Families and Nottingham community remember Nottingham attacks victims two years on
Around 250 people attended the walk as a mark of respect.
The families of those killed in the Nottingham attacks have retraced their loved ones’ final steps in a poignant memorial walk open to the Nottingham community.
Students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both 19, and school caretaker Ian Coates, 65, were fatally stabbed by paranoid schizophrenic Valdo Calocane on the morning of June 13 2023.
Calocane then used Mr Coates’s van to drive at passers-by, striking both Wayne Birkett and Sharon Miller and leaving them with lifelong injuries.
On Friday (June 13) the walk from St Paul’s Church, Lenton Boulevard, Lenton to Ilkeston Road and Magdala Road began at 11.30am. The families said the Nottingham community were welcome to attend.
Around 250 people talk part in the walk, which the families said was organised “to show respect to their loved ones, to wish them peace, but also to mark the importance of their fight for justice”.
Relatives of those who died have since successfully campaigned for a full statutory inquiry into the build-up to the attacks, saying the authorities had failed to prevent the killings through inadequate care and checks on Calocane.
A full inquiry was confirmed by the Government in April, with Deborah Taylor announced as chair.
Calocane was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in July 2020 and, between May 2020 and February 2022, he had six mental health assessments leading to four hospital detentions.
Following the attacks in June 2023, he was sentenced to an indefinite secure hospital order in January 2024.
An independent 302-page report reviewing Calocane’s NHS care and treatment by Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and other services was published on February 5 by NHS England.
It found damning evidence of failings into Caloncane’s care such as him easily avoiding vital mental health medication and care decisions not being shared between the organisations responsible for his treatment.
NHS England and Nottinghamshire Healthcare Trust have both previously apologised, and Notts Police said they could have done more to arrest Calocane on a warrant which was still outstanding at the time of the killings, due to his failure to appear at court in connection with a previous assault on a police officer.
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