The death of Nottingham attacks victim Barnaby Webber was “potentially preventable”, the Nottingham Inquiry has heard.
Webber, Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates were stabbed to death by Valdo Calocane on 13 June 2023. Calocane had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2020.
A panel of medical professionals assessed the emergency response to the attacks and the survivability of the victims’ injuries. It told the inquiry that Webber had a less than 50% chance of surviving.
The panel said that more rapid administration of blood products could have increased his chances of reaching hospital with a heartbeat strong enough to undergo surgery. However, it said multiple other rapid and specific interventions would also have been needed for him to survive.
The panel assessed the deaths of O’Malley-Kumar and Coates as “not preventable”. The families of the victims sobbed as the assessments were read out by counsel to the inquiry, Rachel Langdale KC. O’Malley-Kumar’s father, Dr Sanjoy Kumar, left the hearing room.
The inquiry began hearing evidence in February and has questioned more than 100 witnesses, including police staff and officers, mental healthcare practitioners, Calocane’s former flatmates and family members, the bereaved families and survivors of the attacks.
Calocane also seriously injured three people in the attacks. He is serving an indefinite hospital order in a high-security facility after pleading guilty to three counts of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and three counts of attempted murder.
The inquiry is now hearing updates to evidence provided after oral evidence ended earlier this year. Those updates will be followed by closing statements to its chair, retired senior judge Deborah Taylor KC.
Taylor said it was “disappointing” that evidence had emerged during the break that should have been identified and disclosed earlier. She directed core participants to submit corrections to errors or omissions by 31 December.