A man who killed two Nottingham University students and a school caretaker in a knife and van rampage was told he “remains dangerous” as he was sentenced to be detained at a high-security hospital.
Valdo Calocane, 32, repeatedly stabbed 19-year-oldsBarnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumarwith a dagger as they walked home after a night out to celebrate the end of their exams.
He also knifed school caretaker Ian Coates, 65,to death as he made his way to work at Huntingdon Academy in the early hours of 13 June last year.
During sentencing, he was told he would be detained “very probably for the rest of your life”.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
2:08
‘Justice has not been served’
But speaking outside court, the victims’ families criticised the police, prosecutors and the NHS.
“This man made a mockery of the system and he has got away with murder,” said Mr Coates’ son James Coates.
Mr Webber’s mother Emma said “true justice has not been served today” and that her “devastated” family had been “let down”.
“We trusted in our system, foolishly as it turned out,” she said, telling the assistant chief constable of Nottinghamshire Police Rob Griffin: “You have blood on you hands.
“If you had just done your job properly, there’s a very good chance my beautiful boy would be alive today.”
Prosecutors accepted Calocane’s guilty pleas to their manslaughter, not murder, on the basis of diminished responsibility. He also admitted three counts of attempted murder after hitting three pedestrians in a van he stole from Mr Coates.
Nottingham Crown Court heard Calocane, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, had previously been detained in hospital four times under mental health laws and had a history of refusing to take his medication.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
2:08
Hospital detention for fatal attacker
On Thursday, Mr Justice Turner said the injuries inflicted on the students were “unsurvivable”, and referring to the attack on Mr Coates, he told Calocane: “You stabbed him to death with the same merciless ferocity.”
He said Calocane’s “sickening” crimes shocked the nation and “wrecked” the lives of his victims and their families.
The judge went on to individually list family members whose lives had been devastated by the attacks.
“I pay tribute to the extraordinary dignity and strength they have shown,” he said.
Addressing Calocane, Mr Justice Turner said there was “never any doubt” that it was him “who committed these appalling crimes”, and added: “None of the evidence relating to your mental state detracts from the horror of your actions.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
4:25
New footage shows Calocane’s arrest
However, he said one of the expert reports revealed Calocane, who was “clearly an intelligent man” having taken a degree in mechanical engineering at Nottingham University, had an established diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia and that he would never be cured.
He said another expert agreed that “the basis of his behaviour is very likely to have been a psychosis” and added: “You were and remain dangerous.”
Before the sentencing began, one of Mr’s Coates’s sons got up to speak to the families of Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Barnaby Webber.
Lee Coates said “our family are here for you always”, which was echoed with “yes” from the other families and followed by a round of applause.
“I am so sorry we have had to go through this and this is how we’ve met,” Mr Coates added.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
1:30
CCTV shows final moments of teens before stabbing
Image: School caretaker Ian Coates, and students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, were stabbed to death. Pic: Family handouts
Police: ‘We should have done more’
Calocane, who graduated from Nottingham University in June 2022 with a degree in mechanical engineering, was born in Guinea-Bissau in West Africa, and came to the UK aged 16 with his family.
Also known as Adam Mendes, he had a history of mental illness, and even once tried to hand himself into the MI5 headquarters in London, believing the British security services were controlling him.
Mr Griffin, said the force “engaged” with the attacker “mostly while supporting our colleagues in the NHS on a number of occasions between 2020 and 2022”.
He was arrested in September 2021 for assaulting a police officer and Mr Griffin said “we should have done more to arrest him” after he failed to attend court, but said it was highly unlikely he would have been jailed.
“Of course, an arrest might have triggered a route back into mental health services, but as we have seen from his previous encounters with those services, it seems unlikely that he would have engaged in this process,” he added.
Calocane was also involved in incidents of criminal damage and an alleged assault on two colleagues while working in a warehouse a month before the killings.
But Mr Griffin said he didn’t have any previous convictions, cautions or reprimands and said there wasn’t anything “obvious” to suggest he would launch the Nottingham attacks.
