Grace O’Malley-Kumar: Nottingham attacks victim a ‘hero’, say family – as killer’s manslaughter plea accepted
The family of a student stabbed to death in Nottingham say she was a “hero” who tried to save the life of her friend, who also died in the same attack.
Grace O’Malley-Kumar, 19, was killed in the knife attacks in June, alongside Barnaby Webber. They had been returning from a night out celebrating the end of their exams.
The killer, Valdo Calocane, also stabbed school caretaker Ian Coates to death as he made his way to work.
Valdo Calocane
Calocane admitted killing Grace, Barnaby and Ian on the basis of diminished responsibility, a plea which the Crown Prosecution Service has now accepted.
“Grace’s last moments were in pain and that’s something that really hurts me to think about and she was a hero, that was her character”, her brother, James, 17, told Sky News.
Grace O’Malley-Kumar, Barnaby Webber and Ian Coates
“She tried her best to save her friend. That was how Grace lost her life in the most vulnerable manner. She would never leave a friend, never, and that was very evident from her last moments. She passed fighting.”
Calocane, 32, also known as Adam Mendes, had a history of mental illness, and even tried to hand himself into the MI5 headquarters in London, believing the British security services were controlling him.
Grace’s family had hoped Calocane would face a murder trial.
“It’s very hard to accept for a father and I’m sure for a brother, but we have faith in the legal system,” Grace’s dad, Dr Sanjoy Kumar, said.
“We have faith in the judiciary and have faith in the court. And we hope that they do Grace justice.”
Grace O’Malley-Kumar’s father, Dr Sanjoy Kumar, and brother, James O’Malley-Kumar
Knife crime ‘epidemic’
He called for tougher government action on knife crime, which he described as an “epidemic”.
“It’s at epidemic proportions and yet lawmakers seem to be doing nothing about it,” Mr Kumar said.
“I think we really need to start looking at knife crime. Knives are not an offensive weapon, they are a lethal weapon and as such, I think laws need to be changed and ultimately there must be a deterrent.
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June 2023: ‘Nottingham students were incredible people’
“If there isn’t an appropriate deterrent for carrying knives then it’s just going to carry on, our lawmakers need to look at knife legislation as soon as possible.
“We cannot just have a slap on the wrist for the first time that you carry a knife and get caught with it.”
Grace’s brother said he could “never forgive” Calocane for killing her.
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June 2023: Families unite in grief at vigil
‘I really miss her‘
“She was just the best sister I could have asked for, she was always there for me as a shoulder to cry on and to quietly listen. She had my best interests at heart all the time,” he told Sky News.
“Her smile was so contagious, I really miss her. Knowing that I’ll never see that again it’s something that really hurts me, she was such a joyous person to be around.
“Her laughter, her excitement, she had such an unmatched zest for life. She was honestly so perfect.”
Grace had an ‘unmatched zest for life’, her brother James told Sky News
“I think the loss that we’ve suffered of losing Grace has been a loss to the country.
“She was someone who served the country in her life, playing [hockey] for England, played for England under 16s, under 18s for two years.
“She had ambitions of serving as a medic in the armed forces and again serving the country and she was a person who had a priority of contributing to the community during COVID.
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‘No one can begin to take our pain away’
“She was trained as a vaccinator and she rode on her Vespa to the vaccination clinic to vaccinate hundreds of people against COVID.
“She put herself at risk to benefit others and help the community get in a better position and to take that away from us it’s completely unfathomable.
“I will never forgive him. He’s taken away my older sister and one day when my parents are gone I’m now going to be left on my own. I won’t have my sister. My future children won’t have an aunt, they won’t have cousins.”
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June 2023: Fathers pay tribute to students
Remembering Grace
Dr Kumar said it has been “a brutal journey” since her death.
The family are setting up a foundation in her memory with the help of her childhood friend, Alex Simpson.
Mr Simpson said its aim was to “emulate the love and care that Grace gave to this world, ‘be more like Grace’ is our motto – our aim is make sure no one is left out and everyone is happy”.
Funds raised will go to furthering causes that Grace supported like sport and education and they also plan to lobby the government about knife crime.
Grace’s friend Alex Simpson is helping set up a foundation in her memory
“I find myself completely lost since the 13th [June],” James told Sky News.
“I haven’t had my best friend to go to. I haven’t had an older sister to call. She hasn’t been there to pick up the phone to me and all I can do now is take comfort in the slightest thing – I sleep with her university hockey top on my pillow and I wear her clothes.
“That’s how I try and connect with Grace, I have her earring in now which I always keep in. And again, it’s a part of her and that’s how I try and get as close as I can to her.”
UK
Home secretary admits illegal immigration numbers still ‘too high’ under Labour – but says Farage can ‘sod off’
The home secretary has admitted the UK’s illegal immigrant numbers are “too high” – but said Nigel Farage can “sod off” after he claimed she sounded like a Reform supporter.
Shabana Mahmood, speaking just after announcing a major policy change on migration, said she was “horrified” by the 27% increase of irregular arrivals in the year to June.
Politics latest: Labour MPs attack asylum plans
Speaking to Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby, the home secretary said: “I acknowledge the numbers are too high, and they’ve gone up, and I want to bring them down.
