Mental health services discharged Nottingham killer Valdo Calocane because they couldn't find him, inquiry hears

Nottingham attacker Valdo Calocane was discharged from mental health services because they couldn't find him - just months before he killed three people. 

The former mechanical engineering student had been under the care of Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust for two years, during which time a consultant psychiatrist warned he would end up killing someone.

But in September 2022 he was discharged by the trust's psychosis team because he was failing to turn up for appointments.

Nine months later he stabbed to death students Barnaby Webber and Grace O'Malley-Kumar, both 19, in Ilkeston Road, Nottingham, and caretaker Ian Coates, 65, in the early hours of 13 June 2023.

Emma Robinson, a team leader at the trust, told an inquiry into the deaths on Tuesday that trust workers had come to his address and made calls to him - which went unanswered.

Tim Moloney KC, who represents the families of Mr Webber, Ms O'Malley-Kumar and Mr Coates, asked: "Did you consider the risks to the public from that man?"

She replied: "We did consider that, but we felt that within the time of decision we had no holding powers, we couldn't work with him, we couldn't find him at this point. We just couldn't find him to work with him."

Calocane's last contact with the team had been by phone on 16 July, when he lied about being abroad.

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Mr Moloney asked "Had you lost him?", to which Ms Robinson replied: "Yes."

The lawyer asked: "Is that primarily why you discharged him?"

Ms Robinson said: "Yes, because we couldn't find him to treat him or engage him."

Mr Moloney said that by discharging Calocane to his GP, the trust "left him to the general public to deal with".

Ms Robinson said: "I wouldn't say the general public to deal with. It's not uncommon for us to discharge non-engaging patients, unfortunately, at that time. I think things are very different now."

In a statement written by Ms Robinson explaining her rationale for discharging Calocane, she said: "It's dire for me to think this now, but I used to think sometimes is it worse to have somebody open on caseloads that you're not engaging with? Should we be discharging them instead?

"What does it look like if something happens and we've got this person open to us and we haven't seen him for months and months and months?"

Chairwoman Deborah Taylor said Calocane's GP was "effectively sent very little information" after his discharge.

The witness also told the inquiry that the trust did not tell Nottinghamshire Police that Calocane had been discharged.

The inquiry continues.

(c) Sky News 2026: Mental health services discharged Nottingham killer Valdo Calocane because they