Shock claim: Knife killer 'knew what he was doing'

TRIPLE killer Valdo Calocane was “not insane” and “knew he was committing crimes” when he stabbed three people to death and tried to murder three others, two consultant psychiatrists concluded.

- Jon Austin

The experts’ opinions, seen by the Sunday Express, were submitted in evidence at Calocane’s sentencing hearing.

Their views are likely to cause further anger among victims’ families, who believe that Calocane’s sentence was too lenient because the CPS accepted pleas of manslaughter with diminished responsibility.

Nottingham University undergraduates Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley Kumar, both 19, and school caretaker Ian Coates, 65, were stabbed to death by Calocane on June 13 last year.

On Thursday, Calocane was sentenced to be detained indefinitely in a high-security mental hospital after the CPS accepted the pleas due to him suffering with schizophrenia since 2020.

He also pleaded guilty to three attempted murders – of the pedestrians he tried to kill with Mr Coates’ van – as there can be no diminished responsibility plea with that offence.

Calocane has since told medics that “voices in his head from an advanced AI technology” instructed him to kill or his family would be harmed.

Relatives of the victims believe he should have stood trial for murder due to the planning involved in the attacks.