Dead students were tested for drugs and alcohol - but their killer was not, Nottingham inquiry hears

The father of a university student killed trying to protect her friend has told a public inquiry of his "disgust" that the stabbing victims were tested for drugs and alcohol - but their attacker was not.

Valdo Calocane stabbed to death Barnaby Webber and Grace O'Malley-Kumar on 13 June 2023, before killing Ian Coates and trying to kill three others.

The Nottingham Inquiry heard how Calocane refused consent for toxicology samples while he was in custody after the attacks.

On Wednesday, Grace's father Dr Sanjoy Kumar said it was, therefore, "disgusting" that the bodies of his daughter and her friend and fellow student Barnaby were tested for drugs or alcohol after they died.

The judge-led inquiry also heard medical records of Grace, Barnaby and Ian - whose sons and partner gave evidence on Tuesday - were accessed inappropriately after their deaths.

Chaired by retired senior judge Deborah Taylor KC, the inquiry is continuing to examine the events that led up to the attacks and the investigations, actions and decisions made by various agencies in the aftermath.

Grace's parents Sanjoy and Dr Sinead O'Malley-Kumar, as well as David and Emma Webber, Barnaby's mum and dad, gave their testimony to the inquiry at Mary Ward House in London.

Sanjoy told the inquiry he and Sinead were asked by police to sign a "human tissue form", so Grace's body could be released following the attacks.

The GP - and former forensic medical examiner with the Metropolitan Police - said he had never seen such a form in his professional capacity, but was told his daughter's body would not be released if the form was not signed.

"You had to sign them, but what was not highlighted was that this is a point in time where you are also signing to say samples could be taken," he added.

"That was absolutely not pointed out.

"They took samples from our children to test for drugs and alcohol. I was really struck by that being really quite disgusting."

They believed toxicology needed to be excluded, but learned later that no samples were taken from Calocane.

Sanjoy said he had asked specifically whether a hair sample was taken from the killer, after he refused blood and urine testing.

He said according to his experience, a hair sample to test for drugs would not have required Calocane's consent, adding it was a "basic" step and that not taking it left an "enormous gap".

"It may have proved nothing or it may have proved everything," he said.

Earlier in the inquiry, Nottinghamshire Police apologised for failing to take toxicology samples from the killer but said there had been a "complete absence of any reference of drugs or drug abuse" in the investigation.

Ahead of his sentencing, Calocane - who had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2020 - was assessed by Prof Nigel Blackwood, a forensic psychiatrist who provided reports to the CPS.

Sinead said she had asked Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust - which cared for Calocane before discharging him months before the deadly attacks - whether they had shared his medical records with Blackwood.

She was told the trust would do its own audit and come back to her.

But it was through that audit that the trust became aware there had been "inappropriate access that spread from their own trust to the acute trust".

Sanjoy added he believed that had Calocane - referred to throughout the inquiry as VC - not brutally attacked his daughter, he would have done it to someone else.

He said: "The analogy I use with VC is that VC was like an oil tanker who crashed into our children and Ian.

"A one-degree change in his course, he could have ended up in a different continent."

He added: "If he'd missed our children, he would've hit someone else's."

In their evidence, David and Emma Webber described how they could "never forgive" Nottinghamshire Police after it emerged officers had shared offensive messages about the attacks in a WhatsApp group chat.

Emma said she was informed by a family liaison officer from the force that a story might run in the media about the messages, but was not given any further detail.

It was only after Sanjoy contacted the chief constable that the families were told what had been said.

Emma said: "Reading the content of that WhatsApp message was so destructive, so destroying, so awful.

"And I don't mind the words being made public because the author of that message chose to refer to our children as being 'properly butchered'.

"That's disgusting and grotesque."

The inquiry heard earlier those officers were disciplined for over the messages.

David said his family were told throughout that Calocane's privacy was "massively important", but it appeared it was not the same for the victims.

He said: "At the very core of this is a tragic, disgusting, horrible incident that's happened and resulted in the loss of our child."

David said that material should not be something people want to look at again.

"It just makes me feel physically sick to be honest with you," he added.

The father of two told the hearing while he had "nothing but respect for the police", in this case, they had "fallen very short" of what he expected.

"They have acted in a way that I think is abhorrent and I really can't forgive them for that because this is my son, again, at the bottom of this," he said.

The inquiry heard how it was not until hours after police had established Barnaby's identity that his parents were informed.

David and Emma told the inquiry they began to realise he was one of the victims of the attacks - which were being mentioned in local and national media - when they tracked his phone from the scene.

After seeing the news and attempting to call Barnaby with no answer, David used the Find My Phone app to see his son's location.

"I decided to have a look on my phone to see if I could see where he was and I could see he was in Ilkeston Road, but he was quite close to his accommodation, or the phone was quite close to his accommodation, so I didn't really think too far beyond that," David said.

When he later attempted to call the police, David recalled a "distinct change of voice in the lady [he] was speaking to."

But he was told it was a "fast-changing scene" and that nobody could speak to him at that point.

By then, the media was telling the public that a man and woman had been found dead.

"And then I just saw the phone start to move and that's when I really panicked," David said.

"I phoned it [Barnaby's phone] a couple of times thinking maybe he's just there, and we tracked the phone and we watched it go all the way to Radford Road Police Station."

The inquiry heard David and Emma, who were in Cornwall, were under the impression Barnaby was one of the victims, so wanted to collect his younger brother Charlie - who was on a school trip in Taunton - before he found out.

David and Emma were then called by police and stopped in a pub car park, and told of their son's death.

Barnaby was an avid cricketer and described by his family as "kind, gentle [and] caring".

He was studying history at the University of Nottingham when he was killed.

"I want those who knew him and loved him to always remember the impact he had and the love of life that he brought, and the difference he made in his all too short of a time with us.

"Barney, I love you and I miss you always," Emma said on Wednesday.

Grace had attempted to stop Calocane as he attacked her friend Barnaby on the day of the attacks, before she was targeted.

The 19-year-old, who had played for England Hockey's under-16s and under-18s, was studying medicine at the time of her death, following in the footsteps of her parents.

Sanjoy told the inquiry: "We have been deprived of a beautiful and brave daughter who would have one day got married, given us grandchildren, and given us a lot of joy.

"She was the love of my life."