Brother Says 2020 Messages Made Him Fear Nottingham Triple Killer Would Take His Own Life
Updated
Updated · BBC.com · May 13
Brother Says 2020 Messages Made Him Fear Nottingham Triple Killer Would Take His Own Life
4 articles · Updated · BBC.com · May 13
Elias Calocane told the Nottingham Inquiry he read his brother Valdo’s 2020 messages about violence and “red rum” as signs he might kill himself, not others, and said he felt powerless over his worsening mental health.
A document Elias compiled after Valdo’s first psychiatric admission in May 2020 recorded interactions dating back to 2017, including messages about hearing voices and wanting to “harm, permanently.”
Elias said mental health professionals never contacted him about that document, which he believed was “lost in the ether,” and he learned of Valdo’s paranoid schizophrenia diagnosis only in October 2023, four months after the killings.
Valdo Calocane, diagnosed in July 2020, killed Barnaby Webber, Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates and seriously injured three others in Nottingham on 13 June 2023; bereaved families shook their heads as Elias gave evidence.
A family's documented warnings were ignored. How will the new Mental Health Act stop another tragedy fueled by a broken system?
He was known to be violent when unmedicated. When does a patient's right to refuse treatment end and public safety begin?