Nottingham triple killer should have sentence changed to life imprisonment, court hears

Nottingham triple killer Valdo Calocane should have his sentence changed to one of life imprisonment, the Court of Appeal has heard.

Valdo Calocane was handed an indefinite hospital order after admitting the manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility of Barnaby Webber, Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates in Nottingham city centre last June. He also admitted the attempted murder of three others.

Prosecutors accepted the 32-year-old's not guilty pleas to murder charges at his sentencing hearing in January after medical evidence showed he has paranoid schizophrenia. But the 'unduly lenient' sentence was referred to the Court of Appeal in February by Attorney General Victoria Prentis.

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At a hearing today (May 8), Deanna Heer KC, representing the Attorney General's Office (AGO), said Calocane should instead be given a life sentence as part of a 'hybrid' order. This would mean he would be treated in hospital before serving the remainder of his sentence in prison.

She said: "The exceptional level of seriousness of the offences was such that the case required the imposition of a sentence with a penal element, an element of punishment. The harm caused and the harm risked to members of the public by his crimes was extreme."

Several members of the victims' families and friends attended the hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice. Calocane attended via video link from Ashworth high-security hospital near Liverpool.

He fatally stabbed 19-year-old university students Mr Webber and Ms O'Malley-Kumar 10 and 23 times respectively as they walked home from a night-out in the early hours of June 13 last year in what prosecutors described as