Nottingham attacks 'one of the most serious' ex officer was ever involved in
The inquiry continues
The former chief constable of Nottinghamshire Police has told an inquiry that Valdo Calocane’s violent rampage was one of the most serious incidents she has ever been involved in over her 33-year policing career.
The killer fatally stabbed University of Nottingham undergraduates Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both 19, and grandfather Ian Coates, 65, and attempted to kill three more people in the early hours of June 13 2023.
Giving evidence on Friday to the public inquiry into the attacks, the former head of Nottinghamshire Police said she was in Harrogate when she got the call from the acting chief constable telling her what had occurred.
Kate Meynell, who has retired after being diagnosed with cancer last year, said: “When he outlined to me what had happened, it was immediately apparent to me that it was an extremely serious incident, probably one of the most serious incidents I have ever been involved in.
“I’ve been a police officer for 33 years.
“I wanted to go back to force because I felt that was the best place for me to be.”
Ms Meynell said it was “clear” that it was a critical incident and that she logged details in an incident inquiry book.
Pages from the log were shown to the inquiry, detailing the former chief constable’s Teams call with the then-home secretary as well as entries about “media comms”.
Of the call with the home secretary, Ms Meynell had written: “Asked whether CT (counter terror) related stated I wasn’t able to say some history of MH (mental health) issues but the two aren’t mutually exclusive.”
Explaining her comments, she told the inquiry: “I was trying to say that if it is one, it doesn’t necessarily mean it is not the other.”
She added: “Because of the nature of the incident there was obviously concern about whether it was a terror incident. There was a lot of scrutiny around that.”
She was also asked about the time it took to alert the families of those who had been bereaved, saying: “It is my understanding from what I have read that we notified them as soon as we possibly could.”
Ms Meynell was questioned further on her communication with the families of the victims throughout the investigation.
She said she was not aware of their “strength of feeling” around concerns about police until she heard what they said on the steps outside court following Calocane’s sentencing hearing on January 25 2024, adding that she contacted them to “try and get a better understanding” and “to see what we could do to prevent such a horrendous crime happening again”.
Asked why the families were not told about misconduct proceedings against an officer who shared information about the attacks in a WhatsApp group, which included Ms Meynell’s son amongst its members, she said she was not directly involved and the officer in charge “just never found the right time”.
The former police chief added that the families “should have been informed” about all professional standards department issues.
She admitted she did not tell them about a “non-disclosure” briefing she held with the media, apologising for it and adding: “I now fully accept that it was not the right thing to do, I should have told the families and it achieved exactly the opposite of what I intended to and I understand why that was the case and I am really disappointed in myself that this happened.”
She said her intention in the meeting had been to be transparent, but conceded “it went terribly wrong”.
Calocane is detained indefinitely in a high-security hospital after prosecutors accepted his not guilty pleas to murder at his sentencing at Nottingham Crown Court in January 2024.
The inquiry continues.