A murder suspect has been remanded in custody by magistrates after two students and a school caretaker were killed in knife attacks in Nottingham.
A former University of Nottingham student named by police as Valdo Calocane, who gave his name in court as Adam Mendes, appeared in the dock at Nottingham magistrates court on Saturday wearing a grey T-shirt and jogging bottoms, and flanked by three security officers.
The 31-year-old is accused of murdering first-year students Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Barnaby Webber and school caretaker Ian Coates in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Calocane is also alleged to have attempted to murder three pedestrians: Wayne Birkett, Marcin Gawronski and Sharon Miller, after Coates’s van was used to drive at people in Milton Street and Upper Parliament Street.
The defendant spoke only to give his name, his date of birth and to say he was of no fixed abode. He was not required to enter any pleas to the charges.
Magistrates heard Calocane has also been charged with assaulting a police constable after an incident in Nottingham in September 2021.
The charge of assaulting an emergency worker will next be heard at the same court on 26 June.
O’Malley-Kumar, a medical student from Woodford in London, and Webber, a history student from Taunton in Somerset, were both 19. They were found fatally stabbed on Ilkeston Road at about 4am on Tuesday 13 June.
Coates, who was 65, whose van was allegedly stolen, was then found stabbed to death in Magdala Road.
Calocane is accused of using the van to drive at a pedestrian in Milton Street and a further two people in South Sherwood Street.
Nottingham University Hospitals NHS trust said two patients were stable and one had been discharged after the van incidents.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said the driver of a marked police car had sight of the vehicle for “less than a minute” before it collided with the pedestrians in South Sherwood Street.
Webber’s family have described their “complete devastation” at the “senseless murder of our son”, saying he was a “beautiful, brilliant, bright young man, with everything in life to look forward to”.
O’Malley-Kumar’s family described her as a “truly wonderful and beautiful young lady” and that she would be “so dearly missed”.
Two of Coates’s sons said his death had “rocked everyone’s world”, adding: “Nobody deserves this but he definitely didn’t.”
Police have said the suspect is a former University of Nottingham student, but said “this is not believed to be connected with the attack”.
The chair of the bench of magistrates, Allison Folkett, remanded Calocane into custody to appear at Nottingham crown court on Tuesday.
