Three officers are under investigation over their inquiries into alleged assaults by Valdo Calocane before he killed three people in Nottingham, the police watchdog has said.
The Leicestershire Police officers may face charges of potential misconduct as a result of how they investigated allegations against the triple killer the month before Grace O’Malley-Kumar, Barnaby Webber and Ian Coates died, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said.
Two constables and a sergeant have been told they are being investigated over how inquiries were progressed, the IOPC said.
It is claimed Calocane assaulted two colleagues at an industrial estate in Kegworth, Leicester, in May last year.
The following month, he went on to kill students Mr Webber and Ms O’Malley-Kumar, along with caretaker Mr Coates, in a knife rampage in Nottingham.
Leicestershire Police referred itself to the watchdog in February this year. A spokesperson said: “The force is actively cooperating with the IOPC investigation.”
Separately, the watchdog is also examining several complaints made by the Nottingham victims’ families.
Investigators are looking at what information was available to police about Calocane before the killings on 13 June 2023.
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Nottingham attack victims remembered
They are also examining:
• Nottinghamshire Police’s decisions and actions relating to Calocane between September 2021 and 13 June last year;
• How the force informed the families of the death of their loved ones and the support they put in place for them;
• Whether senior officers followed relevant policies and procedures in their oversight of officers investigating the events of 13 June and subsequent events – including communications with the family and public over the handling of inappropriate WhatsApp messaging and potential sharing of information about the case.
The IOPC said all Nottinghamshire Police officers are currently being treated as witnesses, meaning there is no indication of any wrongdoing at this stage.
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‘Killer treated as patient not criminal’
Calocane, 32, was handed an indefinite hospital order for the manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility of Grace O’Malley-Kumar, Barnaby Webber and Ian Coates, and the attempted murder of three others last June.
The attacker’s guilty pleas were accepted after medical evidence showed he has paranoid schizophrenia.
The judge at his sentencing said he would be detained at a high-security hospital “very probably” for the rest of his life.
Attorney General Victoria Prentis referred the sentence to the Court of Appeal in February, arguing it was “unduly lenient”.
At a hearing in May lawyers said Calocane should instead be given a “hybrid” life sentence, where he would first be treated for his paranoid schizophrenia before serving the remainder of his jail term in prison.
But senior judges at the Royal Courts of Justice in London later ruled the sentence was not unduly lenient.
