Police are forced to apologise again over its handling of Nottingham knife rampage after releasing terrified member of the public’s 999 call without his permission – as victims’ parents call for full public enquiry into force’s ‘failures’

Police have been forced to apologise again over its handling of the Nottingham triple killings after the force released a distraught man’s harrowing 999 call without his permission. 

Paranoid schizophrenic Valdo Calocane, 32, lay in wait in a dark alley before leaping out on University of Nottingham students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar during the savage attack at 4am on June 13.

He then ‘calmly’ walked across the city to ambush and kill school caretaker Ian Coates, 65, stealing his van and then mowing down three pedestrians. 

Nottinghamshire Police released a terrified member of the public’s 999 call after Calocane was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order after pleading guilty to three counts of manslaughter with diminished responsibility.

But the man who had witnessed the horrific stabbings after hearing ‘blood-curdling’ screams was unaware the recording was going to be made public and was left ‘shocked’ and ‘disappointed’ when he heard it broadcast on news channels. 

Today, Barnaby’s mother Emma Webber and Grace’s parents, Dr Sanjoy Kumar and Dr Sinead O’Malley, urged the police force to ‘do the right thing and refer themselves for the failures in the investigation’ as they called for a full public enquiry. 

The man, who didn’t want to give his real name, told the BBC: ‘he first time I heard [the call] I went into panic again. It took me back to the morning of the day last June.

‘I was flabbergasted that they hadn’t told me they wanted to use it.’

Describing the attacks, he said: ‘Seeing two young people being attacked and stabbed will never leave me.

‘[I was awoken by] blood-curdling screams. It’s a student area but this sounded different. It was horrendous. I knew somebody was in trouble.

‘It’s something I would never wish on anyone. It was dreadful.’

The man said he had started taking antidepressants since witnessing the attacks.

He added: ‘As I was on the phone, who I now know as Grace, came over to the assailant and tried to stop him from attacking Barnaby before [Calocane] turned on her.

‘He callously and calmly just turned around after. He just walked off as if nothing had happened – that shook me.

‘It’s something I wish I’d never seen and I wish the situation had never happened. I have been having nightmares since.

‘I wish I could have done more but that’s hindsight. Since last June that’s been playing on my mind for the past nearly a year.

‘Afterwards you think, I could’ve rushed downstairs, climbed out, spooked the assailant; I could have shouted, but I was just frozen.

‘Police said to me that I could have been next if I tried to save anybody.’

In audio of an emergency call to police shortly after the stabbings of Barnaby and Grace, a man is heard saying down the phone ‘oh no’ before describing the horrific scene. 

‘There’s been a stabbing on Ilkeston Road, there’s someone lying on the street – I think they’re dead. Oh, that was awful,’ he says. 

‘Whereabouts on Ilkeston Road please?’ the 999 controller asks, to which the man – who has not been identified – replies, ‘Near the crossroads.’ 

A spokesperson for Nottinghamshire Police said: ‘We’ve been made aware the caller feels upset by hearing the 999 call again and we have apologised for any distress caused.’

Mrs Webber, Dr Kumar, and Dr O’Malley told Good Morning Britain this morning questioned the handling of the case and said Calocane should be in prison or hospital for the rest of his life. 

Mrs Webber said: ‘I think it’s time to come out publicly and say to Kate Meynell, she’s the Chief Constable of Nottinghamshire Police, we’ve had lots of correspondence over the past few weeks, funnily enough, not very much at all before the hearing, but I want to say to her – do the right thing, refer yourself for the investigation, for the failures in the investigation.’ 

She said they had been ‘deliberately misled’ and accused the force of not carrying out the investigation properly.  

The force has already been heavily criticised by the families of Calocane’s victims after it emerged the killer was wanted by police at the time of his arrest for failing to turn up to court for an alleged violent assault on one of its officers.

Assistant Chief Constable Rob Griffin admitted the force ‘could have done more’ to arrest Calocane before he carried out his violent spree – prompting Barnaby’s grief-stricken mother Emma Webber to say the police had ‘blood on his hands’.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is also considering whether to carry out an investigation into the force over several contacts it had with Calocane, dating back to 2020.

Officers had helped transport him to mental health institutions on several occasions, and were called after he allegedly assaulted a flatmate in 2022. 

On that occasion the force said he wasn’t arrested because ‘action wasn’t supported’.

One IOPC probe is also underway after police confirmed officers were following Calocane at the time he ploughed into two pedestrians in Mr Coates’ Vauxhall Vivaro van, shortly before he was tasered and arrested.

And a second force, Leicestershire Police, is also being investigated after it failed to arrest Calocane just days before the killings when he allegedly assaulted two work colleagues at a warehouse in Kegworth.

The mental health services and Crown Prosecution Service have also faced criticism over their roles in the case. A special review has been ordered into the NHS trust that treated him.

Barnaby’s family has now called for a public inquiry into the case.