SHOCKING police blunders which left Valdo Calocane free to kill three people are today exposed by The Sun.
Victims’ families have accused cops of having blood on their hands for 11 blunders which left Nottingham attacker Calocane free to kill.
A police watchdog report obtained by The Sun reveals officers failed to properly investigate Calocane’s attack on two work colleagues at a warehouse weeks before his June 2023 rampage.
That case was earmarked for the bin a day before the paranoid schizophrenic fatally stabbed students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both 19, and school caretaker Ian Coates, 65.
On May 5, 2023, three Leicestershire Police officers were called to a warehouse in Kegworth.
Agency worker Calocane, 33, had allegedly pushed over one employee and punched another in the face at Arvato Supply Chain Solutions.
He was asked to leave and reached for a knife shortly after the assault, said witnesses.
The officers are accused of failing to act on that information, saying they were not told of a blade.
They failed to download CCTV footage of the attack to a USB stick, claiming each other had it on their body-worn camera.
They made no attempt to arrest Calocane or interview witnesses.
The cops failed to even check the Police National Computer which would have revealed Calocane was wanted for a 2022 attack on a police officer in Nottinghamshire.
The 11 total mistakes emerged in a report by the Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC)
It concluded the investigation was “exceptionally poor” and “a missed opportunity” which may have prevented the Nottingham attack.
Victims’ families told The Sun: “The damning failures exposed by this investigation are just another example of how our loved ones were badly failed by the authorities.
“If the police had just done their jobs properly by performing a simple check on the Police National Computer, Barnaby, Grace and Ian might still be alive today.
“Their failure to do even the most basic of policing means they have to live with the consequences of what happened.”
Previous inquiries found mistakes by Nottinghamshire cops, and that medics failed to ensure Calocane got medication for his illness.
The families said Leicestershire cops “have blood on their hands just as much”.
They branded the IOPC investigation of “very poor quality” and said they feel let down by the outcome.
BUNGLES THAT LEFT HIM FREE
1. THE police officers assigned to investigate Valdo Calocane’s attack on two warehouse work colleagues took 18 minutes to arrive at the scene — exceeding the target minimum response time of 15 minutes.
2. ON arrival, they were reportedly told by a witness that Calocane had grabbed for a safety knife before he was escorted off the premises — but they are accused of failing to act on that information.
Both officers deny ever being told the suspect had reached for a blade.
3. THE investigating officers failed to download CCTV footage of the attack on a USB stick.
Both claim the other recorded the CCTV on their body-worn cameras, but neither saved it evidentially and the recording was ultimately wiped from the warehouse firm’s servers.
4. THE police officers also failed to save body-worn camera video footage of the initial verbal accounts given by the victims.
5. NO written statements or accounts were taken by cops from either victim at the scene or following the incident, as the officers were assigned to another job and had to leave.
6. ATTEMPTS to contact the training co-ordinator who called 999 and the two victims of the assault in the weeks that followed were limited to email and telephone. Neither officer visited them in person after the incident.
7. DESPITE one victim speaking limited English and the other speaking no English, a translator was not called in to help them communicate with police.
8. OFFICERS were also given a list of witnesses to the assault, but there is no evidence any of them were ever contacted or had their statements taken.
9. NO Police National Computer or Police National Database checks on Calocane were completed at any stage of the investigation.
As a result, the officers were unaware there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest. They were also unaware of several other recorded mental health and assault incidents.
10. NO attempts to arrest Calocane were ever made during the police probe.
11. THE sergeant supervising the investigation was responsible for conducting a crime review of the case, but failed to do so.
They added: “The police force in question and the watchdog supposed to hold them to account are not fit for purpose.”
It is understood the Leicestershire officers face a misconduct meeting behind closed doors this month.
But they will not lose their jobs as the watchdog has drawn short of recommending gross misconduct charges for which they could have been sacked.
One was a female rookie. The other an experienced male PC acting as her tutor. They were supervised by a male sergeant.
By the time they arrived at the warehouse Calocane had been led away. The officers were initially given his wrong name.
But after obtaining his details from the recruitment agency on May 24, they did not look him up on the police computer.
If they had, they would have seen Calocane had an outstanding arrest warrant for punching and head-butting a police officer in 2022.
