LONDON: A dual Guinea-Bissau-Portuguese national has been charged with three counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder following the attacks in Nottingham on June 12 in which Grace O’Malley-Kumar (19),an Irish-Indian teenager and first-year medical student at Nottingham University, was stabbed to death.
Valdo Amissao Mendes Calocane (31), of no fixed address, will appear at Nottingham magistrates’ court on Saturday.
Calocanewas arrested at 5.40 am local time on Tuesday after a knife rampage that left O’Malley-Kumar, her friend Barnaby Webber (19), and Ian Coates (65), a school caretaker, dead. He was charged on Friday afternoon local time.
After killing Coates the attacker jumped into the caretaker’s van and drove into three pedestrians, one of whom, Wayne Birkett (58), is in intensive care inhospital. The attempted murder charges relate to the van attack.
Calocane came to Britain in 2007 with his parents, who are from Guinea-Bissau, West Africa. His father, Amissao (55), had been living on the island of Madeira when he was granted Portuguese citizenship in 2006, according to the UK’s “Daily Telegraph”. Guinea-Bissau was a Portuguese colony until 1974.
The family moved to Haverfordwest, in Wales, where Amissao took up a job as a carer, and his wife, Celeste, began working as a nurse. The family obtained settled status in Britain as EU nationals. Although Islam is the predominant religion in Guinea-Bissau, Calocane’s parents were regulars at the Calvary Church in the town. Calocane graduated from the University of Nottingham last year with a mechanical engineering degree.
At a mass vigil in Nottingham on Thursday night, Grace’s Irish mother, Sinead, said that her “beautiful baby girl” was a treasured and adored child. “She wanted very few things in life: she wanted to be a doctor, she wanted to play hockey, and she wanted to have fun. This person must face justice, it is just truly so unfair,” she said in between sobs. “Be kind to each other and don’t have hate in your hearts.”
Her son, James, was in floods of tears as he said Grace was not just his sister but his best friend. “I urge you all to cherish every moment with your loved ones,” he said. Kumar’s Indian-origin father, Dr Sanjoy Kumar, a GP, also was unable to hold back tears. “We were four, and now we are three. I am a broken-hearted father. I loved my Grace more than anything. She would have been a junior doctor serving you and your lovely city in the hospital here and that has been taken away from us. Imagine a world with just love and no violence,” he said.
Cricketers from Australia and England held a minute’s silence and wore black armbands before the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston on Friday in memory of the three victims, all of whom loved sport. Kumar had played cricket at the junior county level and represented England in hockey. Webber had played cricket for local clubs and his school and Coates was a lifelong Nottingham Forest fan.
Valdo Amissao Mendes Calocane (31), of no fixed address, will appear at Nottingham magistrates’ court on Saturday.
Calocanewas arrested at 5.40 am local time on Tuesday after a knife rampage that left O’Malley-Kumar, her friend Barnaby Webber (19), and Ian Coates (65), a school caretaker, dead. He was charged on Friday afternoon local time.
After killing Coates the attacker jumped into the caretaker’s van and drove into three pedestrians, one of whom, Wayne Birkett (58), is in intensive care inhospital. The attempted murder charges relate to the van attack.
Calocane came to Britain in 2007 with his parents, who are from Guinea-Bissau, West Africa. His father, Amissao (55), had been living on the island of Madeira when he was granted Portuguese citizenship in 2006, according to the UK’s “Daily Telegraph”. Guinea-Bissau was a Portuguese colony until 1974.
The family moved to Haverfordwest, in Wales, where Amissao took up a job as a carer, and his wife, Celeste, began working as a nurse. The family obtained settled status in Britain as EU nationals. Although Islam is the predominant religion in Guinea-Bissau, Calocane’s parents were regulars at the Calvary Church in the town. Calocane graduated from the University of Nottingham last year with a mechanical engineering degree.
At a mass vigil in Nottingham on Thursday night, Grace’s Irish mother, Sinead, said that her “beautiful baby girl” was a treasured and adored child. “She wanted very few things in life: she wanted to be a doctor, she wanted to play hockey, and she wanted to have fun. This person must face justice, it is just truly so unfair,” she said in between sobs. “Be kind to each other and don’t have hate in your hearts.”
Her son, James, was in floods of tears as he said Grace was not just his sister but his best friend. “I urge you all to cherish every moment with your loved ones,” he said. Kumar’s Indian-origin father, Dr Sanjoy Kumar, a GP, also was unable to hold back tears. “We were four, and now we are three. I am a broken-hearted father. I loved my Grace more than anything. She would have been a junior doctor serving you and your lovely city in the hospital here and that has been taken away from us. Imagine a world with just love and no violence,” he said.
Cricketers from Australia and England held a minute’s silence and wore black armbands before the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston on Friday in memory of the three victims, all of whom loved sport. Kumar had played cricket at the junior county level and represented England in hockey. Webber had played cricket for local clubs and his school and Coates was a lifelong Nottingham Forest fan.