Inside 'soft' NHS psychiatric hospital where Nottingham triple-killer Valdo Calocane can build Lego and play guitar after prosecutors 'refused' to charge knifeman with murder

Barnaby Webber, Grace O'Malley-Kumar, and Ian Coates were killed in rampageCalocane, 32, pleaded guilty to manslaughter with diminished responsibility

Nottingham triple-killer Valdo Calocane can build Lego and play the guitar while he is detained inside a ‘soft’ NHS psychiatric hospital.

The 32-year-old paranoid schizophrenic will ‘very probably’ spend the rest of his life at high-security Ashworth Hospital for massacring 19-year-old students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, and caretaker Ian Coates, 65.

The knifeman – who said he was hearing voices urging him to kill and believed he was controlled by MI5 and sonic waves – then sped through Nottingham city centre and rammed a white van he stole from Mr Coates into three pedestrians, all of whom survived.

But prosecutors decided not to charge Calocane with murder and instead accepted his guilty plea of manslaughter with diminished responsibility.

It meant the killer was able to swerve being sent to a harsher Category A prison if he was convicted of murder, sparking the fury of the victims’ heartbroken relatives who raged against the decision.

Nottingham triple-killer Valdo Calocane, 32, will ‘very probably’ spend the rest of his life at high-security Ashworth Hospital for massacring 19-year-old students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, and caretaker Ian Coates, 65

Barnaby’s parents said that ‘true justice has not been served’, while Ian’s son James said the killer had ‘got away with murder’.

The heartbroken relatives also accused Nottinghamshire Police of having ‘blood on their hands’ for failing to stop Calocane – who they were seeking to arrest for attacking a police officer at the time he carried out the triple killings on June 13 last year.

Calocane will be able to watch DVDs, listen to vinyl records, and play musical instruments such as the guitar and saxophone inside his room at the NHS hospital in Maghull, near Liverpool.

According to the hospital’s patients possessions catalogue, he’ll be able to watch BBC iPlayer on a 24inch television and also play a games on a computer console.

He can decorate his room with ornaments, flags, pictures, and rugs, and can even gamble on the football pools.

The hospital’s catalogue lets people gift patients items worth up to £300, and allows one completed Lego model at any one time. Patients are then able to take a photo of the set before it is dismantled.

It means Calocane could build models such as the Ghostbusters ECTO-1 and the Star Wars X-Wing Starfighter.

He is also permitted to hug relatives, reported The Sun on Sunday.

Calocane will be able to watch DVDs, listen to vinyl records, and play musical instruments such as the guitar and saxophone inside his room at the NHS hospital in Maghull, near Liverpool

Calocane will be able to roam around the well-tended to gardens in the hospital if he is deemed to be stable

Inside one of the rooms at the hospital which permits patients to have one completed Lego model set worth up to £300

Calocane will also permitted to hug relatives, reported The Sun on Sunday

Calocane ‘will have the freedom to walk around, 24 hours a day’ if he responds to treatment and is deemed to be stable, according to a former Ashworth worker

The ex-hospital worker said the hospital is ‘seen as a holiday camp’ and it has a metal workshop and cookery classes

In comparison, Calocane would have only been allowed an alarm clock, radio, books, and photos if he was sent to a Category A prison.

Calocane ‘will have the freedom to walk around, 24 hours a day’ if he responds to treatment and is deemed to be stable, a former Ashworth worker told The Sun on Sunday.

He said: ‘If Calocane’s stable enough and they get his medication right, he can go to social events where they’ll have a film or a show on.

‘He can go and do education, he can go to the gym, arts and crafts. There’s a metal workshop, cookery classes, even a swimming pool.

‘What I found when I was there is that it’s seen as a holiday camp.’

Two consultant psychiatrists submitted evidence to his sentencing hearing that Calocane ‘knew what he was doing’ and ‘was not insane’ – but it was ultimately decided he was a ‘paranoid schizophrenic’.

This followed the judge also being told three psychiatrists had assessed Valdo Calocane and jointly concluded that he was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia at the time of the offences.