Prosecutor Karim Khalil KC said medical student Ms O’Malley-Kumar showed “incredible bravery” as she tried to protect Mr Webber, who was studying history, and her family hailed her as a “hero”.
“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.
“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.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
1:44
Killer ‘ruined my life’
Her father, Dr Sanjoy Kumar, a primary care physician who has worked in the NHS for 30 years, accused Calocane of deceiving psychiatrists and called for the “despicable” killer to be “removed from society altogether and forever”.
Her mother, consultant anaesthetist Sinead O’Malley, addressed the killer of her “darling girl” in court, telling him: “You understood right from wrong. You have violence in your soul.
“You are medically non-compliant and are never to be trusted. You remain a danger to society and the wider public.”
Image: Grace O’Malley- Kumar’s father, Dr Sanjoy Kumar, and brother, James O’Malley- Kumar
Mr Webber’s mother Emma called Calocane a “monstrous individual”, while his father David called him a “monster”.
His younger brother Charlie Webber said he was his “hero” and he was proud he “stood his ground” before his death.
Mr Coates’ son, James, said his father was just five months away from retirement before he was killed, adding: “He didn’t get the chance because a selfish monster decided to go on a spree killing.”
As a ban on the sale of disposable vapes comes into force on Sunday, a doctor who set up the first-ever clinic to help children stop vaping has said she has seen patients so addicted they couldn’t sleep through the night without them.
Professor Rachel Isba established the clinic at Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool in January and has now seen several patients as young as 11 years old who are nicotine dependent.
“Some of the young people vape before they get out of bed. They are sleeping with them under their pillow,” she told Sky News.
Image: Professor Rachel Isba set up the first-ever stop vaping clinic for children
“I’m hearing stories of some children waking up at three o’clock in the morning, thinking they can’t sleep, thinking the vape will help them get back to sleep. Whereas, actually, that’s the complete opposite of how nicotine works.”
Ms Isba said most of her patients use disposable vapes, and while some young people may use the chance to give up, others will simply move to refillable devices after the ban.
“To me, vaping feels quite a lot like the beginning of smoking. I’m not surprised, but disappointed on behalf of the children that history has repeated itself.”
A government ban on single-use vapes comes into effect from Sunday, prohibiting the sale of disposable vaping products across the UK, both online and in-store, whether or not they contain nicotine.
More on Children
Related Topics:
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said usage among young vapers remained too high, and the ban would “put an end to their alarming rise in school playgrounds and the avalanche of rubbish flooding the nation’s streets”.
Image: Pic: PA
Circular economy minister Mary Creagh said: “For too long, single-use vapes have blighted our streets as litter and hooked our children on nicotine. That ends today. The government calls time on these nasty devices.”
At nearby Shrewsbury House Youth Club in Everton, a group of 11 and 12-year-old girls said vape addiction is already rife among their friends.
Yasmin Dumbell said: “Every day we go out, and at least someone has a vape. I know people who started in year five. It’s constantly in their hand.”
Image: Yasmin Dumbell says she knows students who started vaping in year five
Her friend Una Quayle said metal detectors were installed at her school to try to stop pupils bringing in vapes, and they are having special assemblies about the dangers of the devices.
But, she said, students “find ways to get around the scanners though – they hide them in their shorts and go to the bathroom and do it”.
Image: Una Quayle says metal detectors installed at her school won’t stop students using vapes
The girls said the ban on disposables is unlikely to make a difference for their friends who are already addicted.
According to Una, they’ll “find a way to get nicotine into their system”.
As well as trying to address the rise in young people vaping, the government hopes banning single-use vapes will reduce some of the environmental impact the devices have.
Although all vapes can be recycled, only a tiny proportion are – with around eight million a week ending up in the bin or on the floor.
Pulled apart by hand
Even those that are recycled have to be pulled apart by hand, as there is currently no way to automate the process.
Scott Butler, executive director of Material Focus, a recycling non-profit group, said vapes were “some of the most environmentally wasteful, damaging, dangerous consumer products ever sold”.
