Valdo Calocane not held under mental health laws after flatmate attack
The inquiry continues
Paranoid schizophrenic Valdo Calocane was not detained under mental health laws days after he put his flatmate in a headlock and held him hostage in their kitchen, an inquiry has heard.
Former mechanical engineering student Calocane had been under the care of Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust for two years and was sectioned four times before he killed three people.
Calocane stabbed to death students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both 19, in Ilkeston Road, Nottingham, and caretaker Ian Coates, 65, in the early hours of June 13 2023, before he tried to murder three more people with a stolen van in the city centre.
Dr Mike Skelton, a consultant psychiatrist at the trust, told the inquiry on Thursday that Calocane “wished to take control” during his Mental Health Act assessments and tried to “play” the doctor by lying to him.
The consultant decided not to detain Calocane on January 19 2022, four days after the assault on his flatmate, identified in the inquiry only as Christopher.
Dr Skelton told the central London inquiry, which is examining the events leading up to Calocane’s killings: “I went into that assessment expecting that I would be detaining that chap based on what we knew going into that assessment.
“The difficulty we had was that based on what we saw, he was not detainable under the Mental Health Act.”
Craig Carr, counsel to the inquiry, asked whether it is fair to say that Calocane was able to “dissuade” Dr Skelton against detaining him.
The consultant replied: “I’m not sure I would use the word dissuade. I had some background on him so I knew what the level of psychosis was like in the immediate aftermath of the assault on the policeman.”
The inquiry previously heard Calocane headbutted, punched and swung handcuffs at Nottinghamshire Police constable Barnaby Pritchard, who was helping doctors to section him in September 2021.
Dr Skelton continued: “When I saw him in seclusion he was nothing like that. His level of calmness, composure – he was not like that.
“I did my best to assess critically on that. He wasn’t, in my opinion, detainable.”
Dr Skelton later added: “We all agreed this chap would be better off in hospital but we did not have the legal powers at the time to enforce it based on what we saw.
“I can recall, because it stays with me, he was able – and it’s very unusual – to push back and I could tell he wished to take control. That’s very unusual and it did stay with me.”
Professionals monitored Calocane in the days after they decided not to detain him, before another Mental Health Act assessment took place and he was sectioned on January 28.
Dr Skelton said he was told Calocane had failed one of his modules at university and had been late for his exams.
He told the inquiry: “Essentially we are able to put this to him and it becomes very clear he’s been lying to us and we can’t trust him.”
Mr Carr put to Dr Skelton that he knew at the first assessment on January 19 that Calocane had not been taking his medication.
Dr Skelton said: “I was fully aware he was being nonconcordant. I knew he was trying to play me.
“The difference was that we didn’t have grounds at that point, genuine hard facts that we could use, that would have led to his detention.”
The inquiry continues.