A man who has been accused of murdering three people in Nottingham, including 19-year-old London student Grace O'Malley-Kumar, has pleaded not guilty today (Tuesday November 28). Valdo Calocane, 32, of no fixed address, was charged with the murder of three people - Barnaby Webber, Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates - and with the attempted murders of Sharon Miller, Marcin Gawronski and Wayne Birkett on June 13.
While Calocane has pleaded not guilty to the charges of murder at Nottingham Crown Court, he has issued guilty pleas regarding charges of manslaughter and attempted murder. Prosecutor Karim Khalil KC has told the hearing the crown will need time to consider whether or not the pleas are acceptable or not, NottinghamshireLive has reported.
Peter Joyce KC, defending, said to the judge: "You know what the issues are and the world should know this: The defendant does not dispute the physical acts of any of the prosecution's case. Though he committed these dreadful acts, he did this while he was suffering from extreme mental illness."
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The two University of Nottingham students were stabbed to death at around 4am on Ilkeston Road, just a few minutes from their university halls.
Barnaby Webber and Grace Kumar, were both 19 when they were killed. Ian Coates, a primary school caretaker in his 60s, was also found dead with knife wounds near Mapperley Park, Nottingham, sometime after 5am.
Ian had his van stolen and was fatally attacked just under two miles away from where the students were found. His van was then driven into three people waiting at a bus stop on Milton Street in Nottingham’s city centre at around 5.30am.
Grace grew up in London, and had attended Bancroft's School in North-East London. She was a keen sportswoman and was a member of the England U16 and U18 hockey squads, as well as playing for Southgate Hockey Club and Woodford Wells Cricket Club in London.
Her funeral was held at Westminster Cathedral in July, with more than 1,000 guests estimated to be in attendance to pay their respects. During the funeral, her father Dr Sanjoy Kumar said: “No father should be called upon to give a eulogy for their child.
“It’s not the natural order of things. It generally means something really unnatural has taken place and unfortunately for me, my beloved daughter Grace has been taken away from us.”
Dr Kumar spoke about his daughter’s dedication to medicine and mentioned that she had volunteered to vaccinate people when he became the operations lead for a Covid vaccination centre in Waltham Forest . The congregation heard that Ms O’Malley-Kumar had wanted to apply to the Royal Army Medical Corps to further her medical training, inspired by her father and uncle, an orthopaedic surgeon.
Her mother Sinead O’Malley told the service that her daughter had been “cruelly and inexplicably taken”. She said: “She came into our lives here in Westminster at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington. Her birth registered here, and it is now from Westminster that she will leave. Grace was such a perfect gift to us.”
A funeral for Mr Webber was held at Taunton Minster in Taunton, Somerset, earlier in the month.
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