Valdo Calocane: Killer's sentence review date set

Valdo Calocane
Valdo Calocane admitted manslaughter and was sentenced to a hospital order [Nottinghamshire Police]

A date has been set for the sentence review of Nottingham attacks killer Valdo Calocane.

Emma Webber, mother of victim Barnaby Webber, said the victims' families were told on Friday that a hearing had been set for 8 May.

The review of Calocane's indefinite hospital order will be heard at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.

Mr Webber and Grace O'Malley-Kumar, both 19, and 65-year-old Ian Coates were fatally stabbed on 3 June 2023.

Calocane was sentenced to detention in a high-security hospital after admitting manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

During his sentencing, a judge told Calocane, 31, that he would be detained in a high-security hospital "very probably for the rest of your life".

Ian Coates, Barnaby Webber and Grace O'Malley-Kumar
Ian Coates, Barnaby Webber and Grace O'Malley-Kumar died at the scene of the attacks [BBC]

He was found to be suffering from paranoid schizophrenia at the time of the attacks, which the judge said, in his view, "significantly contributed" to him carrying them out.

Speaking outside Nottingham Crown Court following the killer's sentencing on 25 January, the victims' families voiced their anger at the outcome.

Mrs Webber said "true justice" had not been served and that the families had been "let down".

Attorney General Victoria Prentis said in February she would refer the sentence to the Court of Appeal for reconsideration after concluding it was "unduly lenient".

Three Court of Appeal judges will hear arguments from the senior treasury counsel representing the attorney general and Calocane's barrister.


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