Image source, SuppliedByAsha PatelEast Midlands
- Published1 hour ago
The mother of a student who was stabbed to death in the Nottingham attacks says she might “crumble” when the public inquiry examining the tragedy ends.
Grace O’Malley-Kumar, Barnaby Webber and Ian Coates were killed by Valdo Calocane – who had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia – on 13 June 2023.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, the Nottingham Inquiry, which started hearing evidence in February, will hear closing statements before a report of findings is published.
Grace’s mother, Dr Sinead O’Malley-Kumar, says the end of the inquiry will mark “just the beginning” for her family to grieve.
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Calocane was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order in January 2024, after pleading guilty to three counts of manslaughter, on the grounds of diminished responsibility, and to three counts of attempted murder.
It was after the sentencing that a number of failures in Calocane’s care and previous interactions with police emerged, sparking calls for the public inquiry.
The inquiry was commissioned in 2025 – after lobbying by the families affected – with the aim of examining Calocane’s care and interactions with police in the years before the attacks, the police response and the aftermath.
Hearings for the Nottingham Inquiry began in February, and heard evidence from more than 100 witnesses, including police officers, NHS mental health staff practitioners, the survivors of the attacks and the bereaved families.
The inquiry laid bare a number of key errors, including the decision by Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust to discharge Calocane months before he carried out the attacks, and the failure by police to execute an arrest warrant for the killer which was still in place on the day of the killings.
Image source, PA Media
Sinead said: “I think when the public inquiry is over, when these constant revelations start to die down – I hope they will because it’s unimaginable – I think that’s when we will potentially really crumble.
“We’re trying to establish a legacy for Grace to make the world a better place, to make the country safe, but I think we haven’t been able to live a normal life yet.
“That’s when you really feel your profound loss, it’s when life gets back to normal – and it’s just not normal at the moment – or when it tries to get back to a new normality without your daughter.”
Reflecting on the evidence from the inquiry, Sinead said: “It’s ongoing, it’s harrowing, it’s heartbreaking, and when you just have one failure after another, you start to lose a lot of your faith in humanity.”
She added: “Grieving for Grace, it seems to be just the beginning.”
Sinead and Grace’s father, Dr Sanjoy Kumar, along with the other families affected, previously said they wanted to see changes made to prevent a similar tragedy.
Image source, supplied
Sanjoy told the BBC: “We were promised that no stone would be left unturned and that’s really what I want it to be.
“We have lost everything there is, but what we are in it for is that this does not happen to any other family. That’s really been my driving force.”
He added: “There are still several lines of inquiry that are still open, there’s still a lot to do.
The end of the hearings in the inquiry marks the end of one chapter for the families.
A number of investigations in relation to the attacks by the policing watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct, are still ongoing.
Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is also at the centre of a corporate manslaughter investigation, in relation to Calocane’s care and treatment, which is being carried out by Northumbria Police.
The chair of the inquiry, retired senior judge Deborah Taylor KC, has until May 2027 to complete her final report.
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