A police officer described the students stabbed to death in Nottingham last summer as “truly butchered” and said officers “tried to hold their insides”.
Sky News can reveal the “disgusting” police WhatsApp message sent following the murders of Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar on June 13, 2023.
Their families are horrified by the language used by a police officer when discussing the stabbings with colleagues.
Valdo Calocane, 32, a paranoid schizophrenic, stabbed the two 19-year-olds to death as they walked home after a night out, before flagging down and killing the school caretaker, 65-year-old Ian Coates.
At the time, a police officer sent messages to colleagues in a WhatsApp group.
The message read: “So 2 students on Ilkeston road were massacred, 4 sections [officers] appeared and tried to contain their insides. The suspects then fled and attacked a man in a car in Magdala [road] and stabbed him to death.”
Another officer, PC Matt Gell, shared the message outside the police WhatsApp group with his wife and two friends.
Barnaby and Grace’s families learned of the message’s contents in February, but were so disturbed by its contents that they only felt comfortable releasing it now, despite the pain it causes them.
Grace’s father, Dr. Sanjoy Kumar, said the message was “so disgusting.”
Valdo Calocane received a hospital order for the deaths. Photo: PA
“Would someone with a child, a mother, a relative use words like that?” he asked.
“Why have Nottinghamshire Police forgotten that these are our dear, beloved children they are referring to? I have tears in my eyes every time the message echoes in my head,” said Dr Kumar.
“The message is as barbaric as the crime to me.”
Nottinghamshire Police Chief Constable Kate Meynell acknowledged to Dr Kumar that some of the WhatsApp messages were “rude and unpleasant”.
‘Insensitive and degrading’
Emma Webber, Barnaby’s mother, has now written an open letter to members of the WhatsApp group after requests to meet the officers involved were rejected by the force.
“The callous, degrading and insensitive manner of your comments has caused more trauma than you can imagine,” she wrote.
“When you say ‘some students were duly massacred’, did you stop to think about the absolute terror they felt the moment they were ambushed and repeatedly stabbed by a man who planned his attack and stood waiting in the shadows for them?
“When you say ‘guts out and all,’ did you think of the agony they felt and the final thoughts that went through their minds as this cruel individual inflicted wounds so severe they had no chance of surviving?”
Caretaker Ian Coates was also murdered in the stampede. Photo: Huntingdon Academy
‘Killers can get away with it’, say victims’ families
Mrs Webber’s letter also calls for tougher action from the officers involved.
“Anyone who can testify to the details of such a horror that occurred… and refer to the lost children as slaughtered animals; should seriously consider their position,” she says.
“So, to the author of this message, we understand that you have received a warning from the administration. I pray you read this and take a break for a while.
“Dig a little deeper for compassion and care. Show the respect in the future that you didn’t give Barney.”
PC admits ‘lapse in judgement’
The officer who wrote the message was not subject to a misconduct hearing, but received “administration intervention.”
In January, PC Gell, who passed the message on to people outside the force, was found guilty of serious misconduct and given a final written warning after consulting records relating to Calocane when he did not participate in the investigation.
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Forensic officers at the scene following the June attacks. Photo: PA
The panel at the hearing agreed with his acknowledgment that he had “a lapse in judgment.”
A special police officer was also fired for seeing images used of the two students’ bodies in their final moments.
It found that almost 180 police employees viewed material related to the case, with 11 of them having no “legitimate reason” for doing so.
Nottinghamshire Police turned to the Independent Office for Police Conduct after families raised a number of concerns about the investigation and police conduct, including the force’s failure to inform relatives that its Professional Standards Directorate was investigating the officers.
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The College of Policing is also conducting a review of how the force handled the case.
Deputy Chief Constable Steve Cooper previously told Sky News that action on the WhatsApp message was taken “immediately”.
“Some of the words were rude and in bad taste. It was a single message and no images were taken or shared,” he said.
This story originally appeared on News.sky.com read the full story
