Inside plush secure hospital Nottingham killer Valdo Calocane is detained in after stabbing three people to death
28 January 2024, 16:42
Nottingham triple-killer Valdo Calocane will be able to build Lego and play the guitar inside the NHS hospital he is detained indefinitely inside.
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The knifeman will also be able to paint inside his cushy room inside the secure hospital - with his quarters containing a personal shower.
Sentencing Judge told Calocane, 32, that he will 'very probably' spend the rest of his life inside the NHS psychiatric Ashworth Hospital after he pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Barnaby Webber and Grace O'Malley-Kumar, both 19, as well as caretaker Ian Coates, 65.
The knifeman told doctors he was hearing voices before a diagnosis of a paranoid schizophrenic was made - allowing Calocane to plead guilty to manslaughter rather than murder on the basis of diminished responsibility.
Among the amenities on offer for the triple-killer is the freedom to watch DVDs, listen to vinyl records, and play musical instruments such as the guitar and saxophone inside his room at the NHS hospital in Maghull, near Liverpool.
According to the hospital's patients possessions catalogue, BBC iPlayer will be able to be accessed on a 24inch television and also play a games on a computer console.
Calocane will be able to decorate his room with ornaments, flags, pictures, and rugs, and can even gamble on the football pools.
If he was not found to have the mental illness, Calocane would have only been allowed an alarm clock, radio, books, and photos inside a Category A prison.
If Calocane responds to treatment, he will be able to roam the grounds of the hospital 24 hours a day, a former Ashworth worker told The Sun on Sunday.
The former worker added: "If Calocane's stable enough and they get his medication right, he can go to social events where they'll have a film or a show on.
"He can go and do education, he can go to the gym, arts and crafts. There's a metal workshop, cookery classes, even a swimming pool.'What I found when I was there is that it's seen as a holiday camp."
Calocane hacked university student Barnaby Webber to death and killed Grace O'Malley-Kumar as she tried to defend her friend.
He also stabbed Ian Coates, 65, to death early on June 13 before driving his victim's van into three people in an attempt to kill them.
He was sentenced at Nottingham Crown Court on Thursday.
The judge, Mr Justice Turner, told him: "Your sickening crimes both shocked the nation and wrecked the lives of your surviving victims and the families of them all."
He told Calocane: "But for the voices inside your head ... you had no reason to harm any of them. You still labour under the strong impression that the voices are real.
"You were and remain dangerous."
He added that putting him in jail would risk him rejecting medication.
But relatives of Barnaby and Mr Coates criticised the sentence.
Barnaby, 19, was attacked by Calocane just down the road from his student residence.
During Calocane's sentencing hearing, Barnaby's father David told him: "Your despicable, murderous actions are not reparable in this or any other lifetime.
"Your evil, vicious, selfish, unforgivable actions have caused damage that will never be repaired."
He added: "Barnaby was a vibrant, loving boy who was growing into a man and starting to live his best life.
"As a father I dreaded him leaving home (to go to university) but I loved my visits to see him; he always had a smile to welcome me.
"Due to your unbelievably savage actions I will never get that again."
Grace, a medicine student, tried to intervene and push him away and has since been called a hero for trying to save her pal. The judge said she would have been an exemplary practitioner had her life not been cut short.
Her brother James, 17, said: "Grace's last moments were in pain and that's something that really hurts me to think about and she was a hero, that was her character.
"She tried her best to save her friend. That was how Grace lost her life in the most vulnerable manner.
"She would never leave a friend, never, and that was very evident from her last moments. She passed fighting."
