Nottingham killer Valdo Calocane's sentence not 'unduly lenient' say top Court of Appeal judges

Nottingham attacks killer Valdo Calocane will not have his manslaughter sentence changed after the Court of Appeal refused an appeal that claimed the sentence was "unduly lenient". Attorney General Victoria Prentis applied to the court in February after Calocane was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order in January.

He had admitted the manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility of Barnaby Webber, Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates, and the attempted murder of three others, in a spate of attacks in Nottingham last year. Lawyers argued that the 32-year-old 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 the Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr, Lord Justice Edis and Mr Justice Garnham ruled that his sentence was fair when judgement was handed down at 10am on Tuesday, May 14 at the Royal Courts of Justice in London. They concluded that "there was no error in the approach adopted by the judge" and that "the sentences imposed were not arguably unduly lenient."

Giving the judgement, Baroness Carr said: "It is impossible to read of the circumstances of this offending without the greatest possible sympathy for the victims of these terrible attacks, and their family and friends. Had the offender not suffered the mental condition that he did, the sentencing judge would doubtless have been considering a whole life term.

"But neither the judge nor this court can ignore the medical evidence as to the offender’s condition which led to these dreadful events or the threat to public safety which the offender continues to pose." They confirmed, however, that the extreme nature of Calocane's violence makes it "very likely" that he will spend the rest of his life in hospital.

The judges were asked to look at whether the sentence was unduly lenient based on the evidence before the sentencing judge, Mr Justice Turner, at the time. Calocane was sentenced at Nottingham Crown Court for the fatal stabbings of students Mr Webber and Ms O’Malley-Kumar, both 19, and 65-year-old school caretaker Mr Coates in the early hours of June 13 last year.

After killing Mr Coates, Calocane stole his van and hit three pedestrians before being arrested. Prosecutors later accepted his not guilty pleas to murder after medical evidence showed he had paranoid schizophrenia.

Lawyer Deanna Heer KC, representing the Attorney General’s Office, told the Court of Appeal at the hearing on Wednesday, May 8, that the “extreme” crimes warrant “the imposition of a sentence with a penal element, an element of punishment”. Peter Joyce KC, for Calocane, said none of the offences would have been committed “but for the psychosis”, and imposing a hybrid order would mean he would be “punished for being mentally ill”.