Insight
'Cold and vacant': Police officer reveals investigation into Nottingham triple killer Valdo Calocane
Watch ITV News Central Correspondent Phil Brewster's full interview with Assistant Chief Constable Rob Griffin
The detective who investigated the "appalling" knife attacks in Nottingham has told ITV News how it was "the most dreadful case that Nottingham has seen in his 28 years of policing".
Rob Griffin, who is Assistant Chief Constable at Nottinghamshire Police, described the "dangerous" triple killer Valdo Calocane's knife attack as "appalling, abhorrent, and harrowing".
But, speaking to ITV News Central, Mr Griffin said: "Tragically, we couldn’t have stopped any of what happened on that night".
He told the killer: "You committed a series of atrocities in this city which ended the lives of three people.
"Your sickening crimes both shocked the nation and wrecked the lives of your surviving victims and the families of them all."
The judge told the triple killer: "There was never any doubt that it was you who had committed these appalling crimes."
Despite being detained in high security Ashworth Hospital since November, Mr Justice Turner said he still “remains dangerous”.
In the early hours of Tuesday 13 June 2023, the 31-year-old began a rampage through the city of Nottingham.
CCTV footage released by police shows Valdo Calocane in Nottingham ahead of the attacks
He stabbed two 19-year-old students to death before killing a school caretaker a short while later, stealing his van.
University of Nottingham students Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Barnaby Webber, both 19, suffered fatal knife wounds to the chest and abdomen, while school caretaker Ian Coates, 65, was stabbed in the chest.
Calocane drove the van into a group of people, before being Tasered and arrested by police.
At Nottingham Crown Court on Tuesday 23 January, prosecutors accepted his pleas of not guilty to murder and guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility due to "serious" mental illness.
How was the case handled on the day? Could anything have been done to stop the attacks?
"It was disparate, in terms of geography, but also in terms of time," Assistant Chief Constable Griffin said.
"So the attacks on Barnaby and Grace were at 4am, and then the defendant walks away on foot, and for all intents and purposes, disappears. The next time we see him is almost an hour away and an hour later, and the incidents on Milton Street and Parliament Street and later, we learn, on Magdala Road, you know, they’re a long way away in terms of time, and as I say, geography."
Mr Griffin added that it would have been "very difficult to have done anything differently", and added: "We constantly debrief these kinds of operations, we’ve pored over the detail, pored over the way that we responded, the way that we started the investigation from the outset.
"I’m really confident that everything we did was thorough and professional. I wouldn’t have looked to change anything and, tragically, we couldn’t have stopped any of what happened on that night."
Calocane was arrested early that morning - Mr Griffin noted that "the Ilkeston Road killings of Grace and Barnaby were at around 4am, and not long after at 5.30am we’d arrested him".
He said: "I think it was fast-moving, but we arrested him as quickly as we could."
Mr Griffin noted that Calocane's movements on the night of the attack were "curious to say the least."
He continued: "[Calocane] arrived back from London, got onto a train, and then onto a tram, and then he was walking around the city, seemingly aimlessly, to be honest.
"And when he was loitering in the alleyway, from which he came out and started his attack, first on Barnaby and then on Grace, I don’t think he would’ve had any idea who they were or how old they were particularly, I don’t think he targeted them specifically.
"He just got it in his mind, for whatever reason, that he was going to attack somebody that night, and they were the very, very unfortunate ones.
"And we talk about people being in the wrong place at the wrong time - but they were in the right place at the right time.
"They were two young people, two students, two 19-year-olds who’d had a great night out together and they were walking home to where they lived.
"They should’ve been there, they should’ve been there at that time, living their lives. And it’s so terribly sad."
What was Valdo Calocane like during police interviews?
"He didn’t speak to us, he was fairly cold, he didn’t seem very engaged, he just sat there and sort of stared at officers, very difficult to get anything from him," Mr Griffin said.
"After we charged him, a number of psychiatrists have examined him and they’ve all offered their view of his mental health.
"From our perspective, we’re police officers, not psychologists, not psychiatrists, but when I talk to the interviewing officers about the way he reacted and responded on the day, he sat there, in silence, he didn’t engage.
"We don’t know why he did what he did," he said, before adding: "I acknowledge that he is very unwell, we know that because after he was charged, he was charged with murder to begin with, but as a result of numerous psychiatric assessments that have taken place, each of those experts has diagnosed him with being very, very unwell.
