Nottingham triple killer assaulted husband and wife weeks before attacks, inquiry told

A triple killer had violently assaulted two of his colleagues weeks before he killed three people in spate of attacks in Nottingham, a public inquiry has heard.

Valdo Calocane stabbed to death Barnaby Webber, Grace O'Malley-Kumar, both 19, and 65-year-old Ian Coates and tried to kill three others on 13 June 2023.

On Tuesday, the Nottingham Inquiry heard that on 5 May 2023, police were called to the warehouse in Kegworth, Leicestershire, where Calocane had punched a man and assaulted his wife.

Police had not visited the victims or witnesses to get statements, and sent them a follow-up email for information three days before Calocane carried out the deadly attacks, the inquiry heard.

The inquiry is examining the events that led up to the attacks and the actions or decisions made by agencies which had dealings with Calocane.

So far, witnesses from Nottinghamshire Police, the University of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust have given evidence, as well as former neighbours of Calocane and flatmates he lived with as a student.

The hearings are being held at Mary Ward House in London and are expected to last a total of nine weeks.

Calocane - referred to as VC throughout the inquiry - had been employed on 1 May 2023 by an agency to work at the warehouse in Kegworth, run by Arvato, a supply chain and logistics firm.

On 5 May, he attacked two of his colleagues, a married couple.

In a statement following the assault, which was read to the inquiry, the husband said he was punched in the head twice after asking Calocane to wait for him to finish scanning something.

He said Calocane looked at him in a "strange manner", before approaching him an hour later and asking "why are you talking to me?".

The victim was punched behind the ear while he was facing away from Calocane, and as he tried to get away, Calocane punched him again and he fell to the ground.

"When I fell down, I was extremely dizzy, the room was spinning with me, I couldn't see well," he said.

While he was on the ground, the victim said he saw his wife stand in front of him as Calocane approached.

"Then [Calocane] got very angry and he kicked my wife," he said.

"He kicked her in one of her knees and then he pushed my wife with both hands to her chest.

"I could see that he pushed her very hard. My wife then fell on top of me."

A woman known only as Louisa, who was a training coordinator at the warehouse at the time, and an operations manager - identified only as Matthew - told the inquiry they intervened after hearing screams in the warehouse.

Louisa said: "I stood myself in front of VC so my back would have been to the victims.

"VC just stood in front of me, there were no words coming out of his VC's mouth."

Matthew also stood between Calocane and the others, he said.

They both told the inquiry it felt as though Calocane was "looking through" them as he "paced back and forth" following the assault.

The inquiry heard Leicestershire Police was called and arrived about 20 minutes later. By then, Calocane had walked off the site.

Matthew said he told attending officers how he believed something was wrong with Calocane, who had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia before carrying out his killings.

"I felt like he had some kind of mental illness to be honest, or he was mentally unstable," he said.

He added he found the incident "very unusual".

Another warehouse worker, a security guard known only as Volodimir, also said he tried to stop Calocane and kicked a knife away from the scene, which he believed Calocane might use. The inquiry heard police were told about this.

Calocane had also been sectioned under the Mental Health Act on numerous occasions since 2020, and had been involved with a number of incidents - including assaulting former housemates, following a former flatmate home and breaking into neighbours' houses.

By 2 June 2023, nearly a month after the incident on 5 May, police had not visited Louisa or the victims, according to a police log.

On 10 June - three days before Calocane's killings - Louisa and one of the victims were sent an email from Leicestershire Police, saying officers had been trying to contact them and asked them to get back in touch as soon as possible.

The inquiry was also told of an email from 30 May, from a warehouse manager at Arvato to others in the business, saying she had given police a list of witnesses and asked to be the point of contact, but had not heard back from them.

Louisa said she had been told the business would be dealing with the incident.