Killer 'should have been arrested before attacks'

The former chief constable of Nottinghamshire Police has admitted triple killer Valdo Calocane should have been arrested before he carried out his deadly attacks.

Valdo Calocane stabbed to death Barnaby Webber, Grace O'Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates, and tried to kill three others in a spate of attacks in Nottingham on 13 June 2023.

A warrant for Calocane's arrest was issued in September 2022 after he failed to appear in court for assaulting a police officer in 2021, but it was never executed and remained outstanding at the time of the attacks.

On Friday, Kate Meynell - who retired from the force three days ago - said she accepted there were "no excuses" for why Calocane was not arrested.

The inquiry, which is being overseen by retired senior judge Deborah Taylor KC, started hearing evidence on 23 February and will continue for a total of nine weeks at Mary Ward House in London.

Calocane - who is being referred to in the inquiry as VC - was expected to appear in court in September 2022, in connection with the assault of PC Barnaby Pritchard a year earlier while he was helping to detain Calocane under the Mental Health Act.

The inquiry has heard the warrant was never carried out by Nottinghamshire Police.

Later, on 5 May 2023 - weeks before the killings - Calocane assaulted two warehouse workers, a husband and wife, in Kegworth in Leicestershire.

Leicestershire Police was called on that occasion and despite officers looking at a log, which showed the outstanding warrant, again it was not pursued.

Meynell told the inquiry: "I accept on behalf of Nottinghamshire Police that VC should have been arrested in relation to that."

Counsel to the inquiry, Rachel Langdale KC, said: "At this point there can be no excuses institutionally for that, can there, that this was identified and he could have been picked up?"

Meynell replied: "That's correct."

The inquiry also heard the warrant was issued on a police computer system, but it went to an inbox that was not being monitored regularly.

However, Meynell told the inquiry she did not agree that executing the warrant could have changed the course of events that took place months later.

She was challenged on that by Tim Moloney KC, who is representing the bereaved families.

When pressed, Meynell agreed that had Calocane appeared in court, the court would have wanted to know more about Calocane's history of previous incidents and admissions to hospital.

She also accepted that if Calocane was bailed, he would have been bailed with conditions.

Moloney KC said: "So to be clear are you, as the former chief constable of Nottinghamshire Police, saying to the chair that it would have made no difference?"

Meynell said: "I couldn't be sure what difference it would have made."

Moloney KC replied: "Precisely."

Meynell added since the killings, the force had "completely changed" the way warrants were managed and added they were reviewed on a daily basis.

The former chief constable announced her retirement from the force in October last year after being diagnosed with cancer, with a planned departure of this month.

Meynell previously said she would continue to undertake duties in relation to the inquiry and give evidence, if asked to.

Calocane was sentenced to a hospital order in January 2024, after pleading guilty to three counts of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, and three counts of attempted murder.

The families have never been happy with that outcome, and made that clear on the steps of Nottingham Crown Court after the sentencing, expressing their discontent with elements of the police investigation.

Meynell said: "I was not aware of the strength of feeling of the families and the concerns they had until I heard what they said on the court steps."

The inquiry was told the bereaved families had also raised concerns about when they were notified of the deaths of Barnaby, Grace and Ian.

"It's my understanding from what I've read that we notified them as soon as we possibly could," Meynell told the inquiry.

At that point in the hearing, the family members in the room shook their heads in disagreement.

It also emerged after the sentencing that a number of Nottinghamshire Police officers were under investigation for their conduct in relation to the attacks investigation.

Officers were disciplined over "offensive" WhatsApp messages sent about the attacks in a group chat - which included Meynell's son - but the families only learned about misconduct proceedings against them via the media.

The former chief constable said the senior investigating officer was supposed to tell the families but understood he "never found the right time to share that information".

The families were also not told about an investigation into the force by the policing watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).

Meynell said the families "should have been informed of all the issues".

The inquiry heard far fewer details were being shared by police with the survivors of the attacks - Wayne Birkett, Sharon Miller and Marcin Gawronski.

In a letter shown to the hearing from Birkett's partner Tracy Hodgson to Meynell, she was told the survivors "all seem to be forgotten" and asked for them to be updated before information reached the media.

Asked by Sophie Cartwright KC, representing the survivors, if she agreed there had been "fundamental failures of communication" with the surviving victims, Meynell said: "Yes."

In February 2024, the then chief constable invited members of the media to a "non-reportable" briefing intended to outline elements of the investigation, and the police's dealings with Calocane before the attacks.

Again, the families were not informed about the briefing and the inquiry heard the briefing omitted details, including those of officers' first-ever contact with the killer.

Langdale KC said the transcript from the briefing appeared to take a "defensive position" by the force.

Meynell said: "In relation to the non-reportable briefing, I believed at the time that I was doing the right thing in order to address some of the reporting issued.

"I now fully accept that it was not the right thing to do, I should have told the families and it achieved exactly the opposite of what I intended to and I understand why this is the case, and I am really disappointed in myself that happened."

Following the briefing, Nottinghamshire Live, the digital arm of local newspaper the Nottingham Post, chose to publish information from the briefing with the headline: "Nottinghamshire Live prevented from publishing details around Nottingham attacks by police."

The website said it believed there were details in the briefing that were in the public interest.

Nottinghamshire Police then made a complaint to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), but the complaint was rejected.

Meynell said: "I think making that complaint was a mistake. I shouldn't have done it."

The inquiry continues.

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