12 June 2024 , 17:00
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Lawyers representing the Post Office sub-postmasters are to help the families of the Nottingham rampage victims in their fight for justice.
They have offered their services pro bono to the relatives of Barnaby Webber, Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates, the Mirror can reveal.
Solicitor Neil Hudgell and barrister Tim Moloney KC agreed to take on their case after meeting with them in London recently. They will formally begin work on Friday. Mr Moloney has been representing victims of the Post Office sub-postmaster scandal in the ongoing Horizon inquiry. Former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells was reduced to tears when she was grilled by the respected barrister.
Barnaby Webber was 19 when he was stabbed to death on the streets of Nottingham last June (PA)The Nottingham victims’ families are calling for a change in the law to make it harder for mentally ill killers to avoid murder convictions. Paranoid schizophrenic knifeman Valdo Calocane admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. His pleas were accepted by prosecutors in January after psychiatrists said he was psychotic when he carried out the attacks.
The families are also calling for a public inquiry into the series of failings that left him free to roam the streets. Authorities missed a series of opportunities to detain Calocane, who was on the run from Nottinghamshire Police for nine months before the killings. He had been sectioned four times in the previous three years but released back into the community on each occasion. Police missed a chance to arrest him when he attacked colleagues at a Leicestershire warehouse six weeks before the rampage. A series of investigations and reviews into the multi-agency failures continue to rumble on.
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Grace O'Malley-Kumar was killed alongside her friend Barnaby after trying to save him (PA)Barnaby’s mum Emma Webber said the families hope the involvement of Mr Hudgell and Mr Moloney will help their case. She told the Mirror: “They approached the three families and graciously asked if they could support us in every part of the investigation. It’s about really digging in, and uncovering and answering all those questions that we still have. It’s the questions that the agencies seem to refuse to acknowledge or give heed to. We are grateful to accept their offer of help. Their experience in the support they have given to the sub-postmasters means we are lucky to have people like that onboard wanting to help.
“When we met them, it felt like it was the first time we had a hand on our shoulders. It’s been a real fight for everything so far. If we hadn’t made as much noise as we have, none of this would be happening today. We did have a choice about whether to go public with everything. But I think the choice was made for us because so much has failed and so much has gone wrong and so much needs to change.
School caretaker Ian Coates, 65, was also killed in the horror rampage (PA)
Barnaby's family has been "completely blown apart" by his death (Webber Family)“If we don’t use this awful voice that has been thrust upon us, then I would be letting my son down. And I would be letting my other son down, and myself. We are exhausted. We’re not lawyers or politicians or barristers. But we know enough to know there has been so much wrong done that it has got to be addressed. It’s genuinely about making changes to the law, making individuals and organisations accountable.
“It’s not a case of if this happens again, it’s when it happens again. There are other Calocanes out there. There are other people being failed miserably by the judicial system. We have to try and get something out of this awfulness for Barney’s sake, for Grace’s sake and for Ian’s sake, and we will.
David, Emma and Charlie Webber at their home in Taunton, Somerset (Rowan Griffiths / Daily Mirror)
Valdo Calocane was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order in January (PA)“What we want is answers to our questions and concerns. If that means a public inquiry or an inquest, then so be it. And it probably does. As I said to the Prime Minister when we met, we won’t go quietly into the good night. My experience as a victim of crime has been awful. The Ministry of Justice claims that victims of crime are at the heart and the centre of everything the criminal justice system does. That’s absolute rubbish. I would say we are an appendix at best.
“I think my purpose is more in getting accountability and answers for all the failings and ensuring he is the next Ian Brady - he never gets out. We have been given a lifetime legacy of having to keep it in the public eye. Statistically the chances are he will be out within ten to 20 years. And with successive governments and different Home Office ministers, time makes a difference. It’s still in the public knowledge now, but in ten years hence it’s not going to be, is it?
Former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells was reduced to tears when she was grilled by Tim Moloney KC (PA)“What we have to do is look at what we can do now, and that’s uncover all of the failings and make sure he doesn’t get out. What do you have to do to be a murderer these days? The amount of diminished responsibility cases and hospital orders that are being awarded out, how have they got capacity to manage all these people?
“They were not looked after when they were out in the community, so how are they going to get better and come out? I think Calocane needs to be treated where he is. He clearly needs medical treatment. But I think when he is well enough he needs to serve punishment. There needs to be a penal element.”
Emma is calling on Kate Meynell, the Chief Constable of Nottinghamshire Police, to resign. “I always said I don’t want to be shouting for people to lose their jobs,” she tells me. “But when you fail so badly, in so many areas, if you are taking the top job and the big money, then you have to be prepared to take the fall for the mistakes. These failings are off the scale.”
Emma is calling on the Chief Constable of Nottinghamshire Police to resign (Rowan Griffiths / Daily Mirror)Neil Hudgell told the Mirror it was time for all the agencies involved to be put “under the most powerful of spotlights”. He said: “A catalogue of catastrophic errors across multiple agencies led to the loss of three wonderful lives. Three heartbroken families seek answers, accountability and ultimately reassurance that Calocane never walks the streets again to wreak such devastation.
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“A year and a day on from that awful day the focus shifts to putting all those agencies who played a part in these tragic events under the most powerful of spotlights. It is our responsibility to ensure that we do everything we can to help these families establish the truth, effect change and find redress.”
Nottinghamshire Police said: “In accordance with existing [NPCC/IOPC] protocol, Nottinghamshire Police is unable to comment directly on matters which are included in the IOPC’s ongoing independent investigation into complaints raised by the families of Valdo Calocane’s victims.
“This is to avoid possible prejudice to any future potential proceedings and is standard practice which applies to all police forces when cases are under investigation by the IOPC. We are co-operating fully and supporting the IOPC with its enquiries.”
Speaking ahead of today’s vigil, Chief Constable Kate Meynell said: “On the morning of 13 June 2023, devastating events took place in our city which resulted in the loss of three innocent lives.
“My thoughts today are with the families and friends of Barnaby, Grace, Ian, and those that were seriously injured. “On behalf of all of us at Nottinghamshire Police, I will be laying a wreath and lighting a candle in the city in their memory and paying my respects, alongside other local civic leaders. We will never forget this tragic loss of life.”