An inquiry has been told that Nottingham attacker Valdo Calocane assaulted two colleagues at a Derby warehouse just a month before carrying out the fatal stabbings in Nottingham.
The investigation in London is examining events involving Calocane before he killed University of Nottingham students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both 19, and 65-year-old caretaker Ian Coates.
Calocane also attempted to kill three other people during the attacks in Nottingham in the early hours of 13 June 2023.
Warehouse Assault In Derby Revealed At Public Inquiry
The hearing was told that in May 2023 Calocane, who has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, was working at a Derby warehouse operated by logistics company Arvato when the incident occurred.
During the altercation he punched a male colleague in the face and pushed the man’s wife to the ground, injuring her leg.
A training coordinator at Arvato at the time, identified only as Louisa, described the moment she responded to screams from inside the warehouse. Referring to Calocane as VC, she told the inquiry:
“We heard a scream from the back of the warehouse. I then started to move in that direction. The two victims – the wife, she was in front of the husband, the husband was already on the floor. He had already been assaulted.
“As I got into the area I stood myself in front of VC so my back would have been to the victims. VC was just stood in front of me, there was no words coming out of VC’s mouth.”
She said that while she stood in front of him, his focus remained elsewhere.
“For the seconds I was stood in front of VC his attention was not on me,” she said. “He was looking through me and his attention was on the male victim that was on the floor.”
The injured worker later told colleagues he had been struck on the side of his face, aggravating an old injury, and that he did not understand why he had been attacked.
Witnesses Describe Violent Incident And Knife On Warehouse Floor
The inquiry was also shown an email from police asking Louisa to make contact to assist the investigation. She told the hearing she believed the company had already provided the required information.
“I was not told by the business that I should be providing information to police, I believed that was being done by the business,” she said.
Another employee, Volodimir, said he rushed towards the commotion after hearing shouting inside the warehouse.
“I was dealing with something else in the background and I hear unusual voice and screams, so I went towards the noise and I saw there was a male and female on the floor and VC punching the male in the face,” he told the inquiry.
“So I straight away tell him ‘stop, you can’t do this, it’s not allowed,’ and he just go back from the victims, and he said someone has pushed him.
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“He said ‘I lost my glasses’, and I noticed a knife was next to him and I kicked the knife out the way.”
Volodimir said the Stanley-type knife he saw was not permitted for workers to use and described the incident as “very violent”.
Warehouse operations manager Matthew also gave evidence, saying Calocane appeared agitated immediately after the incident.
He told the inquiry the worker “kept looking at the floor and was pacing”, although he said he personally did not see anything on the ground at the time.
After colleagues mentioned that a knife had been seen and moved away, Matthew said he informed police and told officers he believed there was “something not right with (Calocane) mentally”.
Hospital Order After Nottingham Killings
Calocane is currently being held indefinitely in a high-security hospital.
In January 2024, at Nottingham Crown Court, he was given a hospital order after prosecutors accepted his plea of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
The case relates to the deaths of Barnaby Webber, Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates during the Nottingham attacks in June 2023.
The public inquiry into the events surrounding the killings is continuing.
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