His organisation worries that with new, legal models being designed to almost exactly mimic disposables in look and feel – and being sold for a similar price – people will just keep throwing them away.
He said the behaviour “is too ingrained. The general public have been told ‘vapes are disposable’. They’ve even been marketed this way. But they never were disposable”.
A ban on disposable vapes comes into force on Sunday, with a warning issued about the “life-threatening dangers” of stockpiling.
From Sunday it will be illegal for any business to sell or supply, or have in their possession for sale, all single-use or disposable vapes.
Online nicotine retailer Haypp said 82% of the 369 customers they surveyed plan to bulk purchase the vapes before they are no longer available.
But the vapes contain lithium batteries and could catch fire if not stored correctly.
Image: A sign for customers at a Tesco store in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire. Pic: PA
While more than a third (34%) of people surveyed by Haypp said they would consider buying an illegal vape after the ban, the overall number of people using disposable products has fallen from 30% to to 24% of vapers, according to Action on Smoking and Health.
Shops selling vapes are required to offer a “take back” service, where they accept vapes and vape parts that customers return for recycling – including single use products.
The Local Government Association (LGA) led the call for a ban two years ago, due to environmental and wellbeing concerns, and is warning people not to stockpile.
Cllr David Fothergill, chairman of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Board, said: “Failing to store disposable vapes correctly could cost lives, given the significant fire risk they pose.”
How disposable vapes catch fire – or even explode
Figures obtained by the Electric Tobacconist, via Freedom of Information requests, found an increase in vape related fires – from 89 in 2020 to 399 in 2024.
Many disposable vapes use cheap, or even unregulated lithium-ion batteries, to keep the costs down. These batteries often lack proper safety features, like thermal cut offs, making them more prone to overheating and catching fire.
If the battery is damaged, or overheats in any way it can cause thermal runaway – a chain reaction where the battery’s temperature rapidly increases, causing it to overheat uncontrollably.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
0:49
2019: Vape product starts fire on US passenger plane
Then, once these fires start start, they are very hard to stop. Water alone can make things worse if the battery is still generating heat, so they require specialised fire suppressants to put them out.
Batteries can then re-ignite hours, or even days later, making them a persistent hazard.
Disposable vapes are a hazard for waste and litter collection and cause fires in bin lorries, even though customers have been warned not to throw them away in household waste. They are almost impossible to recycle because they are designed as one unit so the batteries cannot be separated from plastic.
X
This content is provided by X, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable X cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options.
Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to X cookies.
To view this content you can use the button below to allow X cookies for this session only.
Some 8.2 million units were thrown away, or recycled incorrectly, every week prior to the ban.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said usage among young vapers remained too high, and the ban would “put an end to their alarming rise in school playgrounds and the avalanche of rubbish flooding the nation’s streets”.
Circular economy minister Mary Creagh said: “For too long, single-use vapes have blighted our streets as litter and hooked our children on nicotine. That ends today.
“The government calls time on these nasty devices.”
‘One in five say they will return to cigarettes’
Separate research by life insurance experts at Confused.com found two in five people (37%) planned to stop vaping when the ban starts.
Nearly one in five (19%) said they would return to cigarettes once the ban comes into force.
The research was based on the answers of 500 UK adults who currently vape.
Vaping and smoking also appears to be on the rise, with Confused.com saying there was a 44% increase in the number of people declaring they smoke or vape on their life insurance policy since 2019.
Russell Brand has pleaded not guilty to rape and sexual assault charges as he appeared in court in London.
The British comedian and actor, from Hambleden in Buckinghamshire, was charged by post last month with one count each of rape, indecent assault and oral rape as well as two counts of sexual assault.
The charges relate to alleged incidents involving four separate women between 1999 and 2005.
The 49-year-old, who has been living in the US, was flanked by two officers as he pleaded not guilty to all the charges at Southwark Crown Court today.
Image: Russell Brand appears at Southwark Crown Court. Pic: Reuters
Brand stood completely still and looked straight ahead as he delivered his pleas.
The comedian, who has consistently denied having non-consensual sex since allegations were first aired two years ago, is due to stand trial in June 2026.