The sons of the beloved Nottingham family man Ian Coates say they are now more sure than ever that their dad could still be alive if it were not for the failings of Nottinghamshire Police.

‘Confusion’ over using a police helicopter and ‘frustrating’ comments dismissing search efforts are among the new pieces of evidence relating to the missed opportunity to stop killer Valdo Calocane before he reached 65-year-old Mr Coates.

A statutory public inquiry, led by retired judge Deborah Taylor, is examining the events leading up to the paranoid schizophrenic’s killings in the early hours of June 13, 2023.

Evidence has already made clear that without failings by Nottinghamshire Police, Leicestershire Police and the Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust – the June 13 attacks may never have happened at all.

Yet further evidence in the inquiry’s fourth week highlighted how even after Valdo Calocane initially killed two 19-year-old University of Nottingham students, he could still have been stopped before getting to anyone else.

It was at around 4am when Calocane killed Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, yet the youngest son of Mr Coates says the killer was simply allowed to ‘walk free’ for over an hour before the stabbing of his father at around 5.15am.

“It’s sad, it’s frustrating,” Lee Coates told Nottinghamshire Live. “It’s all these little small things that seem really small at the time, but ultimately led up to VC being able to walk freely for all of that time.”

In terms of the search for Valdo Calocane, a key conversation took place at 4.30am between Inspector Peter Shaw and Chief Inspector David Mather – the latter of whom served as the force incident manager on that day.

Asked about whether any officers were looking for Calocane, Chief Inspector Mather told Inspector Shaw to concentrate on looking after Barnaby and Grace and said of Calocane: “He is going to be long gone now.”

James Coates and Lee Coates, sons of Ian Coates, pictured outside Mary Ward House in Tavistock Place, London, where the Nottingham Inquiry is taking place(Image: Joseph Raynor/ Reach PLC)

The killer then stabbed Mr Coates about 45 minutes later, before going on to try and murder three other people – all of whom were left with life-changing injuries.

In terms of searching for Calocane, PC Jonathan Speeden told the Nottingham Inquiry that the “biggest asset” for a police search would be the use of the National Police Air Service.

The counsel to the inquiry said there was ‘confusion’ about this matter, with PC Speeden claiming that the National Police Air Service would have been an option if Nottinghamshire Police agreed to pay for it.

Yet Temporary Deputy Chief Constable Rob Griffin claimed in his evidence that the National Police Air Service was not available on the morning of June 13 and that it was not an issue of payment.

Inspector Shaw was quizzed about whether, as one of the senior officers at the scene of Barnaby and Grace’s killings in Ilkeston Road, he should have chosen to spend his time more effectively by co-ordinating a search at Nottingham City Council’s CCTV centre.

Yet even if CCTV had been used more effectively, officers tried to suggest it may not have been effective in finding Calocane.

Superintendent Simon Allardice said in his evidence that the description officers were given of Calocane was one of the force’s “most common” descriptions for suspects – a claim that caused Mr Coates’ eldest son Darren to shake his head in disbelief at the inquiry.

Former Detective Superintendent Leigh Sanders was also shown one image of Calocane walking through the bright streets of Nottingham dressed all in black – and the retired officer said the CCTV still was “pretty nondescript”.

Firearms authority was also not given to officers after the initial Ilkeston Road incident, despite the fact that the designation would have also come with drone officers.

Finally, there was an issue in terms of how seriously Nottinghamshire Police took the incident after the brutal stabbings of Barnaby and Grace.

An initial threat risk assessment claimed the threat to the wider public and the police after the Ilkeston Road attacks was ‘low’, the inquiry was told.

Ian Coates, wearing the red and white hat that he ‘never took off’, holding his youngest son Lee (Image: The Coates Family)

Operation Plato, indicating the possibility of an ongoing marauding terrorist attack, was not declared until 5.30am and was only triggered by Calocane trying to run three people over with the van he took from Mr Coates.

It was not triggered by the earlier three killings and one officer claimed the footage he saw of Barnaby and Grace’s killing did not indicate a marauding attack.

After sitting through all of the evidence, the three sons of Mr Coates say they are much more sure than before that their father could still be here if police had made different decisions in the early hours of June 13, 2023.

Lee Coates said Calocane would have “stuck out like a sore thumb” on CCTV – rejecting the idea that better co-ordination would not have found the killer.

In terms of the actions of Chief Inspector Mather in particular, Lee said: “The way that he’s supposed to be co-ordinating that room, he’s supposed to be the one in charge, taking all the information.

“I get how that environment is high pressure there, but I just think he’s so lackadaisical with it.

“The search, the communications, the fact that getting a helicopter was not even an option.

“All these little possibilities that my dad could still be alive. I was like 50/50, I’m more sort of 85% sure now.”

James Coates, Mr Coates’ middle son, added: “There’s a lot of answers that we’re still looking for on what could have been done and what should have been done in that almost an hour between Ilkeston Road and Magdala Road and, hopefully as the weeks go on, we’ll get more answers into that.

“We’ve obviously seen from witnesses so far with police officers frustrated that they couldn’t move on to look for the culprit, being told ‘he’s probably long gone by now’ and with it being put as a low level threat.

“If they were different on the day, it could have been a whole different story and maybe my dad could still be around.”

The inquiry continues in London.