'The system is so broken', killer's mum tells inquiry

The Nottingham Inquiry

The mother of Nottingham attacks killer Valdo Calocane has told a public inquiry the system that was supposed to care for him is "so broken".

Valdo, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2020, stabbed to death Barnaby Webber, Grace O'Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates and tried to kill three others in a spate of attacks on 13 June 2023.

Celeste Calocane, Valdo's mother, told the Nottingham Inquiry - which is examining the attacks - that she had to attempt to navigate services she did not understand, while he was sectioned four times in the space of two years.

The inquiry heard Celeste had raised concerns that her son was a risk to the public three years before his fatal attacks.

Valdo, whose family live in Wales, was studying and living in Nottingham when he experienced his first episode of psychosis, the inquiry heard.

He was born in Guinea-Bissau in 1991 and lived in Madeira, and then Lisbon, in Portugal as a young child, before his family moved to the UK when he was 16.

Celeste said she became aware something was wrong with her son in 2020, when he started to call the family "agitated and crying".

He was arrested in May 2020 after trying to break into a neighbour's flat, which led to his first admission to a psychiatric ward at Highbury Hospital in Nottingham on 25 May.

Nottinghamshire Police

Celeste said she was told on that occasion, there was "no diagnosis" for her son at that stage because it was a first episode.

Valdo was discharged on 13 June but Celeste said she felt it was "too early" but said she had "no power" to do anything else beyond agreeing with admissions to hospital.

After his discharge on 11 July, Celeste said she called Valdo's mental health crisis team to say she was concerned he was becoming unwell again, but no further action was taken apart from a phone call to Valdo.

Two days later, Celeste was contacted by the crisis team to say Valdo had tried, again, to break into a neighbour's flat.

The inquiry heard Celeste raised concerns in August 2020 that he was a risk to other people.

Asked if anyone discussed this with her, she said: "I just had to navigate the system myself and try to make sense of what is going on."

She told the inquiry no-one explained the risks to her, what she needed to look out for, or what could happen.

"I was just navigating the system on my own," she said.

Celeste also told the inquiry no-one spoke to her about Valdo's risk to himself.

"At this point I don't even know what can happen to him. I'm just like living in anxiety basically," she said.

Later on Thursday, Celeste addressed the chair of the inquiry - retired senior judge Deborah Taylor KC - and said she wanted to help Taylor bring about changes "so no-one has to go through what happened".

"No brother or mother should be left alone in that situation to try to navigate the service," she said. "I think somebody should sit and explain to you, 'this is the diagnosis, this is what you need to know, this is what you have to look at'.

"The system is so broken. No-one should have to go to bed thinking I'm going to have a phone call tomorrow that something happened to my loved one.

"When it gets to crisis, it's too late."

At that point, one of the son's of Ian Coates, Darren, stormed out of the hearing room.

Valdo was sectioned four times between May 2020 and January 2022.

Celeste told the inquiry that throughout her son's care, she never saw the decisions about his care until she asked for all of his medical records in 2024, following Valdo's sentencing for manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and attempted murder.

She said she spoke to mental health services "100 times" throughout his care but felt she had "no power".

She said she was not aware of Valdo's fourth hospital admission in 2022 until she received his records.

Celeste said: "I didn't know much of what was going on. The ties cut completely."

Valdo withdrew consent for details of his care to be shared with his mother in December 2021, a decision Celeste did not believe her son had the capacity to make.

By then, Celeste's contact with Valdo became less frequent and when they did speak, Valdo told his mum he was taking his medication and was "fine", she said.

The last time Celeste said she saw her son Valdo before his killings was in November 2022.

She told the inquiry she was on the way to a concert in Birmingham to surprise her daughter and Valdo decided to meet them.

The inquiry heard he was presentable, washed and clean, but that Celeste felt there was "a kind of emptiness" in him.

'He was empty'

Celeste said mental health services and Valdo had told her he was "fine" and that she felt she had to adjust to a "new son".

She said: "Just looking at him as a person, there wasn't anything there.

"He wasn't the Valdo that I knew, that I raised in my house.

"He wasn't that Valdo when I look at him. He was empty. There was nothing there."

Celeste said she felt there was nothing else she could have done.

She added: "This was my new son, so I just had to adjust to it."

The inquiry heard on the morning of the attacks, Elias contacted his mother Celeste, who was at work, concerned about a call he had received from Valdo.

Valdo told Elias it was the last time Elias would hear from him, and when asked if he was going to do something stupid, Valdo responded "it is already done".

By then, the inquiry has previously heard that Valdo had killed Barnaby and Grace.

Celeste said when Elias told her about that exchange, she did not want to leave work, despite having concerns for her son.

Challenged on why she did not leave work and call Elias back, she said: "Looking back, maybe that's what I should have done, but I didn't do that because this is something I've been living with for the last three years."

The inquiry continues.

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