Prosecutors are to be investigated for their handling of the Valdo Calocane case, including their decision to accept his manslaughter pleas, the attorney general has announced.
Victoria Prentis said the review would look at the Crown Prosecution Service’s decision to accept Calocane’s guilty pleas to manslaughter on the basis of diminished responsibility, and whether the CPS met its duties to consult the families before accepting the pleas.
Calocane, 32, killed students Barnaby Webber, 19, Grace O’Malley-Kumar, 19, and school caretaker Ian Coates, 65, in Nottingham in the early hours of 13 June last year, before running over three people.
Prentis said: “The senseless deaths of Barnaby Webber, Grace O’Malley-Kumar, and Ian Coates have horrified the country.
“While nothing will bring their loved ones back, the families understandably want to understand what happened in this case.
“That’s why I have asked the inspectorate to carry out a prompt and thorough review of CPS actions so we can properly investigate the concerns raised by the families in this devastating case.”
The review will be carried out by His Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate, and is due to be completed by Easter.
Speaking outside court after Calocane’s sentencing, Emma Webber, the mother of Barnaby Webber, said “true justice has not been served” and criticised the CPS for accepting Calocane’s pleas. She said the victims’ families had been “rushed, hastened and railroaded” into the decision.
On Monday night, the families met the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, in Downing Street, who reportedly told them he had not ruled out a public inquiry into the case.
In an interview with ITV’s This Morning on Tuesday, the prime minister said: “What they’ve expressed to me are a bunch of questions about what’s happened that they have.
“How did the NHS operate? Was mental health properly checked? How was the police investigation conducted? How was the Crown Prosecution Service operating and interacting with them? I think those are all perfectly reasonable questions.
“What I said to them is that we will get the answers. That’s what they deserve. That’s what I’ve committed to.”
David Webber, Barnaby’s father, said: “We did get an assurance from the prime minister himself that if it’s required, they’re not ruling out a public inquiry.”
James Coates, the son of Ian Coates, said it did not matter how long an inquiry took “as long as it’s done properly”.
“It has to be deep, it has to be detailed, it has to be independent,” he said. “I do feel listened to, I think we’ve spoke to the right people that can push this in the right direction, we now just have to wait.”
The health secretary has ordered a special reviewof the mental health services at the Nottinghamshire NHS trust where Calocane was treated in the years before the attacks.
The attorney general is also looking at the sentence handed to Calocane under the unduly lenient sentencing scheme.
He was sentenced to be detained at a high security hospital after the court heard his schizophrenia was “resistant to treatment” and could not be cured. Judge Justice Turner said Calocane would “very probably” spend the rest of his life there.
Leicestershire police have referred themselves to the Independent Office for Police Conduct over how they handled investigations into alleged assaults committed by Calocane on co-workers in the weeks before the attacks.
The policing minister has met senior leaders at Nottinghamshire police to discuss the case, after it emerged a warrant was issued for his arrest in 2022 but officers failed to track him down.