The computer also detailed six previous incidents including stalking and attacking housemates.
Calocane also kicked a neighbour’s front door — causing her to jump out of an upstairs window to escape him. The IOPC report concluded officers were “not responsible for the harm caused to the victims” of the Nottingham attack.
But investigators said if more efforts had been made to obtain evidence, check the computer or arrest Calocane, he’d have been “detained, prevented or deterred” from carrying out the horror.
Evidence wiped from servers
The report said the PCs were shown CCTV of the warehouse attack but failed to download it on a USB stick, with both claiming the other had recorded it on their body-worn video.
Neither saved the evidence and it was ultimately wiped from servers so could not be seen by the Nottinghamshire force.
The officers also failed to save body-worn video footage of the initial verbal accounts given by the Romanian warehouse victims.
No written accounts were taken because the PCs headed to another job. And at no stage did they call in a translator, said the report.
Despite repeated attempts to contact the victims via email and through their manager, neither officer visited them again in person.
And there is no evidence the list of witnesses provided to them were ever contacted for statements.
As a result, no arrest attempts were made. On June 12 the victims were messaged to tell them the matter would be filed by June 15 if they did not make contact.
Calocane went on the rampage the day after that message was sent.
The Arvato training coordinator who rang police told IOPC investigators her colleagues thought they had seen Calocane bending to pick up a knife as he was told to leave.
She said she mentioned this to the officers, but claimed they simply “peeked underneath the track to look where the knife was but they did not do anything else with the knife”. Both PCs denied being told Calocane had reached for a blade.
But the watchdog ruled this information “could suggest further risk that does not appear to have been recorded”.
The damning failures exposed by this investigation are just another example of how our loved ones were badly failed by the authorities.
Victims' families
In her interview under caution, the junior officer admitted she could have made more attempts to contact witnesses and retrieve CCTV.
She told the IOPC: “I’m really sorry that I didn’t do any of that.”
The female officer said she did not treat the case as a priority owing to a large workload, and blamed her mistakes on being brand new and having “no idea” how to handle the case.
The more experienced PC admitted there was “no hiding” from the fact they did not carry out intelligence checks quickly enough and that they could have been more robust in making an arrest attempt.
The sergeant failed to conduct a review of the case. He told the probe he was overworked, not lazy.
In January 2024 Calocane admitted manslaughter by diminished responsibility and was sentenced to a hospital order with restrictions.
Last August a Care Quality Commission review into the NHS trust where he was treated revealed officials missed at least eight chances to stop him killing.
One doctor warned he could kill three years before the Nottingham attack but the trust discharged him to his GP in September 2022.
This month, an independent report commissioned by NHS England said the risk the triple killer posed was “not fully understood, managed, documented or communicated” by medics. It revealed doctors allowed him to refuse antipsychotic medication because he did not like needles.
COPS' APATHY ALLOWED CALOCANE TO KILL
POLICE apathy left Nottingham attacker Valdo Calocane free to go on to kill.
The reported assaults of two Romanian warehouse workers by the paranoid schizophrenic were just another job to process for the officers.
There was nothing which would have alarmed the two responding PC’s or their supervising sergeant about the incident.
It was small fry to be pushed under the carpet, as so many seemingly trivial crimes are by police struggling with bigger fish.
But the flap of a butterfly’s wings in the Amazon can eventually cause a storm elsewhere.
Similarly, the ripple effect of failures by police and medical professionals to deal with Calocane eventually had devastating consequences in Nottingham.
The Leicestershire officers could not have foreseen that Calocane would go on to kill and maim indiscriminately within weeks.
It’s easy with hindsight to condemn and I feel a degree of sympathy for the officers, who will now carry a burden of guilt and wonder if they could have prevented the atrocity which followed their inaction.
But their sorrow is nothing compared to the anguish felt by the families of Barnaby, Grace and Ian, who have been denied proper accountability at every turn.
The law has ruled that Calocane was not fully responsible for his actions and was therefore not guilty of murder.
Yet it also seems professionals who left him at large were not at total fault either and nobody will lose their job.
It is a bitter pill to swallow and little wonder the families of the Nottingham victims feel so let down by the authorities.
