Nottingham killer Valdo Calocane to remain in high-security hospital for life

A killer who stabbed two students and a school caretaker to death 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 knifed Nottingham University students Barnaby Webber and Grace O'Malley-Kumar, both aged 19, with 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 2023.

During sentencing, he was told he would be detained "very probably for the rest of [his] life".

Calocane was initially charged with murder, but prosecutors accepted his guilty pleas to manslaughter, 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.

Passing sentence, the judge, Mr Justice Turner, said Calocane's crimes had shocked the nation, but that medical evidence indicated his paranoid schizophrenia would never be cured.

Ordering that he be detained in a high-security hospital indefinitely, the judge said: “I am satisfied that because of the nature of your offence, it’s necessary to protect the public from serious harm, and it is not possible to say for how long that is so.”

The judge's sentencing remarks can be read in full at: https://www.judiciary.uk/judgments/r-...

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