Nottingham families hit out as victims' court rejects bid for tougher sentence

The families of the Nottingham attack victims have criticised the "utterly flawed and under-resourced criminal justice system" after the court of appeal rejected an application to increase Valdo Calocane's sentence to include jail time.

- Jessica Murray, Kevin Rawlinson

Calocane, 32, was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order in January after pleading guilty to three counts of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility due to paranoid schizophrenia, and three counts of attempted murder.

He killed students Grace O'MalleyKumar and Barnaby Webber, both 19, and Ian Coates, a 65-year-old school caretaker, and ran over three other people in a spate of violence in the East Midlands city last June.

Calocane's sentence was deemed unduly lenient by the attorney general, who referred it to the court of appeal in February, where lawyers argued Calocane should be given a hybrid order, under which he would be sent to prison if deemed fit enough to be discharged from hospital.

Deanna Heer KC, representing the attorney general's office, said the "exceptional level of seriousness" of Calocane's crimes required a sentence with a "penal element, an element of punishment".