Families of Nottingham stabbing victims gather on first anniversary | UK News

The families of victims of the Nottingham stabbing attack have laid flowers at the site where two university students were killed a year after the incident.

Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both 19, were repeatedly stabbed by Valdo Calocane as they headed home after a night out to celebrate the end of their exams.

The 32-year-old also stabbed school caretaker Ian Coates, 65, to death as he headed to work at Huntingdon Academy in the early hours of June 13, 2023.

Today a funeral ceremony is being held at the university, where the vice-rector and the chaplain will observe a two-minute silence.

In a statement before the service, the Webber, Coates and O’Malley-Kumar families said the deaths were a “series of catastrophic missed opportunities” which has led to “entirely preventable deaths” and “no stone will be left unturned” in their battle for justice.

Calocane pleaded guilty to three counts of manslaughter due to the decrease in responsibility in January.

The families tried to appeal the sentence, but the Court of Appeal ruled in May that the sentence was “not overly tolerant” given medical evidence showed that he has paranoid schizophrenia.

Since the attacks, the three families have been intensely critical of Nottinghamshire Police and Nottinghamshire Healthcare Foundation Trust after they were revealed that Calocane had already been detained four times in hospitaland an arrest warrant was issued months before the murders.

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