Triple-killer’s manslaughter pleas accepted by prosecutor, court hears

Valdo Calocane killed two students and a school caretaker and injured three others in a spate of attacks in Nottingham city centre last year.

Valdo Calocane, 32, admitted the manslaughter of school caretaker Ian Coates and students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar (Nottinghamshire Police/PA)

Prosecutors have accepted Nottingham triple-killer Valdo Calocane’s pleas of not guilty to murder and guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility due to “serious” mental illness, a judge has been told.

Prosecutor Karim Khalil KC told Nottingham Crown Court on Tuesday that the families of university students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both 19, and school caretaker Ian Coates, 65, had been consulted before deciding to accept the pleas entered by Calocane, 32.

Calocane, who answered to the name Adam Mendes in court, pleaded guilty at a previous hearing to the manslaughter of Mr Coates and that of university students Barnaby and Grace.

He also admitted attempting to murder three pedestrians who were hit by a van he had stolen from Mr Coates on June 13 last year.

Calocane’s barrister Peter Joyce KC told a previous hearing the defendant “does not dispute the physical facts of the prosecution’s case” but was suffering from “extreme” mental illness at the time of the incident.

Calocane fatally knifed Miss O’Malley-Kumar and Mr Webber, who were studying medicine and history at the University of Nottingham respectively, on Ilkeston Road at around 4am on June 13.

Mr Coates was then found dead in Magdala Road around an hour later, having also been stabbed “repeatedly”.

The defendant then used Mr Coates’ van to drive at three pedestrians, Wayne Birkett, Marcin Gawronski and Sharon Miller, in Milton Street and South Sherwood Street.

They all survived the attack.

The prosecution’s decision to accept the pleas entered by Calocane in November means he will not face trial for murder.

Calocane, who appeared in the dock wearing a dark suit and light blue shirt, now faces a sentencing hearing expected to last for around two days.