Nottingham attack families recognise gravity of PM meeting, victim’s mother says
The victims’ families are due to meet with the PM, the Home Secretary, the Health Secretary and the Attorney General on Wednesday.
The families affected by the Nottingham attacks “recognise the gravity and importance” of their meeting with the Prime Minister and expect a statutory public inquiry to be announced this year, the mother of one of the victims has said.
Emma Webber, the mother of Barnaby Webber, told the PA news agency she expected an inquiry to be confirmed during the meeting at Number 10 on Wednesday, describing it as a “watershed moment for this case”.
Valdo Calocane killed 19-year-old students Barnaby and Grace O’Malley-Kumar and 65-year-old caretaker Ian Coates before attempting to kill three other people in a spate of attacks in the city in June 2023.
He was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order in January 2024 after admitting manslaughter by diminished responsibility and attempted murder.
The families of those killed in the attacks are expected to meet the PM, the Home Secretary, the Health Secretary and the Attorney General in Wednesday’s meeting.
Mrs Webber told PA: “The families recognise the gravity and importance of their meeting with the Prime Minister, Home Secretary, Health Secretary, Attorney General and victim’s minister on Wednesday.
“From it they expect to receive confirmation that the promised public inquiry will be a statutory one.
“That a suitable start date within 2025 is set and terms to be agreed for who will lead it and how it will be led.
“It must have the ‘teeth’ it needs to ensure full transparency and compel agencies and individuals, involved to take the stand and tell the truth.
“The Webber, Coates and Kumar families have nothing to hide, defend or embellish. They expect nothing other than this from those who must now be brought forward.
“It must be a watershed moment for this case, for public safety and for the health service and criminal justice system.”
Their scheduled meeting with the PM follows the publication of NHS England’s report into the mental health care received by Calocane in the lead up to the attacks, which found the offer of care and treatment available for him “was not always sufficient to meet his needs”.
Downing Street previously said Sir Keir is committed to a judge-led inquiry and has not ruled out a public inquiry with full statutory powers.
Mrs Webber continued: “It has been a long and traumatic fight to reach this point.
“At every corner turned, since that catastrophic day in June 2023, our families have endured appalling treatment at the hands of Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire police forces, the Crown Prosecution Service and criminal justice system, and Nottingham mental health trust.
“Public agencies that should have been there to protect – instead they failed on an epic level.
“The families’ dogged determination to get to the truth has uncovered a shameful catalogue of failures.
“Failures, mistruths, poor leadership and gross negligence that has resulted in a tragedy that was wholly preventable.
“Failures that have thus far held no-one to account and also permitted a gross miscarriage of justice.
“None of the nine investigations, completed or still underway, have proved fit for purpose. They are full of holes, errors and omissions.”
