Calocane, who had paranoid schizophrenia, was under the care of Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust for two years and was sectioned four times. During that period, he warned he would end up killing someone. The victims were Barnaby Webber, Grace O'Malley-Kumar, and Ian Coates.
The Nottingham Inquiry is examining the events of the killings and the aftermath. Calocane was discharged from the Early Intervention in Psychosis (EIP) service in September 2022. The discharge decision was made after Calocane did not turn up for appointments or make contact.
We couldn't work with him, we couldn't find him at this point.
His care co-ordinator Gary Carter had attended his address, made calls to him, and sent a letter, which went unanswered. Calocane's last contact with the EIP team was by phone on 16 July, when he lied about being abroad. Emma Robinson, a team leader with EIP from 2019 to 2022, confirmed they had 'lost' Calocane and that was primarily why they discharged him.
An independent report found Calocane had no contact with mental health services or his GP for about nine months prior to the killings. There were missed opportunities to take more assertive action towards Calocane's care, and his risk was not fully understood, managed, documented or communicated. Tim Moloney KC, representing the bereaved families, asked if the trust considered the risk to the public when discharging Calocane.
We considered the risk but felt we had no holding powers and could not find him to work with him.
Robinson said they considered the risk but felt they had no holding powers and could not find him to work with him. She said Calocane was a very difficult person to engage with and needed a more robust service than early intervention could offer. In hindsight, she said, he needed a team that could do more follow-up.
Moloney said by discharging Calocane to his GP, the trust 'left him to the general public to deal with'. Robinson said it is not uncommon to discharge non-engaging patients, but things are very different now. In a written statement, she said she used to think sometimes it might be worse to have someone open on caseloads that you're not engaging with, and questioned whether they should be discharging them instead.
We had lost him, and that was primarily why we discharged him.
An NHS review found Calocane was not forced to take his anti-psychotic medication in part because he did not like needles. The voice of Calocane's family was not effectively considered to support the dynamic evaluation of risk during his treatment. Other patients under the care of the same trust had perpetrated acts of serious violence across 15 incidents between 2019 and 2023.
Calocane was sentenced to a hospital order in January 2024. A review by the CPS found prosecutors were right to accept Calocane's manslaughter pleas on the basis of diminished responsibility but could have handled the case better. A judge ruled Calocane's sentence was not unduly lenient.
He was a very difficult person to engage with and needed a more robust service than early intervention could offer.
A public inquiry into failings which led to the Nottingham attacks began yesterday. Nisa Chisipochinyi, Head of Equity and Racial Justice at Rethink Mental Illness, warned that reports from the inquiry risk causing harm, particularly where complex issues are summed up in headlines or presented in ways that reinforce stigma. National data consistently show that Black people, and Black men in particular, are detained under mental health legislation at disproportionately high rates compared with white people.
The decision to detain someone must be based on clinical assessment and risk, not race.
In hindsight he needed a team that could do more follow-up.
It is not uncommon to discharge non-engaging patients, but things are very different now.
I used to think sometimes it might be worse to have someone open on caseloads that you're not engaging with, and questioned whether they should be discharging them instead.