It was a sunny morning in June 2023 as news broke that a major incident had been declared in Nottingham. As the hours went by it emerged three people had been stabbed.
Students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar had been walking home from a night out when they were fatally attacked. School caretaker Ian Coates was heading into work when he was killed.
Across the city, Delvin Marriott was following the news in horror. “I just had a sinking feeling – emptiness – I felt devastated,” he says. “You know, the Nottingham attacks wouldn’t have happened if they listened to us. It wouldn’t have happened.”
He says he knew instinctively that the killer of Barnaby, Grace, and Ian would turn out to be a mental health patient and blames the loss of his brother on the same system that allowed paranoid schizophrenic Valdo Calocane to be out on the streets armed with a knife.
Image: Left to right: Grace O’Malley-Kumar, Barnaby Webber, and Ian Coates
Ten months earlier, in August 2022, 58-year-old Brenton Marriott had been killed by his son.
Image: Rudi Marriott (right) did not receive any mental health support until after he stabbed his father Brenton (left) to death
Rudi Marriott stabbed his father 75 times in a frenzied attack at home in Nottingham.
The family says they had repeatedly called the police and mental health services about Rudi’s violence but their warnings were ignored.
Over a decade earlier, as a teenager Rudi had been attacked with a baseball bat, leading to a bleed on the brain. His family says after that he began hearing voices and grew increasingly violent. As his health deteriorated he believed he had a microchip in his head that was controlling him.
“I knew he was dangerous, I was living with him,” says his mother Juliette, who recalls barricading her bedroom door when she could hear him having a psychotic episode.
Image: Rudi suffered a bleed on the brain when he was attacked with a baseball bat as a teenager
The family called the police on many occasions. “We would phone the police hoping the mental health service would come with them, hoping that this is an opportunity for him to be assessed and receive the help that he needs,” Juliette says.
“That was the main reason for phoning the police – not to have him arrested, but for the assessment to happen.”
They say they repeatedly questioned why he wasn’t being sectioned. Rudi’s sister Charise says she once asked a mental health nurse: “Is it going to take him to kill someone for something to be done?”
But none of their warnings were heeded. Rudi didn’t receive any mental health support until after he stabbed his father to death. He later received a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia.
Image: Brenton was desperate to help his son who up until his illness was very loving, their family says
‘I lost my best friend and my son’
Juliette breaks down as she reflects on the double tragedy. “I’m devastated because I’ve lost two of them. Lost his dad – he was my best friend for 35 years, my best friend. And I’ve lost my son, who up until his illness was very loving.”
Rudi was sentenced to a hospital order. A domestic homicide review is examining what more the authorities could have done.
Delvin says his brother Brenton was just desperate to help Rudi. “Brenton in my eyes is a hero,” he says. “If he wasn’t doing what he was doing, that could have been anybody that Rudi attacked. He could have gone out and gone on a frenzied attack.”
A recent NHS report found that in the four years before Calocane carried out his attacks there were 15 incidents of patients either under the current care of the Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust or who had been discharged perpetrating serious violence towards members of the community. Most of the incidents involved stabbings and three cases resulted in fatalities.
Neil Hudgell, a lawyer representing the families, says the public inquiry due to begin into the deaths of the Nottingham attack victims needs to ensure the trust is held accountable for failings.
“I think we’ve seen tragic story after tragic story where patients, their families, and victims have been let down,” he says.
“We need to get to the bottom of why that happened, who’s responsible for that and to have some genuine change.”
Delvin says his family feels “failed by the NHS, by the police, by the mental health service”.
Image: Delvin Marriott (right) has described his brother Brenton (left) as ‘a hero’
Ifti Majid, chief executive of Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trus, said: “Any loss of life in such circumstances is an absolute tragedy, and on behalf of the trust I again offer my sincerest condolences to Brenton’s family and friends.”
Nottinghamshire Police told Sky News “our thoughts remain with all family members affected by this tragic incident”, adding that they are fully participating in the domestic homicide review.
Delvin describes the failure to deal with the mental health crisis as “a ticking timebomb, waiting for another disaster”.
Juliette agrees. “This is a real epidemic,” she says. “And as a result of the broken system the public are at risk. Everybody’s at risk.”
Those with “milder mental health” issues and “lower-level physical conditions” could see their disability benefits cut, as the government looks to shave £6bn off the welfare bill.
