Police did not properly probe killer’s assaults before attacks, report says

Police failed to properly investigate an assault on warehouse workers by Nottingham killer Valdo Calocane which could have stopped his murder spree a month later, a report by the police watchdog has found.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct’s (IOPC) report which probed the actions of three Leicestershire Police officers, seen by the PA news agency, resulted in a misconduct meeting rather than a more serious misconduct hearing, meaning the officers will receive a maximum of a final written warning.

Calocane was reported to have punched a man in the face and pushed a woman over at a warehouse in Kegworth on May 5 2023 – a month before he killed 19-year-old students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar and 65-year-old caretaker Ian Coates.

The officer assigned to the investigation, known only as Officer A, failed to check his details on the police national computer (PNC), which would have identified an outstanding arrest warrant, acts of violence and his detention under the Mental Health Act, the report said.

She also told the IOPC that had she run a PNC check on Calocane, she would have prioritised his arrest.

The two alleged victims in the case, who were both Romanian, were contacted by the officer with the use of Google Translate because she was unaware that she could “use an interpreter over the phone”.

CCTV footage of the alleged assault was also not exhibited by Officer A, meaning it was permanently wiped from the force’s systems.

The officer was only 12 days into the job when the incident occurred, the report said.

Her tutor, known as Officer B, said he had accrued a “crime queue” as he had not tutored for six months prior to Officer A joining the force, and accepted he should have satisfied himself that PNC checks were carried out, and apologised.

The supervising officer, known as Sergeant C, agreed his review of the crime report into Calocane “fell short of expected standards”, but told the IOPC he was not “lazy or slacking”, but “simply overworked”.

Despite the failings outlined in the report, the IOPC concluded no lessons could be learned from the errors.

The families of the three murder victims said they have been “excluded” from the “secret” misconduct meeting – describing both Leicestershire Police and the IOPC as “not fit for purpose”.

In a statement, the families said they were “deeply unhappy” and believed the report to be of “very poor quality”.

It read: “Once more we have been let down.

“We are limited in what we can say by the terms of an NDA (non disclosure agreement) that we were made to sign months ago.

“What we can say is that we are aware of the details contained within the IOPC investigation.

“We can confirm we are deeply unhappy and believe it to be of very poor quality.”

The families continued: “The IOPC and Leicestershire (Police) Force have been made aware in detail on numerous occasions of our concerns and thus far have failed to address them.

“Additionally we have very recently been advised that our attendance at the disciplinary meeting may be restricted to remote viewing and the identity of officers under disciplinary action withheld.

“We question why we are excluded from yet another secret meeting.

“Especially when we consider the manner in which an officer in Nottingham was publicly named at a full disciplinary hearing in January 2024 for sharing (and not authoring) an inappropriate WhatsApp message following the murders.

“Thank god that the statutory public inquiry has been confirmed. We put our trust in the truth finally being found out.

“The police force in question and watchdog supposed to hold them to account are not fit for purpose.”

Officer A told the IOPC she “recognised and accepted that she did not complete police national computer (PNC) or police national database (PND) checks on the suspect” but said she “did not know that this needed to be done”, the report said.

IOPC investigators obtained information from the PNC that would have been available at the time of the alleged assaults – which included an outstanding arrest warrant for assaulting an emergency worker from September 2022, following an incident in 2021.

Other incidents involving Calocane available on the PNC were:

– Stalking of a former housemate in July 2022 which resulted in no complaint;

– Assault of another resident in student housing in January 2022 which resulted in no complaint;

– Punching an officer in the face and headbutting him while being sectioned under the Mental Health Act;

– Assault of a flatmate in July 2021 which resulted in no complaint;

– His detention under the Mental Health Act in July 2020;

– And a female being injured after jumping out of an upstairs window after Calocane was kicking her front door in May 2020 which resulted in no further action as he was sectioned.

Officer A also recognised that she “made a mistake” after CCTV footage of the alleged assault was not exhibited after it was recorded on her colleague’s body-worn video.

The report read: “Officer A stated she could have made more attempts to contact the victims, contact witnesses, and obtained the CCTV in an evidential format. She said ‘I’m really sorry I didn’t do any of that’.”

A person known in the report only as Witness X called 999 to report the alleged assaults and in a statement in March 2024, she said she informed the officers who attended that her colleague thought Calocane was bending down to “take hold of a safety knife” and that it was “kicked away from him” when he went to pick it up.

Officer A told the IOPC she recalled a witness mentioning a safety knife that may have been dropped but it was unclear who it belonged to.

She added: “There was no mention that (Calocane) had tried to reach for the knife. I contest I was told about this.”

Concluding its analysis of the officer, the report said: “Officer A stated that she was very new and she accepted she had made mistakes with the way she handled things.

“She stated this was not malicious on her part – it was because she was brand new and she had ‘no idea’.”

Officer B told the IOPC he discussed prioritisation of cases with Officer A but “unfortunately, this one might have fell further down the queue because we didn’t have any details for him at the point”.

He said he assumed the failure to exhibit the CCTV footage must have been “human error” and accepted he could have checked that had been completed.

The officer told the watchdog there was “no hiding” from the fact that intelligence checks on the suspect were not done quickly enough and said they could have been “more robust in seeking arrest attempts”.

An IOPC spokesperson said: “We concluded our investigation in September last year into Leicestershire Police’s handling of assault allegations made against Valdo Calocane in May 2023.

“As a result, three officers will face misconduct meetings being arranged by the force.

“Our report and findings were shared with all of the interested parties including the families of Ian Coates, Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Barnaby Webber.

“Our thoughts and sympathies remain with them.

“We have advised the families and the force that we intend to publish our investigation report and findings following the conclusion of proceedings.

“We are unable to comment further at present.”