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Parents of Nottingham attacks victim say medics must breach confidentiality if patient is risk to others
TL;DR
Parents of Nottingham attack victims urge medical staff to breach confidentiality if patients pose risks to others. They claim local authorities failed to act on warnings about the attacker, Valdo Calocane, before the June 2023 stabbings.
Key points
- Parents urge breach of confidentiality for patient risks
- Victims were Barnaby Webber, Grace O’Malley-Kumar, and Ian Coates
- Public inquiry lasted 14 weeks
- Local authorities failed to act on warnings about Calocane
- Calocane was convicted of manslaughter
Mentioned in this story
Barnaby WebberGrace O’Malley-KumarIan CoatesValdo Calocane
The parents of a victim of the Nottingham attacks have said medical staff have a duty to breach patient confidentiality if the person they are treating is a risk to others.
The families of the victims of the June 2023 attacks spoke at a news conference in London on Monday after evidence concluded in a 14-week public inquiry into the attacks.
They said local authorities had protected Valdo Calocane at the expense of public safety in the years before he stabbed Barnaby Webber, Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates to death. The families said the tragedy would happen again without immediate action by the government.
Webber and O’Malley-Kumar, both 19, and Coates, 65, were killed in the the early hours of 13 June 2023. Calocane, who has paranoid schizophrenia, was convicted of three counts of manslaughter and sentenced to a suspended hospital order in January 2024.
Ian Coates, Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar were killed in the early hours of 13 June 2023. Photograph: Nottinghamshire Police/PA
O’Malley-Kumar’s mother, Sinead O’Malley-Kumar, said “a lot of the fault lies” with the psychiatrists involved in Calocane’s care. She said she would “never forgive them for their lack of treatment and their incompetent discharge” of him.
The inquiry heard how Calocane was discharged from mental health services months before the attacks because healthcare workers could not find him.
“I blame the psychiatrists for discharging him,” she said. “I do not believe they’re fit to practise and I think the regulator does need to take a look at some of these psychiatrists.”
The public inquiry, led by the retired judge Deborah Taylor KC, was set up to examine the lead-up to the attacks and the response. The hearings exposed the repeated contact medical staff and police had with Calocane and a string of violent attacks he had committed before June 2023.
Calocane was sectioned four times before June 2023, the first in May 2020. Many of the interventions happened after Calocane had committed a violent attack. During his second hospital admission, the inquiry heard how a doctor warned Calocane could “end up killing someone”.
At the beginning of the inquiry, two police forces apologised to bereaved families and survivors of the Nottingham attacks for failing to act on an arrest warrant for Calocane that was issued 10 months before he killed Webber, O’Malley-Kumar and Coates.
Q&A
What did the parents of Nottingham attack victims say about patient confidentiality?
The parents stated that medical staff should breach patient confidentiality if the patient poses a risk to others.
Who were the victims of the Nottingham attacks in June 2023?
The victims were Barnaby Webber, Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both 19, and Ian Coates, 65.
What was the outcome of the public inquiry into the Nottingham attacks?
The inquiry concluded after 14 weeks, revealing failures by local authorities to act on concerns about the attacker, Valdo Calocane.
What was Valdo Calocane's mental health condition and legal outcome?
Valdo Calocane, who has paranoid schizophrenia, was convicted of three counts of manslaughter and sentenced to a suspended hospital order.
