Brother feared triple killer would take his own life

6 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleAsha PatelandIsaac Ashe,East Midlands

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The brother of the Nottingham attacks killer has said he feared Valdo Calocane was going to take his own life, a public inquiry has heard.

Calocane, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2020, stabbed to death Barnaby Webber, Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates in Nottingham on 13 June 2023.

His younger brother Elias Calocane had received a number of messages from Calocane, expressing thoughts of violence and “red rum” – a reference to murder – in 2020, before Calocane’s first admission to hospital.

On Wednesday, Elias told the Nottingham Inquiry he believed his brother’s messages were about harming himself, and said he felt “powerless” when it came to his brother’s mental health.

The inquiry heard Calocane – who also seriously injured three others in the attacks across the city – started to become unwell while he was a student at the University of Nottingham, and was eventually diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in July 2020.

Following Calocane’s first admission to a psychiatric ward in May 2020, Elias compiled a document of interactions between him and his brother from as early as 2017.

Elias said he hoped the document would have “helped” doctors treating his brother.

Nottinghamshire Police

That document included a series of messages between the brothers, in which Calocane described hearing voices and saying he wanted to “harm, permanently”.

Elias said he believed in that conversation, Calocane was referring to harming himself, rather than others.

He told the inquiry he started taking notes about his interactions with Calocane because he “didn’t know what else to do”.

The inquiry heard Elias was never contacted by mental health professionals about the document, which he believed had been “lost in the ether”.

Elias told the inquiry he saw his brother twice between January 2020 and June 2023 – once in 2020 and once in 2022.

He told the inquiry he had tried to reason with his brother’s delusions about being monitored and hearing voices, but “struggled” with their relationship.

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Elias held back tears as he said: “I guess I can say more confidently looking back, but part of this was a defence mechanism on my part, of dealing with a loss ahead of time, if that makes sense.

“I thought that – and I explained this to people – that every time mum called me during that period, I thought it was going to be… um, yeah, I just found it really hard.”

He added there was a “sense of hopelessness that comes with all of this”, and that he did not really know what was going on.

Elias said he had to wait for something to happen, and hoped it would not be that bad.

“I couldn’t see another way out,” he said. “I just didn’t know what to do about it. I felt powerless.”

Elias told the inquiry he only learned of his brother’s paranoid schizophrenia diagnosis in October 2023, four months after the killings.

The families of the bereaved shook their heads in disagreement as Elias gave evidence about his knowledge of his brother’s illness.

The atmosphere in the hearing room became tense, as Elias was challenged by Tim Moloney KC – representing the bereaved families – on why he did not visit his brother.

Elias said: “I found it very difficult and the way I dealt with it was by withdrawing.”

Addressing Moloney, he added: “I understand that you have instructions to essentially bully me and my family, but I do find this interaction a little bit strange.”

Emma Webber – mother of Barnaby Webber – loudly scoffed as Moloney ended questioning abruptly.

The inquiry was told Calocane called Elias the night before the attacks on 12 June 2023, at 19:09 BST.

Elias said he knew at this point Calocane was in London, because he heard a train announcement for Blackfriars.

During that call, Calocane spoke about a zip file of documents he had send to their parents about his delusions around being monitored.

Calocane then woke Elias up at 04:52 the following morning with another phone call.

By then, he had already killed Barnaby and Grace and was walking across Nottingham before killing Ian.

Elias said: “I was a little bit confused as to what he was talking about.

“I asked, ‘are you going to do something stupid?’ Thinking about suicide. He said ‘it’s already done’.”

Elias told the inquiry: “I still have that in my head.

“I think I messaged him a few times saying, ‘you have to think about mum and dad if you do something’… and trying to get his attention.”

Reuters

Elias said he tried to call his brother a few times to get his attention before considering filing a missing persons report.

He then checked social media, where he saw Nottingham was “trending” as a topic.

He told the inquiry: “I looked at it out of curiosity, I associate Nottingham with Valdo, and there was lots of chat about a potential terrorist incident in Nottingham – police involved, city cordoned off.

“I thought there’s no way this is related and then eventually Nottinghamshire Police released an update and mentioned an incident on Ilkeston Road, and I remembered Valdo had lived on Ilkeston Road, and I thought it matched up with the timings for my phone call with him.”

Representing the survivors of the attacks – Wayne Birkett, Sharon Miller and Marcin Gawronski – Sophie Cartwright KC told Elias he should have called 999 after taking that call from Calocane on the morning of the attacks.

The inquiry continues.

Listen: Calocane ‘shouldn’t have been discharged’ to his GP

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Related internet links

The Nottingham Inquiry

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