Brave last moments of Nottingham students who tried to fight off killer knifeman

08 April 2024 , 18:00

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Two Nottingham students were captured laughing with one another before a knifeman horrifically killed them.

Grace O'Malley-Kumar and Barnaby Webber were on their way home from a fun night out on Tuesday, June 13, last year when Valdo Calocane, 32, brutally murdered them in cold blood. The pair, both 19, were captured on CCTV living their final moments as they playfully made their way home after clubbing at PRYZM in Nottingham centre.

The heartbreaking footage shows Grace and Barnaby just minutes from home but moments away from their violent deaths. In the video, they appear not to have a care in the world, strolling down Ilkeston Road joking and giggling with one another. They seem to play around as they pass a car sales compound called Carlot.

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Grace O'Malley-Kumar and Barnaby Webber were just minutes from home

At 4am, locals told of hearing the students' "blood-curdling screams" as the pair were stabbed to death outside. A nearby resident recalled seeing a man dressed all in black "grappling with some people". They said: "She was screaming 'Help!' I just wish I'd shouted something out of the window to unnerve the assailant.

"I saw him stab the lad first and then the woman. It was repeated stabbing - four or five times. The lad collapsed in the middle of the road. The girl stumbled towards a house and didn't move. The next minute she had disappeared down the side of a house, and that's where they found her."

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A couple who live nearby reportedly said their home security camera captured the horrific incident and described how Grace 'tried to save' him. She said the attacker struck from behind: "He attacked the boy first - the girl had an opportunity to run away. But she didn't, she tried to get the man off her friend. She tried to save the boy."

Killer Valdo Calocane pleaded guilty to manslaughter (PA)

It was claimed their attacker calmly walked away. He then went on to murder caretaker Ian Coates, 65, just two miles away in Mapperley Park. At the time of his rampage, Calocane was wanted by police for failing to appear in court for assaulting an officer nine months earlier, on one of several occasions when police had taken him to a mental hospital.

Grace's brother James, 17, wearing his sister's earring in her memory, told Sky News in January: "She tried her best to save her friend. That's how Grace lost her life. She would never leave a friend. That was very evident from her last moments. She passed fighting. Knowing that I'll never see that [smile] again is something that really hurts me. I have her earring in now, which I always keep in, because again it's a part of her, and that's how I try and get as close as I can to her."

Calocane was found to be suffering from paranoid schizophrenia at the time of the killings. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order. In Februrary, it was announced that he would have his sentence referred to the Court of Appeal. Attorney General Victoria Prentis said: "Valdo Calocane's crimes were horrific and have shocked a nation. He brutally killed three innocent people, and violently attacked three other victims."

Victims school caretaker Ian Coates and students Barnaby and Grace (PA)

She continued: "Their experiences will stay in our minds for a long time to come. This was a case that evoked strong feelings amongst so many people and it was no surprise that I received so many referrals under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme to consider the Hospital Order handed to Calocane."

The families of all three victims welcomed the news. In a joint statement, they said: "We were very glad to hear that the Attorney General has agreed with us that the sentencing given to Valdo Calocane, who so viciously and calculatedly killed our loved ones was wrong. We are optimistic that when this reaches the Royal Courts of Justice for its appeal there will be an outcome that provides some of the appropriate justice that we have been calling for.

"It is important to remember that this is just one part of the tragic failures in this case. The investigation into the mental health trust, the CPS and the Nottingham and Leicestershire Police still continue. We maintain that there are serious failures in all three agencies that must be fully addressed. Organisational and individual accountability must be taken and where relevant, proper change made."