Valdo Calocane’s mother warned he posed risk to others years before attacks, inquiry hears
The mother of Valdo Calocane has told an inquiry she thought he was a risk to others because of his mental health years before he stabbed three people to death
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The mother of triple killer Valdo Calocane has told an inquiry she thought he was a risk to others because of his mental health years before he stabbed three people to death.
Celeste Calocane wanted her son, who was later diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, to be treated in hospital for his psychosis as early as May 2020.
Three years later, Calocane stabbed to death students Barnaby Webber and Grace O-Malley-Kumar, both 19, and caretaker Ian Coates, 65, before trying to murder three pedestrians with a van in Nottingham.
Mrs Calocane, who gave birth to her eldest son Valdo at the age of 16, gave evidence to the inquiry examining events leading up to the killings on Thursday.
Calocane was first arrested in May 2020 when he caused damage to a neighbour’s door.
Speaking about when she learned of his arrest, Mrs Calocane said: “When they called to say ‘your son’s been arrested for burglary’… I said ‘he’s 28 years old, how can he be arrested for burglary? He’s never done anything like that. That’s out of character. I can’t accept that.’
“I said, ‘You’re telling me he’s becoming a delinquent. That’s not my son.’”
Around this time, the inquiry heard, Calocane had called his relatives “sounding agitated and crying”.
The inquiry heard notes from the time show Mrs Calocane wanted her son to be taken to hospital after his arrest in May 2020 and that he was a “risk to others”.
Counsel to the inquiry Rachel Langdale KC asked: “You were satisfied you did say that? ‘His current mental state is a risk to others’.
“You recognised that and wanted him to go to hospital for treatment?”
Mrs Calocane replied: “Yes definitely, I wanted him to go to hospital. I did not understand the extent of the risk, but I wanted it.”
The inquiry has heard Calocane was released from custody after his first arrest on May 24 2020, before causing a woman to jump out of a window in fear when he kicked at her door later that same day, causing serious injuries to her spine.
He was admitted to Highbury Hospital in Nottinghamshire the following day.
His mother described how she worked in intensive care during the Covid-19 pandemic and became tearful while saying she had to put on a “brave face”.
Mrs Calocane told the inquiry: “It was just like beyond anything you could imagine.”
During that time, Calocane would call her wanting to hear his relatives’ voices.
His mother wrote in a statement: “If we stopped talking, he’d ask us to keep talking.
“I just thought at that time, with everything that was going on around the world, and then he was far away… he was feeling lonely, being away from the family and then can’t see us.
“In hindsight, I think it was an attempt by him to hear something other than the voices in his head.”
The inquiry heard Elias Calocane, Calocane’s younger brother, created a “journal” of messages between him and the killer to give to his in-patient doctors.
Mrs Calocane told the inquiry she did not see the messages, which included his thoughts of “red rum”, which is murder spelt backwards, and wanting to “hurt permanently”.
She told the inquiry: “I was going through like a really hard time myself, and Valdo being unwell.
“I think probably that’s the reason, just for protecting me, that he (Elias) didn’t mention that.”
The inquiry heard on Wednesday that Elias Calocane thought his brother’s violent text messages were related to his suicidal thoughts, not harming other people.
Mrs Calocane told the inquiry her son’s “I love you” messages to all his family members was “out of character”.
Calocane was detained in hospital for a second time in July 2020, but his mother said she thought he was discharged “too early”.
She told the inquiry: “I was never happy with the discharge plan from the first and second admission, because I know my son better than any other psychiatrist.
“I don’t know what’s going on with him and his head and everything, but I see he was an empty shell when I look at him. He wasn’t there.”
She added that he “wasn’t ready for discharge”.
Mrs Calocane told the inquiry she had not been told a doctor warned her son he “could end up killing someone” during his second hospital admission.
Calocane’s grandfather on his father’s side had “problems in the head” and did not recognise his own son when he came home from school one day, the inquiry heard.
Calocane’s father told doctors he was not aware his own father had received any diagnosis.
Mrs Calocane agreed she and her husband were “thinking hard as a family” about what could be relevant to their son’s psychosis.
Calocane was detained in hospital because of his mental health four times before the fatal attacks in June 2023.
The inquiry continues.