Government says it is working to solve ‘postcode lottery’ of access to green or blue spaces
There are urban areas of England where no one lives within a 15-minute walk of nature, government data shows, as ministers scramble to meet their access to nature targets.
While the data shows 80% of people live within walking distance of green or blue spaces such as a river, park or woodland, it also reveals a disparity between rural and poorer urban areas.
Continue reading...Valdo Calocane approached security at Thames House in 2021 but did not meet threshold for further assessment, public inquiry told
A man who killed three people during a 2023 knife attack in Nottingham had attempted to hand himself into MI5 for arrest two years earlier, an inquiry has heard.
Valdo Calocane, 34, fatally stabbed Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Barnaby Webber, both 19, and Ian Coates, 65, during a stabbing spree in the city on 13 June 2023.
Continue reading...Mother of victim Barnaby Webber says allegations about watchdog staff have left families asking whom they can trust
Police watchdog investigators who are alleged to have described an inquiry into the 2023 Nottingham stabbings as politically motivated are “disrespectful and inhumane”, the mother of one victim has said.
Emma Webber said new allegations about staff at the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) had left families asking whom they could trust.
Continue reading...East Midlands passengers to test digital tickets that will automatically charge best fares at end of day
Train passengers in the East Midlands are to test technology that will let them tap in and out for journeys and be charged the best fare for their trip at the end of the day.
Trials of digital rail tickets based on GPS tracking will begin on Monday as part of the government’s plan to improve the rail network’s complex fare system.
Continue reading...Father of Grace O’Malley-Kumar, killed by Valdo Calocane, said meeting with a director of police watchdog should not have begun with a prayer
The family of a student killed in the Nottingham attacks have formally complained to the police watchdog over an “offensive” meeting with one of its directors.
Valdo Calocane killed Grace O’Malley-Kumar, Barnaby Webber and Ian Coates in a spate of attacks in the city in June 2023. He was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order after pleading guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility as a result of paranoid schizophrenia and three counts of attempted murder.
Continue reading...Judge-led statutory inquiry announced into killings of three people by Valdo Calocane in June 2023
A judge-led public inquiry into the Nottingham attacks will start in “a matter of weeks”, Keir Starmer has told the families of the three people killed and the injured survivors.
At a meeting at No 10 on Wednesday, the prime minister said the inquiry would scrutinise a “number of different agencies” and a retired judge would soon be appointed to lead the process.
Continue reading...Summary of care received by Valdo Calocane will be made public, but complete version to be kept confidential
NHS England (NHSE) has been urged to reconsider its decision to refuse to publish a report into the care received by Nottingham triple killer Valdo Calocane, despite the wishes of the victims’ families.
A summary of the independent mental health homicide report is due to be made public later this week, but the full version will be kept confidential due to “data protection legislation relating to patient information”, with only Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust to be granted access.
Continue reading...Report looked into donations to Nottingham universities by Jesse Boot, who expanded pharmacy chain
The high-street pharmacy Boots’s links to the transatlantic slave trade have been revealed in new research that shows how the proceeds of enslavement became entangled with British capitalism.
Jesse Boot, the son of the company’s founder, expanded the chemist with the help of banks and premises linked to slavery. He was not identified as involved in the enslavement of people, the trade of enslaved people or trade in goods made by enslaved people.
Continue reading...David Boulter, 60, killed Deborah, 53, at home despite no evidence of affair found by private investigator he hired
A man smothered his wife and then killed himself after hiring a private investigator to investigate unfounded fears she was having an affair, an inquest has concluded.
David Boulter, 60, killed his wife, Deborah, 53, at their home in Mapperley, Nottingham on 9 October 2023, after becoming convinced she was in a sexual relationship with a friend.
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counsellor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
Continue reading...Wes Streeting says victims ‘might still be alive’ if health service had recognised Valdo Calocane’s risk to others
The health secretary said “three innocent people might still be alive” if the NHS had “done its job” in treating Valdo Calocane in the years running up to the Nottingham attacks.
Wes Streeting said the deaths of Grace O’Malley-Kumar, Barnaby Webber and Ian Coates were “preventable if the NHS had been there when it should have been”.
Continue reading...CQC finds risk he presented to public was ‘not managed well’ before he killed three people in Nottingham last year
A “series of errors and misjudgments” in Valdo Calocane’s mental health care led to him being discharged, despite repeatedly not taking medication and showing signs of aggression, months before he killed three people in Nottingham, a report says.
