Families of Nottingham attack victims criticise alleged cover-up of document
Calocane was sentenced for manslaughter and attempted murder in January 2024, after the Crown Prosecution Service accepted his not guilty pleas to murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
Families of two students who were stabbed to death by paranoid schizophrenic Valdo Calocane have criticised an alleged cover-up of a document about the triple killer’s mental state.
Calocane was sentenced for manslaughter and attempted murder in January 2024, after the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) accepted his not guilty pleas to murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
He had been sectioned four times before he stabbed to death undergraduates Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both 19, and caretaker Ian Coates, 65, and tried to murder three pedestrians with a van in Nottingham in the early hours of June 13 2023.
A report by Nottinghamshire Police Detective Constable Neil Beddoe in December 2023, which argued that Calocane had shown “rationality and understanding of consequences”, was put into the MG6D folder, which is usually used for the most serious and sensitive material in criminal prosecutions, The Times newspaper reported.
The families of Calocane’s victims have suggested that the document was “buried” or “covered up” so it would not undermine the CPS’s decision to accept not guilty pleas to murder.
It is understood the CPS rejects any suggestion of wrongdoing.
The mother of Mr Webber, Emma Webber, said in a statement that had she and her legal team known about the document, they would have been able to ask “more detailed and informed questions” about the decision to accept diminished responsibility.
She said: “This wasn’t some irrelevant document. It was a police assessment that directly addressed one of the central issues in this case – whether Valdo Calocane’s actions demonstrated rational judgement and self-control.
“The comments and observations raised by Neil Beddoe mirrored the very concerns we were directly asking the CPS to address at that moment in time.
“At a time when we were desperately seeking answers, this report was hidden from us. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that it was buried because it risked undermining the CPS’s position.
“It is certainly not too much of a stretch to question why Mr (Alan) Murphy (CPS specialist prosecutor) took the decision to place it beyond the reach of the families when it went to the heart of the issues we were challenging.
“Families who have lost loved ones deserve transparency, not secrecy. We have spent almost three years fighting for the truth and it should not have taken a statutory public inquiry for this document to come to light.”
In a post on social media, Ms O’Malley-Kumar’s father, Dr Sanjoy Kumar, said: “Dc Beddoe you did your job. I commend you.
“Others… resign, you covered up vital information.”
A CPS spokesperson said: “Our thoughts and deepest sympathies remain with the victims and their families.
“We are fully engaging with the public inquiry into the Nottingham attacks, including our witnesses clearly explaining why this report appeared on the sensitive schedule known as an MG6D.”