Bold opening: A would-be surrender, a missing intake, and a chain of missed signals that may have altered a city’s dark chapter. And this is the part most people miss: what happened before the 2023 Nottingham knife attack reveals crucial questions about how early warnings are treated and acted upon. Here’s a comprehensive rewrite that preserves every key detail while clarifying context for newcomers.
A man who killed three people during a 2023 knife attack in Nottingham had previously tried to hand himself in to MI5 for arrest two years earlier, an inquiry has heard.
Valdo Calocane, 34, fatally stabbed Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Barnaby Webber, both 19, and Ian Coates, 65, during a stabbing spree in the city on 13 June 2023.
He admitted to manslaughter on the basis of diminished responsibility and was sentenced to indefinite detention at a high-security hospital.
The London-based inquiry heard on Tuesday that, in May 2021, Calocane had attempted to present himself at MI5’s Thames House headquarters in central London to be arrested.
PC Graham Foster confronted Calocane outside after he had pressed the building’s intercom. Foster testified that Calocane had told a security member he wanted to be arrested and to speak with the police.
When asked why he hadn’t interrogated Calocane about his motive for seeking arrest, Foster explained that his aim was to build rapport to determine whether the man was offering any other information. He described Calocane as calm, compliant, and coherent at the time.
Supt Lorraine Busby-McVey of the Metropolitan Police told the inquiry that Calocane had been reviewed by the Fixated Threat Assessment Centre (FTAC), a unit that examines potential threats from fixated individuals, but Calocane did not meet their threshold for further assessment.
Busby-McVey said that an intelligence report from FTAC about Calocane’s Thames House visit was shared with Nottinghamshire Police the following day, 1 June, but the force did not conduct its own immediate assessment. She remarked that she would have preferred if a local review had taken place.
She noted that the report, while sent to the force, was not accessible to all officers within it. Since then, a new system to improve information sharing between police forces has been implemented.
The inquiry also heard from Calocane’s former flatmate, identified only as Sebastian, who said he had reported to Nottinghamshire Police that Calocane had accosted him at their flat, but those reports were not acted upon.
Sebastian described an incident in which Calocane grabbed his shirt and arm, pushed him against a wall, and spoke in confusing terms, adding that Calocane had warned that someone would contact him and that he should tell them that VC would find them.
Sebastian later contacted Nottinghamshire Police. An officer told him a report would be filed and flagged to an agency, but he did not specify which agency would receive it.
In addition to grabbing Sebastian, he said he suspected Calocane of stalking him and attempting to enter his bedroom at night. After the incident, Sebastian began locking his door, fearing another act of aggression at any moment. He reported Calocane’s attempts to enter his room to the officer he had already contacted, but received no response, which he found surprising and strange.
Sebastian said that when he learned about the Nottingham attacks, he suspected Calocane might be the culprit even before his identity was confirmed.
The inquiry into the case continues as investigators piece together how early signals were handled and what could be done to strengthen protective measures in similar situations.
