'Damning failures exposed by this investigation are just another example of how our loved ones were badly failed by the authorities'

THE families of killer Valdo Calocane's victims said they were "badly failed by the authorities" after a "damning" police watchdog report was made public.

- By Chris Riches

Calocane, 33, was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order for the manslaughter by diminished responsibility of students Barnaby Webber and Grace O'Malley-Kumar, both 19, and caretaker Ian Coates, 65.

But a leaked Independent Office for Police Conduct report has exposed 11 blunders from earlier interactions with Calocane that left him free to kill the trio during his Nottingham rampage in June 2023.

One example found that two Leicestershire officers, called to a warehouse attack by Calocane on two colleagues in May 2023, made no attempt to arrest him or check the Police National Computer. It would have revealed a 2022 attack on an officer in Nottinghamshire.

Now the devastated families of his victims have hit out at Leicestershire Police. In a statement they said: "The damning failures exposed by this investigation are just another example of how our loved ones were badly failed by the authorities.

"If the police had just done their jobs by performing a simple check on the Police National Computer, Barnaby, Grace and lan might still be alive today.

Medicated

"Their failure to do even the most basic of policing means they have to live with the consequences of what happened."

Previous inquiries found there were mistakes by Nottinghamshire Police and that medics failed to ensure Calocane was medicated for paranoid schizophrenia.

The IOPC report detailed how two Leicestershire officers were called to a warehouse in Kegworth but arrived after the minimum response time.

Calocane, who was an agency worker there, had allegedly pushed over one employee and punched another in the face at Arvato Supply Chain Solutions. He was asked to leave and reached for a knife shortly after the assault, said witnesses.