Nottingham attacks: victims’ families to meet Keir Starmer

Families at Downing Street meeting on Wednesday will call for judge-led inquiry into killings. The families of those killed in the Nottingham attacks will meet the prime minister next week to call for a judge-led statutory inquiry into the killings. On Wednesday a report found that Valdo Calocane, who killed students Barnaby Webber, 19, Grace O’Malley-Kumar, 19, and caretaker Ian Coates, 65, before attempting to kill three other people in a spate of attacks in the city in June 2023, was not forced to take injectable antipsychotic medication because he did not like needles.

At a press conference after the publication of the report, the families of O’Malley-Kumar, Webber and Coates said they wanted accountability for “poor leadership and bad decision-making” and called for individual doctors responsible for Calocane’s treatment to be named. The victims’ families will meet Keir Starmer next Wednesday at Downing Street. Emma Webber, the mother of Barnaby, said the families hoped the meeting would confirm the promised inquiry had the “teeth” to make sure all those involved in Calocane’s care leading up to the attack and those who investigated it were “finally made to tell the truth”.

Radd Seiger, an adviser to the families, said they had been invited to No 10 to discuss next steps. Downing Street said the prime minister was committed to a judge-led inquiry and had not ruled out a public inquiry with full statutory powers. Greg Almond, the lawyer for two survivors of the attack, also joined calls for a full public inquiry. He said the “experience and perspective” of the injured survivors “must not be overlooked” and urged the government to include them in the process along with the bereaved families.

Almond said: “For those who survived, the impact of this tragedy will last a lifetime. My client, Wayne, who suffered severe head injuries, and others in his position, have received little recognition or support. “While the families of those who lost their lives have quite rightly had access to government ministers, the injured survivors have not been given the same opportunities. Their experience and perspectives are essential to understanding the full impact of these events, and they must not be overlooked.”.

He added: “The victims – both the bereaved and the injured – must be fully involved in this process, included in discussions with government ministers and the prime minister, and given a voice in shaping the lessons that must be learned. “We urge the government to include the injured victims in all future meetings and commit to a public inquiry without further delay.”. Ian Coates’ son, James, who lives in Nottingham, said he had struggled to access mental health treatment from the same service responsible for discharging Calocane nine months before the attacks.

“There are still individuals out there who are not doing risk assessments, who are not completing the job properly, taking shortcuts,” he said. “There’s a system that failed but they won’t pick out the individuals, the ones that have signed on the dotted line. I just can’t have any faith in the trust.”. The families said they believed Calocane, who was sentenced to indefinite detention in a high-security hospital on the grounds of diminished responsibility, should face a harsher sentence. Their solicitor, Neil Hudgell, said Calocane “was not treatment resistant, he resisted treatment”.