A review by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) of the treatment that Calocane received from Nottinghamshire healthcare NHS foundation trust over two years between May 2020 and September 2022 found that “the risk he presented to the public was not managed well”.
Continue reading...Family share medical records of Calocane’s mental illness with BBC that they say show missed opportunities to prevent attacks
A doctor warned that Valdo Calocane’s mental illness was so severe he could kill someone, three years before he stabbed three people to death in Nottingham, his medical records reveal.
Calocane’s family, who were shown the records only after he was sentenced to indefinite detention in a high-security hospital for the attacks, have criticised the missed opportunities they believe could have prevented the killings.
Continue reading...From experiencing a sudden headache at work to being found slumped under a coat in hospital with a brain haemorrhage
• Inquest finds hospital missed two chances to treat Inga Rublite
Inga Rublite was on a break at work when she came down with a sudden headache. Less than 24 hours later, she lay dying on the floor of an overcrowded A&E waiting room under a coat, hidden in plain sight. The sequence of events that led up to her death show an NHS under strain and the risk of patients falling through the cracks.
Continue reading...Inga Rublite, 39, was found under coat at Queen’s Medical Centre where she had vomited and had seizure
A 39-year-old woman found dying under a coat in an overcrowded A&E in Nottingham may have been missed by staff because they are accustomed to homeless people sleeping in the waiting area, an inquest has heard.
Inga Rublite attended A&E at Queen’s Medical Centre (QMC) at 10.40pm on 19 January suffering from a severe headache, blurred vision, high blood pressure and vomiting.
Continue reading...Relatives of Grace O’Malley-Kumar, Barnaby Webber and Ian Coates instruct legal team to investigate police and health trust
The families of the victims of the Nottingham attacks have vowed to take their fight for accountability “to the next level” on the one-year anniversary of the killings.
In a joint statement, the families of Grace O’Malley-Kumar, Barnaby Webber and Ian Coates, who were killed by Valdo Calocane in the early hours of 13 June last year, said they had instructed a legal team to help them “leave no stone unturned on our quest for answers”.
Continue reading...Police say bodies at property in Radford had lain undiscovered for some time
The bodies of two women have been found inside a house in Nottingham, with police saying they had lain undiscovered for some time.
Nottinghamshire police said officers were called to a property in Radford, an inner-city area of Nottingham, at 11.04am on Tuesday after concerns were raised for the welfare of the occupants.
Continue reading...Open letter says ‘callous and degrading’ police group WhatsApp message caused ‘more trauma than you can imagine’
The mother of one of the Nottingham attack victims has written an open letter to members of a police WhatsApp group in which a message was posted describing her son as being “properly butchered”.
Emma Webber, the mother of Barnaby Webber, 19, who with Grace O’Malley-Kumar, 19, and Ian Coates, 65, was stabbed to death by Valdo Calocane, has written to the Nottinghamshire police officer who she says posted graphic details of the victims’ injuries in the chat group.
Continue reading...Attorney general Victoria Prentis asks court of appeal to review hospital order handed to Calocane, who killed three people
The families of the three people stabbed to death in the Nottingham attacks last year have welcomed a court of appeal review of the “unduly lenient” sentence of the perpetrator, Valdo Calocane.
The killer was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order last month for the attacks on university students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both 19, and a school caretaker, Ian Coates, 65, in the early hours of 13 June last year.
Continue reading...Move comes after it emerged that Calocane was accused of attacking two colleagues weeks before he killed three people in Nottingham
Leicestershire police have referred themselves to an independent watchdog over how they handled investigations into alleged assaults committed by Valdo Calocane weeks before he killed three people in Nottingham.
The force is being assessed by the Independent Office for Police Conduct to establish if any further action is required. The alleged incidents happened in May 2023, an IOPC spokesperson said.
Continue reading...CQC will conduct review into Nottinghamshire Healthcare in tandem with mental health homicide review
A troubled NHS trust that treated Valdo Calocane for paranoid schizophrenia before he killed three people in Nottingham last year is to be the subject of a special review.
Ministers said the review into Nottinghamshire Healthcare foundation trust would help provide answers to the families of Barnaby Webber, Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates, who were killed by Calocane last June.
Continue reading...