"And so that must be a contributing factor for him to do what he did. But it’s impossible to speculate about whether that was the primary, what was the driving force or if there was anything else behind it.
"We certainly haven’t identified any other motive for doing what he did, but a very, very dangerous person."
What was Valdo Calocane's background?
"We know that he was born in Guinea-Bissau in Africa, he then went to live in Madeira and later Lisbon with his family.
"He moved over to the UK in 2007, when he was about 16 years old," Mr Griffin said.
"The rest of his school life, the rest of his early adulthood was actually rather unremarkable, he went to university in 2019, so quite a late starter at university, but he was accepted into the University of Nottingham.
"He was a mechanical engineering student, so on the face of it, an intelligent person."
But in May 2020, Calocane's mental health began to deteriorate.
Mr Griffin said that between 2020 and 2022, Calocane was sectioned at least four times, with police often assisting by taking him to mental health hospitals.
Yet in terms of a criminal history, Calocane had no convictions, cautions, nor reprimands.
What was the impact on Nottinghamshire Police?
"The grief that the families are experiencing is immeasurable. The people of Nottingham, there’s been an outpouring of emotion and grief across Nottinghamshire," he said.
For the police investigating the violent attacks, Mr Griffin acknowledges that analysing the footage certainly took a toll.
"It’s not very often that an incident, of this magnitude, is actually captured on CCTV, and officers have spent hours and hours watching that," he said.
He continued: "20, 30 years ago in policing you didn’t stop and give too much thought to how trauma affected officers and staff when they’re working on cases like that, and I’m glad to say now, we do.
"We’ve been able to provide support, but even from talking to the teams that have been involved, you can see there’s been a significant impact for many, many people in this organisation.
"It really does [resonate with us] and a lot of us, including me, live in this county, have grown up in this county, our families live in this county, lived here all our lives and worked here all of our lives. When these sorts of things happen, of course you connect it with your own life and you think about the location where something has happened and you have memories of being in that location. And for these young people…"
He trailed off, before continuing: "For the six victims in this case I can connect in a different way with each of them and think ‘that could’ve been my child, my children, that could’ve been my uncle, my father, my brother’ and so on.
"As police officers, police staff members, people who work for this organisation, they are human beings and that is how they think."
Watch Assistant Chief Constable Griffin explain triple-killer Valdo Calocane's life and background
What was the city of Nottingham's response?
"There was a huge, and really visible outpouring of grief, and there was a visible outpouring of emotion, and I think really importantly the city, in particular, came together. You know, people were talking about it, people were phoning in with support, people were supporting each other across all the communities of Nottingham."
Mr Griffin says he doesn't think he'll ever forget the vigil that day.
"The vigil at the university was emotional, but the one in the market square was overwhelming," he said.
He continued: "You know, to see people crying and hugging and being together, and then those that spoke - how they managed to do that, particularly the families, I mean the dignity and the courage of all of those families has been absolutely incredible from start to finish.
"You know, we can’t, none of us can put ourselves in their shoes and it would be insulting to try to, because they must be experiencing is immeasurable.
"How they were able to find the strength to get up, that day, in the market square, and address a crowd of that size, a crowd that had come together because they felt it too, was the important thing."
In a statement, Ifti Majid, the Chief Executive of Nottinghamshire Health NHS Foundation Trusts, said: "Our thoughts are with the families and friends of Barnaby Webber, Grace O'Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates, and everyone affected by the tragic events in Nottingham in June 2023."
He added: "As well as supporting Nottinghamshire Police with their investigations, in the event of a serious incident relating to a former patient, we robustly review our own interactions with that person to identify any learning.
"In this case, the patient was under our care between May 2020 and September 2022 with episodes of care both as an inpatient and in the community as an outpatient.
"It is important to remember that this person has been convicted of a crime of the most serious kind and there are many people who live with severe mental health issues who do not offend and are supported to live well in their community."
Mr Majid continued: "We always aim to care for people in the least restrictive way and to support people to live well in their own homes and society. If a patient no longer engages with our services and support and they do not meet criteria to be detained under the Mental Health Act, they are discharged back to the care of their GP and can be referred back into our services at any time.
"Once again, I wish to send my condolences and thoughts to everyone affected by this case. We will continue to work with our partners in the Police and health services to continue to learn."
A spokesperson from NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire clarified that when Calocane was discharged back to the care of his GP, "several attempts" were made to contact him, but "no response was received."
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