Her welfare reform green paper will arrive after Downing Street insisted there is a “moral and an economic case for fixing our broken system”.
Government figures argue the rising sickness and disability bill, which has ballooned since the pandemic, is unsustainable and will “leave the welfare state losing legitimacy” in the eyes of the wider public if not dealt with.
The cuts come as the chancellor eyes a hole in the public finances on the back of lower than expected growth and rising borrowing costs, with the £9.9bn headroom she had at the budget in October now wiped out.
Rachel Reeves’ self-imposed fiscal rules mean day-to-day government spending must be covered by tax revenue by 2029-30, which leaves her needing billions of pounds in spending cuts (after ruling out further tax rises, her other option).
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0:23
Welfare reforms will ensure ‘trust in system’
What changes should we expect?
Ms Kendall is expected to target personal independence payments (PIP) – one of the main forms of disability benefits for those with long-term illnesses or disabilities – amid a spike in claimants.
The PIP bill has grown from £13.7bn a year before the pandemic to £21.8bn in the current financial year, and is set to increase to £34.1bn by the end of the decade.
The number of people claiming this disability benefit is projected to more than double from two million to 4.3 million.
These payments are now expected to rise in line with inflation, but the eligibility criteria will be tightened to whittle back the number of people eligible to claim.
One government figure told me it would result in some conditions, such as “milder mental health” or “lower-level physical conditions”, being ineligible for PIP.
But they stressed that those with more severe conditions and who are never going to be able to work would be protected and cared for.
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1:44
Why is there a surge in youth unemployment?
The key principles driving reforms
The changes are likely to draw criticism from some MPs, though one senior Labour source said they didn’t think there would be any ministerial resignations over the benefit announcements.
Another Labour figure told me they would be “massively shocked” if there were resignations.
However, a number of Labour MPs have voiced their concerns, as has the Manchester mayor Andy Burnham.
In a bid to assuage MPs, the work and pensions secretary is also expected to earmark £1bn of savings into employment support programmes as she frames the reforms around three clear principles.
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The first will be to prevent people from falling into long-term economic inactivity with a better support offer to get people back into work quickly.
The second will be to change the incentive systems to move people away from welfare dependency.
This could see Ms Kendall slash the highest level of incapacity benefit for working age people who have an illness or disability that limits their ability to work, while increasing the basic rate of support for those out of work (universal credit).
This is because the lower level of unemployment benefit has led to more people claiming for additional incapacity and disability benefits, while disincentivising them to try to find work.
The government will also announce a “right to try” scheme, allowing those on incapacity benefits to try returning to work without the risk of losing their benefits, as happens in the current system.
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1:13
Will there be a backlash over benefits?
‘I don’t think they go far enough’
But with one in 10 working age people claiming sickness benefits, and one in eight young people not in education, employment or training, the reforms on Tuesday could be just the start of bigger changes – and potentially bigger political battles.
The cost of long-term sickness and disability benefits for working-age people has risen by about £20bn since the pandemic to about £48bn, and is forecast to hit almost £100bn by 2030.
“People are trapped on benefits and the bill is getting out of hand,” said one government figure.
“We are currently spending more than three times the annual policing bill on these benefits. It’s getting out of hand.
“I don’t think the reforms go far enough, and I don’t think people have clocked the size of the numbers going on here.”
Detectives searching for a Cardiff woman who has been missing since last summer have launched a murder investigation.
Three arrests have previously been made in connection with the disappearance of Charlene Hobbs.
Image: Pic: South Wales Police
Crimestoppers is now offering a reward of up to £20,000 for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.
The last confirmed sighting of the 36-year-old, from Riverside, was a photograph taken on a mobile phone at a house in Broadway in the Adamsdown area of the city on 24 July last year.
Ms Hobbs, who has a distinctive dragon tattoo on her back, had her hair in a bun and was wearing a dark strapless top when the photo was taken.
The day before she was last seen, she was captured on CCTV at a Morrisons Local in Adamsdown.
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0:49
CCTV released in the search for Ms Hobbs
In a statement released through South Wales Police, Ms Hobbs’ family said: “We still hope that Charlene can be found safe and well.
“We are grateful for the support of Crimestoppers and the reward to help us find her, and hope that this will help people to come forward with information about what has happened to Charlene.”
