecutors Alan Murphy and Samantha Shallow attended a briefing with police at Radford Road Police Station at which the available evidence was presented and discussed, according to opening statements heard at the Inquiry.
According to Mr Murphy, it was clear from the morning briefing that “mental health was undoubtedly going to be a feature of this case” and there was reference to VC having been detained under the Mental Health Act, among other things.
As a result, he made the decision to retain the services of Dr Nigel Blackwood, a professor of forensic psychiatry at Kings College London, that same afternoon.
On the afternoon of June 16, 2023, Mr Murphy authorised that VC be charged with three offences of murder and three offences of attempted murder.
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