Nottingham Attacks survivor wants voice to be heard after NHS Trust criticised
Wayne Birkett was among three people who survived when Valdo Calocane - a paranoid schizophrenic - ploughed into them with a van in 2023
A survivor of the Nottingham attacks and his lawyer have called for the victims' voices to be heard after a report criticised the NHS mental health services responsible for the schizophrenic attacker's care.
Valdo Calocane, who had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, killed Barnaby Webber and Grace O'Malley-Kumar, both 19, and caretaker Ian Coates, 65, and attempted to kill three more people in Nottingham in June 2023.
A Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection of Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust found the trust's mental health services, which cared for Calocane between May 2020 and September 2022, "were not always humane, dignified or gave high quality care" when treating patients.
Between May 2024 and August 2025, the CQC carried out 39 inspections at the trust, before a trust-wide review of its leadership took place last September.
The report, which was published earlier in January, said the trust was found to have breached regulations about how it was managed and asked it to provide an action plan.
Seven of the trust's 18 services were rated as requires improvement, including five mental health services.
Survivor Wayne Birkett and his lawyer Greg Almond, who also represents attack survivor Sharon Miller, said the victims were not included in the CQC inspection process and found out about the report through the press a day before it was published.
Mr Birkett, who has been living in pain since the attacks, said: "I don't know why I wasn't involved or I wasn't warned about this before.
"That's all I've got to say about that, really, because we should have been told, we should have been warned."
He added it was "quite embarrassing" not knowing the inspection was taking place.
His lawyer Mr Almond said: "It's shocking that we didn't receive early notice of the report.
"Clearly this affected my clients very acutely, and they should have been made aware of it, they should have been notified that this was coming out.
"And we shouldn't have been advised about it from the press."
Mr Birkett was struck by a van which the attacker stole from caretaker Mr Coates, and has since been suffering from constant pain, headaches and tiredness which he described as "a nightmare".
The survivor and his lawyer, who will meet Health Secretary Wes Streeting on February 5 ahead of a public inquiry into the attacks, are calling for victims to be included and for their voices to be heard.
Speaking of the attacker, Mr Birkett said: "These people shouldn't be let on the streets and the NHS has got to improve.
"Hopefully the man (Wes Streeting) can help. Hopefully."
His lawyer Mr Almond said: "I expect him to listen to our concerns. I expect him to set out a plan as to what the government intends to do. It's clearly something that is a priority.
"We know that there are many things that he has to deal with, and he's obviously very, very busy, but this is crucial to his role and to what he's there for, which is to protect the public and to make sure that the NHS is safe as a priority, really.
"So that's what we want to set out to him. It's not as if this hasn't been notified before, this further report just further emphasises that.
"And we don't want to have another tragedy on the streets of Nottingham or anywhere else in the country."
The public inquiry into the attacks, chaired by senior retired judge Deborah Taylor, is expected to start on February 23 and aims to report back within two years.
Mr Almond said: "We've got a real hope that the inquiry will deliver the answers that we need.
"We've obviously got an experienced legal team, as have the families, and we, along with them, are going to leave no stone unturned to get to the bottom of these issues."
Reflecting on the CQC report's findings, Mr Almond said: "Our reaction was one of shock, but I probably wasn't surprised, really, in as much as the trust has been failing for many years, and this latest report just emphasised that."
He added: "I think a complete change is needed, structural change of leadership, and it needs to happen quickly.
"Now is the time for the government to step in and take some real action.
"And whether that's extra resources, whether it's a proper intervention by the government, it needs to happen.
"The people of Nottingham need to be clear that their NHS is safe and that they're safe to go about their daily business in Nottingham without fear of any sort of further occurrence of something like this happening again."
The Care Quality Commission's interim director of mental health, Jenny Wilkes, said: "We continue to extend our deepest sympathies to everyone affected by the devastating attack that took place in Nottingham in June 2023.
"The report published on January 14 is on our findings from a trust-wide well-led review in September 2025 to assess the leadership at Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust.
"This follows a programme of assessments recommended by our review of the trust published in 2024.
"Since publishing this report, we have made contact with lawyers for survivors of the attack and are arranging to meet with them."