Prosecutor Karim Khalil said the experts concluded the condition ‘resulted in an abnormality of mental function… and an inability to exercise full control.’

The prosecution commissioned psychiatrist Dr Richard Latham to form a view on Calocane’s mental health after families of the victims brought concerns over the CPS having a plan to accept a plea of diminished responsibility in November, The Express reports.

Dr Latham did not personally interview the killer and his views were reached after reviewing assessments made by three psychiatrists who had. He reportedly agreed with the views.

Grace, 19, was a talented sportswoman who had played hockey for England

Barnaby, from Taunton, was stabbed on Ilkeston Road in Nottingham at 4am on June 13

Mr Coates was a grandfather and a much-loved caretaker at a local school

Calocane (top left) glances at a group of youngsters while riding a tram on the same night as his rampage

Calocane lay in wait in a dark alley before leaping out at Barnaby and Grace as they were walking home from a night out

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Forensic psychiatrist Professor Nigel Blackwood also filed a report for the prosecution which mostly concurred with two psychiatric reports from the defence that Calocane’s responsibility was diminished responsibility due to schizophrenia.

But Prof Blackwood said that the killer did not have an absolute defence to murder by insanity, The Express reported. He said: ‘He retains some responsibility in that he was not insane at the time of the assaults.’

While it has also emerged a second police force failed to act on red flags around the killer after he assaulted two of his colleagues just five weeks before his violent spree.

Pressure was growing on the Government to launch an inquiry into the attacks as Sir Keir Starmer backed calls for a probe.

The Labour leader’s intervention came after a three-day sentencing hearing was told Calocane had repeatedly come to the attention of Nottinghamshire police in the months and years leading up to last summer’s rampage.

It was also revealed Leicestershire Police officers had also been called about Calocane – five weeks before he ‘brutally and mercilessly’ stabbed to death Grace, Barnaby, and grandfather Mr Coates.

The force said officers were sent to supply chain firm Arvato’s warehouse in Kegworth after Calocane assaulted two colleagues on May 5 last year, on only his fifth day of employment.

In a statement read on the court steps following his sentencing, Barnaby’s mother Emma said: ‘We as a devastated family have been let down by multiple agency failings and ineffectiveness.

‘The CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) did not consult us as has been reported – instead we have been rushed, hastened and railroaded.’

A sketch of Calocane appearing in court for his sentencing

Emma Webber, mother of Barnaby Webber, making a statement alongside relatives of the victims. Also pictured is Grace O’Malley-Kumar’s father, Dr Sanjoy Kumar, (left) and Ian Coates’ son, James (middle)

Barnaby’s father David and brother Charlie outside Nottingham Crown Court

Two women hug each other outside Nottingham Crown Court after an emotional day

Barnaby’s family (left to right) father David Webber, mother Emma Webber and brother Charlie Webber, arrive at Nottingham Crown Court

Emma said the first meeting with them was on November 24.

‘We were presented with a fait accompli that the decision had been made to accept manslaughter charges,’ she said.

‘At no point during the previous five-and-a-half-months were we given any indication that this could conclude in anything other than murder.

‘We trusted in our system, foolishly as it turns out. We do not dispute that the murderer is mentally unwell and has been for a number of years.

‘However, the pre-mediated planning, the collection of lethal weapons, hiding in the shadows and brutality of the attacks are that of an individual who knew exactly what he was doing. He knew entirely that it was wrong but he did it anyway.’

Mr Justice Turner told the killer his actions had sentenced many relatives and friends of the victims to ‘a life of grief and pain’.

He told the triple killer: ‘There was never any doubt that it was you who had committed these appalling crimes.

‘It soon became clear, however, that the central issue in this case would relate to whether at the time of committing these offences you were suffering from symptoms of severe mental disorder.’

The judge added that the psychiatric evidence did not detract from the ‘horror’ and impact of the offences, but he said, in his view, Calocane’s abnormality of mind had significantly contributed to him perpetrating the string of attacks.

As he was sentenced, Calocane stood with his hands at his side and showed no emotion as he looked towards the sentencing judge.