12/10/2026
A police investigation is examining whether serious organisational failures by an NHS mental health trust played a role in the circumstances leading to the Nottingham killings.
Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust provided care to Valdo Calocane before discharging him in September 2022.
Nine months later, Calocane killed university students Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Barnaby Webber, both 19, and school caretaker Ian Coates, 65. He also seriously injured three other people after driving a van into pedestrians.
Before the attacks, Calocane had been detained under the Mental Health Act four times. Reports have documented repeated difficulties surrounding his treatment, including his refusal to take medication and incidents of violence.
Northumbria Police is conducting the investigation because Nottinghamshire Police has itself faced scrutiny over its handling of Calocane before the killings.
Barnaby’s mother, Emma Webber, said the investigation should mark a point at which public bodies are required to confront serious failures and called for full transparency from everyone involved.
The trust said it will cooperate fully with investigators as well as the separate statutory inquiry examining the case.
No corporate manslaughter charge has been brought at this stage.
Calocane remains subject to an indefinite hospital order after admitting manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