“I’m impatient to bring those numbers down.”
She refused to “set arbitrary numbers” on how much she wanted to bring illegal migration down to.
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Beth Rigby: The two big problems with Labour’s asylum plan
Earlier on Monday, Ms Mahmood announced a new direction in Labour’s plan to crack down on asylum seekers.
The “restoring order and control” plan includes:
• The removal of more families with children – either voluntarily through cash incentives up to £3,000, or by force;
• Quadrupling the time successful asylum seekers must wait to claim permanent residency in the UK, from five years to 20;
• Removing the legal obligation to provide financial support to asylum seekers, so those with the right to work but choose not to will receive no support;
• Setting up a new appeals body to significantly speed up the time it takes to decide whether to refuse an asylum application;
• Reforming how the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is interpreted in immigration cases;
• Banning visas for countries refusing to accept deportees;
• And the establishment of new safe and legal refugee routes.
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Home secretary announces details on asylum reform
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said the plan was much like something his party would put forward, and said Ms Mahmood sounded like a Reform supporter.
The home secretary responded with her usual frankness, telling Rigby: “Nigel Farage can sod off. I’m not interested in anything he’s got to say.
“He’s making mischief. So I’m not going to let him live forever in my head.”
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Nigel Farage said the home secretary was sounding like a Reform supporter
She earlier announced refugee status would be temporary, only lasting two and a half years before a review, and they would have to be in the UK for 20 years before getting permanent settled status, instead of the current five years.
Ms Mahmood said Reform wanted to “rip up” indefinite leave to remain altogether, which she called “immoral” and “deeply shameful”.
The home secretary, who is a practising Muslim, was born in Birmingham to her Pakistani parents.
Earlier, in the House of Commons, she said she sees the division that migration and the asylum system are creating across the country. She told MPs she regularly endures racial slurs.
BBC chair Samir Shah has said there is “no basis for a defamation case and we are determined to fight this” – after Donald Trump said he would sue the corporation for between $1bn and $5bn.
It comes after the US president confirmed on Saturday he would be taking legal action against the broadcaster over the editing of his speech on Panorama – despite an apology from the BBC.
Samir Shah said the BBC’s position ‘has not changed’. Pic: Reuters
In an email to staff, Mr Shah said: “There is a lot being written, said and speculated upon about the possibility of legal action, including potential costs or settlements.
“In all this we are, of course, acutely aware of the privilege of our funding and the need to protect our licence fee payers, the British public.
“I want to be very clear with you – our position has not changed. There is no basis for a defamation case and we are determined to fight this.”
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On Saturday, President Trump told reporters legal action would come in the following days.
“We’ll sue them. We’ll sue them for anywhere between a billion (£792m) and five billion dollars (£3.79bn), probably sometime next week,” he said.
“We have to do it, they’ve even admitted that they cheated. Not that they couldn’t have not done that. They cheated. They changed the words coming out of my mouth.”
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The BBC on Thursday said the edit of Mr Trump’s speech on 6 January 2021 had given the “mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action”.
The broadcaster apologised and said the splicing of the speech was an “error of judgment” but refused to pay financial compensation after the US leader’s lawyers threatened to sue for one billion dollars in damages unless a retraction and apology were published.
Deborah Turness. Pic: Reuters
Tim Davie. Pic: PA
The Panorama scandal prompted the resignations of two of the BBC’s most senior executives – director-general Tim Davie and news chief Deborah Turness.
The broadcaster has said it will not air the Panorama episode Trump: A Second Chance? again, and published a retraction on the show’s webpage on Thursday.
A British man who hacked the X accounts of celebrities in a bid to con people out of Bitcoin, has been ordered to repay £4.1m-worth of the cryptocurrency, prosecutors say.
Joseph James O’Connor, 26, was jailed in the United States for five years in 2023 after he pleaded guilty to charges including computer intrusion, wire fraud and extortion.
He was arrested in Spain in 2021 and extradited after the country’s high court ruled the US was best placed to prosecute because the evidence and victims were there.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said on Monday it had obtained a civil recovery order to seize 42 Bitcoin and other crypto assets linked to the scam, in which O’Connor used hijacked accounts to solicit digital currency and threaten celebrities.
The July 2020 hack compromised accounts of high-profile figures including former US presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
O’Connor and his co-conspirators stole more than $794,000 (£629,000) of cryptocurrency after using the hacked accounts to ask people to send $1,000 in Bitcoin to receive double back.
Prosecutor Adrian Foster said the civil recovery order showed that “even when someone is not convicted in the UK, we are still able to ensure they do not benefit from their criminality”.
The order, which valued O’Connor’s assets at around £4.1m, was made last week, following a freeze placed on the hacker’s property, which prosecutors secured during extradition proceedings.
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A court-appointed trustee will liquidate his assets, the CPS said.
The attack also compromised the X (then Twitter) accounts of other high-profile figures including Tesla chief executive Elon Musk, investor Warren Buffett, and media personality and businesswoman Kim Kardashian.
The hack prompted the social media platform to temporarily freeze some accounts.
X said 130 accounts were targeted, with 45 used to send tweets.
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