'The system is so broken', killer's mum tells inquiry

The mother of Nottingham attacks killer Valdo Calocane has told a public inquiry the system that was supposed to care for him was "so broken".

Valdo, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2020, stabbed to death Barnaby Webber, Grace O'Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates and tried to kill three others in a spate of attacks on 13 June 2023.

Celeste Calocane, Valdo's mother, told the Nottingham Inquiry - which is examining the attacks - that she had to attempt to navigate services she did not understand, while he was sectioned four times in the space of two years.

The inquiry heard Celeste had raised concerns that her son was a risk to the public three years before his fatal attacks.

Valdo, whose family live in Wales, was studying and living in Nottingham when he experienced his first episode of psychosis, the inquiry heard.

He was born in Guinea-Bissau in 1991 and lived in Madeira, and then Lisbon, in Portugal as a young child, before his family moved to the UK when he was 16.

Celeste said she became aware something was wrong with her son in 2020, when he started to call the family "agitated and crying".

He was arrested in May 2020 after trying to break into a neighbour's flat, which led to his first admission to a psychiatric ward at Highbury Hospital in Nottingham on 25 May.

Celeste said she was told on that occasion, there was "no diagnosis" for her son at that stage because it was a first episode.

Valdo was discharged on 13 June but Celeste said she felt it was "too early" but said she had "no power" to do anything else beyond agreeing with admissions to hospital.

After his discharge on 11 July, Celeste said she called Valdo's mental health crisis team to say she was concerned he was becoming unwell again, but no further action was taken apart from a phone call to Valdo.

Two days later, Celeste was contacted by the crisis team to say Valdo had tried, again, to break into a neighbour's flat.

The inquiry heard Celeste raised concerns in August 2020 that he was a risk to other people.

Asked if anyone discussed this with her, she said: "I just had to navigate the system myself and try to make sense of what is going on."

She told the inquiry no-one explained the risks to her, what she needed to look out for, or what could happen.

"I was just navigating the system on my own," she said.

Celeste also told the inquiry no-one spoke to her about Valdo's risk to himself.

"At this point I don't even know what can happen to him. I'm just like living in anxiety basically," she said.

Later on Thursday, Celeste addressed the chair of the inquiry - retired senior judge Deborah Taylor KC - and said she wanted to help Taylor bring about changes "so no-one has to go through what happened".

"No brother or mother should be left alone in that situation to try to navigate the service," she said. "I think somebody should sit and explain to you, 'this is the diagnosis, this is what you need to know, this is what you have to look at'.