Indian-origin teen killed in UK, attack could have been avoided, says father

The parents of a 19-year-old British-Indian medical student who was stabbed to death with her friend in Nottingham, England, last year said that the attack could have been avoided if the attacker’s mental health had been properly managed by his doctors. Grace and her friend Barnaby Webber, both 19, were attacked by Valdo Calocane, who has since been detained in a high-security hospital under a mental health order. Three people were stabbed to death by Calocane in June 2023.

The Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT), managed Calocane's care from May 2020 to September 2022.

In January, Valdo Calocane, a 32-year-old dual Guinea-Bissau/Portuguese national, pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

A review by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which oversees healthcare services in England, found “a series of errors, omissions and misjudgements” by mental health services in managing Calocane’s condition.

“I think I can categorically say that if this man had been treated and had taken his treatment, this whole attack would have been avoided,” Sanjoy Kumar, Grace's father, told the BBC.

FAMILIES DEMAND PUBLIC ENQUIRY

The affected families are now calling for a “statutory public enquiry led by a judge” to ensure improvements in the system.

Kumar emphasised the need to focus on Nottingham to understand and rectify what went wrong, highlighting that similar systems are in place nationwide.

Calocane, in his 30s, exhibited symptoms of psychosis and struggled to understand or accept his condition, with issues in taking his medication noted early on.

The CQC review was requested by the former health secretary, Victoria Atkins, to investigate the Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT), which managed Calocane's care from May 2020 to September 2022.

“He presented with symptoms of psychosis and appeared to have little understanding or acceptance of his condition. Issues with him taking his medication were also recorded from early on. This review finds that there appear to have been a series of errors, omissions, and misjudgements in his care,” the report finds, according to the BBC.

BRITISH GOVERNMENT CONSIDERING PUBLIC ENQUIRY

UK Health Secretary Wes Streeting confirmed that the government and Attorney General are “actively considering” how to initiate an enquiry.

In a joint statement reacting to the CQC report, the victims' families said, "This report shows major, widespread failures in how the mental health trust handled Calocane, from start to finish."

“Clinicians involved at every stage of Calocane’s care must bear a heavy burden of responsibility for their failures and poor decision-making. Sadly, this is the first of what we expect to be a series of damning reports concerning failures by public bodies in the lead up to the killings of our loved ones, and beyond. Along with the Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire police forces, these departments and individual professionals have blood on their hands,” reported the BBC.