Image: Ms Hobbs at a property in Broadway, Adamsdown, left, and at a Morrisons Local in the area, right. Pics: South Wales Police
Detective Chief Inspector Matt Powell said: “We have always been determined to find Charlene alive and return her to her family, but despite a huge number of enquiries we have no proof that Charlene is alive.
“While I have always maintained an open mind, the lack of evidence that Charlene is alive means that we are now treating her disappearance as a murder investigation.
“We have spoken to more than 250 people, either known to Charlene or from areas where she is known to frequent, and no one can tell us where Charlene is or that she is alive, which of course we, her family and friends desperately want to hear.
“Several of those we have spoken to believe that she has died but no one has been able to provide any specific details.”
Image: Extensive searches have taken place for the missing 36-year-old. Pic: South Wales Police
Image: Pic: South Wales Police
Detectives and specialist search teams are continuing with extensive efforts to find Ms Hobbs and determine the circumstances around her disappearance.
DCI Powell added: “I still firmly believe that answers lie in the community, and that someone out there holds key information that will help us find Charlene.”
A 45-year-old man arrested in connection with the investigation remains on police bail.
A 43-year-old man and a 38-year-old woman have been released without charge.
In Thailand, Richard Burrows found an escape – a place to hide for nearly 30 years.
After abusing children, he fled the UK to avoid prosecution. But the severity of his crimes didn’t push him to live a low-profile life – far from it.
In the sandy shores of Phuket, he became very well known and liked. Everyone there knew him as Peter Smith, an identity he stole from a passport that wasn’t his.
No one appeared to know where he had gone after he failed to attend the start of his trial over alleged child sex offences at Chester Crown Court in 1997.
His abuse spanned a wide period from the 1960s to the 1990s. Some of the offences occurred at a children’s school in Cheshire and others happened in the Midlands, through his involvement with the scouts.
But it would take 27 years for him to be caught, finally arrested at Heathrow Airport.
Image: Richard Burrows was put on trial after years in Thailand
He had settled in Thailand with a familiar routine and a wide circle of acquaintances. He would regularly dine at a small roadside restaurant, often ordering fish and chips.
The owner Pakorn Sanwongwan says the man they knew was kind and generous. They had no idea of his past.
“I’m very shocked because from my perspective, he was a good person. For the past 24 years he had recommended our restaurant to lots of people and brought us new customers,” he said.
His wife Supaporn says they were shocked when just a few months ago he announced he was “going to the UK and never coming back”.
It’s easy to see how many people were duped. He kept the reality of what he’d done largely hidden. And his was not a life lived under the radar.
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1:36
Victim speaks out over sex attacker
He was involved in the local sailing community. His friends say he’d worked with local schools. And he’d worked in local media.
Burrows lived in a container, a short drive from the coastline. But things started to unravel when money ran thin.
He began opening up to a very small number of close friends, saying he needed to return to the UK to see family and was struggling financially.
“Ben”, not his real name, was among those close confidantes.
He said: “I knew him for 25 years. Only about three to four years ago, he started sort of revealing a few things that he’s not actually who his passport says he is and that he was searched by the UK authorities for some allegations, apparently, he’s done.”
Ben says he had no idea of the severity of the charges against him. The man he thought he knew was a kind soul, giving and supportive of many he met.
There were, he says, signs of his attraction to young people, but it didn’t raise alarm bells.
“Peter” had younger companions who cooked for him at home and he would finance the education of some of them, Ben told us.
“Obviously it was visible that he liked the younger generation. But that he would go for minors I would never have thought,” he said.
Image: The container where Burrows lived in Thailand
All of the offences were committed during Burrows’ time in the United Kingdom, and no charges have been brought against him in Thailand.
If Ben knew the details of Burrows’ sordid past, he may have thought differently. But Burrows was living a lie, enjoying a secret life in the sun.
Remarkably, Burrows went undetected for decades – his visa based on a fake passport, consistently renewed.
It’s unclear what exactly motivated his attempt to move back to the UK, a move that would end in his arrest at Heathrow.
Some we spoke to said he had run out of money and that he wanted to see family. But some suspected he was trying to make peace with his past.
Finally, he has been brought to justice. But his victims were left to deal with the horrific aftermath of his abuse.
Whilst he is now behind bars, they will also have to wrestle with the fact their abuser was able to enjoy a free and full life for so long.