THREE LEICESTERSHIRE POLICE OFFICERS INVESTIGATED OVER VALDO CALOCANE

Three Leicestershire Police officers are under investigation over how they dealt with alleged assaults by Valdo Calocane a month before he killed three people on a rampage in Nottingham.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said two constables and a sergeant have been told they are being investigated over how inquiries were progressed. 

It is claimed that Calocane assaulted two colleagues at an industrial estate in Kegworth, Leicester, in May last year.

The following month, he went on to kill students Barnaby Webber and Grace O'Malley-Kumar, along with caretaker Ian Coates, in a knife attack in Nottingham.

The watchdog said it is 'looking at Leicestershire Police's contact with Mr Calocane prior to the killings last June and in particular the actions and decisions taken by officers during an investigation into alleged assaults by him the preceding month (May 2023) at Kegworth, Leicester.'

Leicestershire Police referred itself to the watchdog in February this year.

'We have advised three Leicestershire Police officers, two police constables and a sergeant, that they are under investigation for potential misconduct over how enquiries were progressed,' the IOPC said.

'Decisions on whether any officers have a disciplinary case to answer will be taken on completion of the investigation.'

Separately, the watchdog is also examining a number of complaints made by the Nottingham victims' families.

Investigators are looking at what information was available to police about Calocane before the killings on June 13 2023.

They are also examining:

- Nottinghamshire Police's decisions and actions relating to Calocane between September 2021 and the events of June 13 last year

- how the force informed the families of the death of their loved ones, and the support they put in place for them, including how information from the ongoing investigation was communicated to them

- whether senior officers followed relevant policies and procedures in their oversight of officers investigating the events of June 13 and subsequent events, including communications with the family and public over the handling of inappropriate WhatsApp messaging and potential sharing of information about the case.

The IOPC said all Nottinghamshire Police officers are currently being treated as witnesses, meaning there is no indication of any wrongdoing at this stage.

In February, the watchdog began the investigation into the contact Leicestershire Police had with the Nottingham stabbings triple killer.

In a statement, the watchdog said it had launched an independent investigation after requesting further information from Leicestershire Police, following a referral from the force relating to inquiries into assaults Calocane is alleged to have committed in May last year.

The IOPC statement said: 'Our investigation will consider the actions and decisions of Leicestershire Police, focusing on their response to the alleged assault. 

'We will also examine whether any person serving with the force may have behaved in a manner which would justify disciplinary proceedings.'

The investigation comes after the grieving families of the victims suffered fresh agony in May after appeal judges ruled his sentence was not unduly lenient.

Calocane was given an indefinite hospital order for the manslaughter of three people in Nottingham last year - and the Court of Appeal in London has since refused to change the sentence.

The paranoid schizophrenic 'brutally' stabbed to death students Barney Webber and Grace O'Malley-Kumar, both 19, and school caretaker Ian Coates, 65, in the early hours of June 13 last year.

His victims' families wanted him put on trial for murder but in January this year Nottingham Crown Court accepted his guilty plea to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

In a statement following the appeal court's decision, Barney's mother Emma Webber said the families 'now face their own life sentence' of ensuring Calocane is not released - while Grace's father called the ruling 'disappointing' and criticised police and mental health services for failures ahead of the killings.

The Attorney General referred the sentence to the Court of Appeal in February.

Lawyers argued in May that Calocane should be given a 'hybrid' order where he would be treated before serving the remainder of the sentence in custody.

But three senior judges dismissed the bid, stating that while Calocane's offences caused 'unimaginable grief', his sentence was not unduly lenient as his paranoid schizophrenia was 'the sole identified cause of these crimes'.

Calocane fatally stabbed students Mr Webber and Ms O'Malley-Kumar as they walked home from a night out in the early hours of June 13 last year, before killing Mr Coates and stealing his van.

He then used the vehicle to knock down three pedestrians, Wayne Birkett, Marcin Gawronski and Sharon Miller, in Nottingham city centre before being arrested.

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2024-07-02T13:20:25Z dg43tfdfdgfd