Triple killer was discharged from mental health services ‘because NHS trust could not find him’
Schizophrenic Valdo Calocane was discharged from a mental health service and saw a GP just months before he killed three people, an inquest heard. Healthcare workers were unable to locate him, leading to his release from care.
Calocane, a former mechanical engineering student, had been under the supervision of Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust for two years.
During this period, a consultant psychiatrist warned that he would eventually kill someone. His dismissal by the trust’s Early Intervention in Psychosis (EIP) service took place in September 2022 after he failed to attend appointments or communicate with the team.
Months later, in the early hours of June 13, 2023, he stabbed to death students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both 19, and caretaker Ian Coates, 65, in Ilkeston Road, Nottingham, before trying to kill three more people in a stolen van in the city centre.
Emma Robinson, a team leader at the trust, told the inquest on Tuesday that Calocane’s care co-ordinator Gary Carter attended her address, rang her and sent her a letter, but this went unanswered.
Tim Moloney KC, representing the families of Mr Webber, Ms O’Malley-Kumar and Mr Coates, asked: “When you were discharged, did you consider the risk to the public of this man who the EIP would not visit alone and would not visit at home unless absolutely necessary?
“Have you considered the risks this man poses to the public?”
He replied: “We thought about it, but we didn’t have any authority within the decision period, we couldn’t work with him, we couldn’t find him at this point. We just couldn’t find him to work with him.”
The inquest heard Calocane’s last conversation with the EIP team was by phone on July 16, when he lied about being abroad.
Mr. Moloney “Did you lose it?” he asked, and Mrs. Robinson replied, “Yes.”
The lawyer asked: “Is that the real reason you expelled him?”
Mrs Robinson said: “Yes, because we couldn’t find anyone to treat him or take care of him.”
Mr Moloney said that by handing Calocane to the GP the trust had “left him to the public to deal with”.
Ms Robinson said: “I wouldn’t say the general public should be concerned. Unfortunately back then it wasn’t uncommon for us to discharge unresponsive patients. I think things are very different now.”
In a statement written by Ms Robinson explaining her reasoning for Calocane’s dismissal, she said: “It’s very difficult for me to think about this now, but I sometimes wonder, is it worse to have someone open about cases you’re not interested in? Should we dismiss them instead?”
“What does it look like if something happens and we have this person out in front of us and we haven’t seen them in months and months and months?”
Asked to explain this statement by inquiry solicitor Craig Carr, Ms Robinson said: “I think I’m concerned, based on my previous experience, about how it looks, that we have someone available to us and maybe we haven’t been able to treat them or find them for nine months.
“So sometimes it may be a better decision to discharge back to the family doctor.”
Mr Carr said Ms Robinson could be interpreted as suggesting that it would be better to leave someone “off the record” if they could not be found.
The witness said: “It feels safer to send someone back to the GP bench than to be open to a second service where we can’t look after them or do anything for them.”
Chairman Deborah Taylor said Calocane’s GP was “effectively sent very little information” after his discharge.
Ms Robinson said: “I accept that.”
The witness also told the inquest the trust did not tell Nottinghamshire Police that Calocane had been removed from its services.
The investigation continues.
