Nottingham triple killer ‘heard voices and visited MI5 to ask them to stop controlling him’, court hears

Valdo Calocane was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia when he ‘brutally’ stabbed Barnaby Webber, Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates
Stephanie Wareham24 January 2024
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A knifeman who killed three people and attacked three others was hearing voices who threatened him, and once visited MI5’s London headquarters to ask them to stop “controlling him”, a court has been told.

Valdo Calocane was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia when he “brutally” stabbed students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both 19, and school caretaker Ian Coates, 65, in Nottingham in the early hours of last June 13.

Calocane has admitted three counts of manslaughter and three of attempted murder after hitting three other pedestrians with a van he stole from Mr Coates.

Nottingham Crown Court heard from psychiatrists on Wednesday who discussed Calocane’s mental state, with one telling the packed court room the 32-year-old heard voices telling him he needed to kill people or his family would be hurt.

Calocane’s barrister also told the court the defendant once visited MI5’s London headquarters, asking them to stop “controlling him”.

Peter Joyce KC said: “He (Calocane) tried to surrender to MI5 at their headquarters to try and stop them controlling him.

“That’s not a concoction by him.

“There is a photograph taken by their systems at Thames House, saying ‘please arrest me’ – effectively ‘stop controlling me’.”

Mr Joyce said the incident happened on May 31 2021, about two years before the “desperate episode” in which three people were killed on the streets of Nottingham.

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