Brother of Nottingham triple killer did not think sibling’s messages about ‘red rum’ were about murder, inquiry hears

The brother of a Nottingham triple killer said he did not think his brother’s messages about ‘red rum’ were related to the murder, a public inquiry heard.

Elias Calocane’s brother, paranoid schizophrenic Valdo Calocane, p.They shot and killed undergraduates Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both 19, and caretaker Ian Coates, 65, before trying to kill three pedestrians in a van.

Speaking at the public inquiry today examining the events leading up to the murders in June 2023, Elias was asked a question about a series of text messages his brother sent in 2020.

In a series of messages to Elias, Calocane mentioned ‘red rum’, which is murder spelled backwards.

In one message, Calocane told his brother he was ‘thinking about red rum 120 minutes ago.’

Elias, who described his brother as ‘calm and peaceful’, said that he had never used violence against anyone before.

When asked by inquest lawyer Rachel Langdale KC what he thought of Calocane’s ‘red rum’ message, Elias said: ‘I’m not sure exactly what I was thinking at the time.

‘The whole conversation is about praying or asking for something to make it go away and achieve a new sense of peace that you can’t quite explain.

Picture: Valdo Calocane, who stabbed three people to death before trying to kill three pedestrians with a van in Nottingham in June 2023

‘I thought you said something along the same lines.

‘I certainly didn’t link this to murder.’

Elias said he ‘used a religious context, such as praying or praying to God,’ to ease his brother’s pain.

On another occasion, Elias told the inquest he thought an ‘I love you’ message from his brother in January that year was a ‘farewell message’.

Believing he was being followed, Calocane sent other messages stating that “the night before I felt great anguish, paranoia, anger, hatred” and that he was having the “darkest thoughts.”

The inquest heard another message said he ‘wanted to inflict permanent pain’.

Elias said: ‘I thought you were talking about how you wanted to kill yourself the night before.’

Miss Langdale asked: ‘He didn’t say he was hurting himself, did he? He just says he’s in permanent pain.’

Pictured from left to right are Calocane’s three victims: Ian Coates, 65, Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both 19

Elias Calocane replied: ‘If you consider the messages, there is no other topic other than Valdo, right?

‘He talks about the situation, the viewing, that he felt great pain and that it was overwhelming.’

He added: ‘I think it may now be difficult for people to read these (text messages) without the context of what happened on 13 June, and I completely understand that.

‘At this point Valdo had never been violent towards anyone. As far as I remember, he was a very calm and peaceful person.’

The inquest heard Calocane told his brother that he had encountered the holy spirit and was ‘saved’.

The inquest heard another message from Calocane said: ‘I know I can break their heads with my hands.’

When asked about this, Elias said that his brother “thought he was being watched by strangers” and believed that Calocane did not like “the fact that he was in a vulnerable position in front of people and thought they were trying to get him.”

Calocane also told his brother: ‘Either something extraordinary is happening or I’m losing my mind.’

Asked if he was worried his brother was losing his mind, Elias said: ‘I’m not sure how I got that message on my own, but I asked him to explain further.

‘Obviously I’m worried, I’m trying to understand what’s going on.’

The inquest heard Calocane “freaked out” after his mother Celeste called him without warning in March 2020 and told him to never do this again.

When asked if Calocane was argumentative growing up, his brother said he would have ‘preferred to back off a little bit’, adding that it was ‘important in hindsight’.

The investigation heard that Elias tried to convince his brother that the technology could not see what he was looking at.

He said: ‘I was trying to convince him, from what I thought was a reasonable perspective, that it was unlikely that these things even existed, or that if they did, it would be pretty advanced technology that would be reserved for national security agencies and things like that.

‘So you begin to logically explain to him that this cannot be the case.’

The investigation stated that Elias did not learn his brother’s diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia until October 9, 2023, months after the murders.

He was diagnosed in 2020.

Elias said: ‘There was a sense of relief at finally knowing what we had been dealing with for so long. That’s when I learned about it for the first time.’

He said he was unaware that a doctor had told Calocane in 2020 that he could kill someone.

The witness told the public inquiry: ‘I think we only found out when we got the medical notes.’

When asked why he thought his brother would commit suicide, Elias said that as of July 2021, he was “convinced this would not end well.”

‘I think I’ve always had that in the back of my mind. I couldn’t see the end of this well at all. I was convinced he was going to take his life.’

He added that he experienced a feeling of ‘hopelessness’ and felt ‘powerless’.

The investigation continues.