LONDON: UK’s attorney general will review a hospital order sentence handed out to the killer of Indian-Irish origin teenager Grace O’Malley-Kumar and two others in a triple murder in Nottingham last year after receiving a complaint that the sentence is too lenient.
On Thursday dual Guinea-Bissau-Portuguese national Valdo Calocane (32), an engineering graduate, was sentenced under Section 37 and 41 of UK’s Mental Health Act to be detained at Ashworth high-security hospital indefinitely after pleading guilty at Nottingham crown court to three counts of manslaughter with diminished responsibility and three counts of attempted murder.He had originally been charged with three counts of murder. The Crown accepted his pleas after four psychiatric reports found Calocane suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.
He can only be released if the secretary of state for justice or a First Tier Tribunal assess that he no longer poses a risk to the public.
This is the same sentence Tunisian national Maher Maaroufe received for the murder of British Indian Sabita Thanwani, 19.
Calocane fatally stabbed Nottingham university students Barnaby Webber and first-year medical student O’Malley-Kumar, both 19, when they were walking from a nightclub at 4am on June 13 last year. O’Malley-Kumar was branded heroic after she fought with Calocane to defend Webber before he turned on her and killed her.
An hour later Calocane killed caretaker Ian Coates (65) in his van and then stole the van and ran three people over, who survived. There was an outstanding warrant for his arrest at the time.
Speaking after the sentence, Grace’s father, Dr Sanjoy Kumar, said: “Justice has not been done for our daughter, who was just a super person, and she would be disappointed it was not concluded the way it should.”
A spokesperson for the attorney general said: “We have received a request for Calocane’s sentence to be considered under the unduly lenient sentence scheme. The law officers will consider the case and decide whether the sentence can be referred to the Court of Appeal.”
Calocane had been sectioned under the Mental Health Act several times and released by mental health services before he went on to commit the attacks.
On Thursday dual Guinea-Bissau-Portuguese national Valdo Calocane (32), an engineering graduate, was sentenced under Section 37 and 41 of UK’s Mental Health Act to be detained at Ashworth high-security hospital indefinitely after pleading guilty at Nottingham crown court to three counts of manslaughter with diminished responsibility and three counts of attempted murder.He had originally been charged with three counts of murder. The Crown accepted his pleas after four psychiatric reports found Calocane suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.
He can only be released if the secretary of state for justice or a First Tier Tribunal assess that he no longer poses a risk to the public.
This is the same sentence Tunisian national Maher Maaroufe received for the murder of British Indian Sabita Thanwani, 19.
Calocane fatally stabbed Nottingham university students Barnaby Webber and first-year medical student O’Malley-Kumar, both 19, when they were walking from a nightclub at 4am on June 13 last year. O’Malley-Kumar was branded heroic after she fought with Calocane to defend Webber before he turned on her and killed her.
An hour later Calocane killed caretaker Ian Coates (65) in his van and then stole the van and ran three people over, who survived. There was an outstanding warrant for his arrest at the time.
Speaking after the sentence, Grace’s father, Dr Sanjoy Kumar, said: “Justice has not been done for our daughter, who was just a super person, and she would be disappointed it was not concluded the way it should.”
A spokesperson for the attorney general said: “We have received a request for Calocane’s sentence to be considered under the unduly lenient sentence scheme. The law officers will consider the case and decide whether the sentence can be referred to the Court of Appeal.”
Calocane had been sectioned under the Mental Health Act several times and released by mental health services before he went on to commit the attacks.