Doctor told Valdo Calocane he could kill someone years before fatal Nottingham attacks
An inquiry into the Nottingham attacks is continuing
A doctor told paranoid schizophrenic Valdo Calocane he could kill someone years before he fatally stabbed three people in Nottingham to “shock” him, an inquiry has heard.
Calocane, who thought people were trying to “invade” his mind, watched videos about capital punishment and mass shootings and sent text messages about hurting people “permanently” before he went on a violent rampage.
The central London inquiry, which is looking into the events leading up to Calocane’s killings, heard from consultant psychiatrist Dr Faizal Seedat who treated the killer at Highbury Hospital in Nottinghamshire where he was detained under mental health laws on four occasions between 2020 and 2022.
Counsel to the Inquiry Rachel Langdale KC asked Dr Seedat on Thursday about a note which said Calocane had “no insight or remorse” about violent incidents involving his neighbours, including one where a woman was severely injured, and “perhaps VC (Valdo Calocane) will end up killing someone”.
The inquiry previously heard that in May 2020, the former mechanical engineering student kicked repeatedly at a woman’s door while experiencing psychosis, causing her to jump from the first floor window and break her spine.
Dr Seedat told the inquiry: “I painted the worst case scenario in terms of what could happen if he continued with his behaviour.
“I reminded him that… next time, if you continue this, that you would end up killing someone.
“So it was in that context to try and shock or highlight the importance of the implications of his behaviours in order to try and help him start to develop some sort of understanding of the gravity of the situation.”
Ms Langdale asked: “Did you think he could end up killing someone?”, to which Dr Seedat replied: “No, I didn’t.”
He told the inquiry: “When I said he would kill someone, this would be unintendedly.
“If he went and did the same thing again and somebody jumped out of the window and maybe they were on a higher floor, the consequences could be very different.
“And it was with that I meant that comment – not that he would kill someone physically by his hand.”
Three years later, Calocane fatally stabbed undergraduates Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both 19, on Ilkeston Road, Nottingham, in the early hours of June 13 2023.
He went on to kill grandfather Ian Coates, 65, in the Mapperley Park area around an hour later, stealing his van and using it to run over pedestrians at two locations in Nottingham city centre.
Reacting to Thursday’s evidence, Mr Webber’s mother Emma Webber said: “We are hearing that the risk was seen. The language was there. The warning signs were there. Words like ‘no insight’, ‘violent incidents’, even the suggestion he could end up killing someone.
“And yet, somehow, the system still allowed this to happen.
“We are told this was said to ‘shock’ him, not because it was believed. But for families like ours, that distinction is almost impossible to accept.”
Ms Langdale put to Dr Seedat that an email he sent to a police officer about Calocane’s state of mind when he caused the woman’s injury in May 2020 was a “get out of jail free card”.
The inquiry previously heard that Calocane was not prosecuted over this incident because Dr Seedat told the officer he was “not in touch with reality”.
Dr Seedat told the inquiry: “On this occasion, I read the email as Pc (Richard) Marsden asking whether I concurred with the opinion that Valdo lacked capacity at the time of committing the crime.
“I was never under the impression that it could be used to decide whether VC was going to be charged or not charged, and that was not my intention of sending that email.”
Dr Seedat wrote in the email that Calocane had no recollection of the incident, but the doctor told the inquiry that “at times he would say he didn’t remember the incidents and other times he said that he did”.
Chairwoman Deborah Taylor heard that Calocane sent a series of text messages in 2020 in which he talked about “red rum”, which is murder backwards, and about wanting to hurt “permanently”.
Dr Seedat said he did not understand what “red rum” meant at the time he saw Calocane’s messages, and thought it was a religious reference because of the context of the text conversation.
The doctor agreed his misunderstanding is something he needs to “reflect on”.
Calocane also watched videos of mass shootings, including one of an attack in Buffalo, New York, and viewed documents related to police powers years before he carried out the attacks in Nottingham.
Just weeks after being discharged for the first time on June 17 2020, Calocane stopped taking his anti-psychotic medication.
His mother, Celeste Calocane, had concerns that he was released from hospital too early, the inquiry heard.
He was detained under mental health laws three more times before he carried out the fatal attacks in 2023.
Calocane, who admitted manslaughter and three counts of attempted murder, is detained indefinitely in a high-security hospital after prosecutors accepted his not guilty pleas to murder.
The inquiry continues.