The mother of the man who killed three people in a 2023 attack in Nottingham has told an inquiry that the mental health system is broken and that until a crisis occurs, “no one listens to you.”
Background of the Attacks
Valdo Calocane, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, was sentenced to a suspended hospital order in January 2024 after killing students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both 19, and caretaker Ian Coates, 65, on June 13, 2023. He also attempted to kill three others.
Mother’s Testimony
Celeste Calocane gave evidence for the first time at the inquiry, which examines events before and after the attacks. Calocane had been sectioned four times between 2020 and 2023. She described repeatedly “raising flags” to medical staff but said “no one was acting on it.”
Rachel Langdale KC, counsel to the inquiry, noted that notes from May 2020 showed Ms. Calocane had warned of her son’s “risk to others in his current mental state” after he attempted to break into a neighbor’s flat. Calocane was later admitted to hospital.
Efforts to Seek Help
During the first hospital admission, Ms. Calocane’s other son, Elias, compiled a dossier of information and sent it to Calocane’s doctor. The document included violent and paranoid messages, such as one where Calocane said he was “thinking about red rum” (murder spelled backwards) and another where he said he wanted to “hurt permanently.”
Ms. Calocane said she did not look at the document at the time, and doctors did not respond to it, so she thought it was not “useful” to them. She wanted her son to be diagnosed, but doctors advised against it and instead said he was suffering from a “psychotic picture.” Calocane was discharged from hospital on June 13, 2020, against his mother’s wishes.
Repeated Warnings Ignored
One month later, Ms. Calocane contacted her son’s crisis team to alert them about concerns over his mental state. Two days later, Calocane tried to break into a neighbor’s flat again and was sectioned for a second time. She said: “I [knew] something wasn’t right because of our conversation. So I phoned the services and they just didn’t do anything about it until he was in crisis.”
The inquiry previously heard that during Calocane’s second hospital admission, a doctor said Calocane could “end up killing someone” and his diagnosis was “likely schizophrenia.” Ms. Calocane told the inquiry she was not informed of this at the time.
She had hoped her son would be kept in hospital for at least six months, but he was discharged after two weeks. In August 2020, she warned of Calocane’s “risk to others.”
Navigating the System Alone
Asked if anyone discussed her son’s risk with her, Ms. Calocane said: “Never. I just had to navigate the system myself and try to make sense of what was going on.” She added: “I was doing a mental health job for them, even though I wasn’t trained, I was the one raising the flags … no one was acting on it, until I said something.”
Ms. Calocane also told the inquiry she was denied information from medical professionals on several occasions because her son had instructed staff not to share details.
The Day of the Attacks
She was challenged on why she did not leave work on the morning of June 13, 2023, when Elias told her about a call he had received from Calocane. The inquiry heard that Calocane told Elias it would be the last time he would hear from him, and when asked if he would do something stupid, Calocane said it was “already done.” Ms. Calocane told the inquiry she feared her son had attempted suicide. However, by that time, Calocane had already killed Webber and O’Malley-Kumar.
Asked why she did not leave work, she said: “Looking back, maybe that’s what I should have done, but I didn’t do that because this is something I’ve been living with for the last three years.”
The inquiry continues.
