The parents of a student killed in the Nottingham attacks have described it as “horrible” to learn that prosecutors intended to accept the killer’s guilty pleas to murder and he would not be prosecuted for murder.
Paranoid schizophrenic Waldo Caloocan murdered 19-year-old graduate students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar in the early hours of 13 June 2023, followed more than an hour later by stabbing 65-year-old caretaker Ian Coates to death.
After stealing Mr. Coates’ van, Caloocan ran over and seriously injured three pedestrians. Caloocan admitted murder and attempted murder and was indefinitely detained in a high-security hospital on the grounds of diminished responsibility in January 2024.
Mr Webber’s parents, Emma and David Webber, told the inquest into the attacks that they were in a “state of shock” to learn that Caloocan would not be prosecuted for murder.
Mrs Webber said: “It was a team meeting. I remember seeing the look on Sanjoy’s (Ms O’Malley-Kumar’s father) face… when he announced that the decision appeared to have been made to accept a plea of diminished responsibility for murder.
“I saw Sanjay’s face – the reaction and, I think, horror was unfolding.
“And in my mind… it was like a bell ringing. I could just hear the word murder and that was the first time that it had come into my mind.”
The student’s father said that the bereaved families had no opportunity to discuss the issue of diminished responsibility before the decision was made not to pursue murder charges.
He said, “It’s a bit of a shock because you’ve established yourself – that’s what we’re dealing with. It’s three counts of murder, three counts of attempted murder.”
“Then suddenly it was a complete U-turn.”
He added, “And we had no opportunity to discuss it with them and explain in detail how they reached their decision.”
Mrs Webber told the inquiry the decision was not acceptable to her and she arranged a meeting with the then Secretary of State for Justice Alex Chalk Casey in December 2023.
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“We were led to believe that our child’s murderer was going to be murdered and at the 11th hour it was changed to a murder plea,” he said.
“You just know something is wrong and I knew something was wrong and I needed to do anything and everything possible to figure it out.
“If you want answers you have to go to the top. We were desperately trying to talk to someone who could help us.”
The inquiry is ongoing.
