Partner of killed caretaker 'lost faith in system'

The partner of a school caretaker who was stabbed to death in the Nottingham attacks said she has lost all trust in the NHS and police.

Elaine Newton, whose long-term partner Ian Coates was killed on his way to work, said hearing the extent of systemic failings during the inquiry into Valdo Calocane's attacks in June 2023 had been "horrifying".

Coates, 65, was fatally stabbed just over an hour after 19-year-old undergraduates Barnaby Webber and Grace O'Malley-Kumar were killed by Calocane, who had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

An inquiry into the attacks is hearing its final day of evidence on Friday.

The inquiry has previously heard it took 91 minutes from when the first call was made to Nottinghamshire Police about the attack on the students at about 04:00 BST until Calocane was found and arrested, by which time he had attacked Coates.

Rob Griffin, Nottinghamshire Police's assistant chief constable at the time of the attacks, told the inquiry the co-ordination of the search for Calocane during the attacks "should have been better".

Coates's body was kept at the crime scene for nearly 15 hours while police were investigating, the inquiry heard, and he was covered in blankets for two hours until a forensic tent became available.

During her evidence to the inquiry in March, Newton said it felt like he had been killed twice because she was told he had died in a car crash before being informed more than four hours later he had actually been stabbed.

In a statement on Friday, she said it "was not just Valdo Calocane who killed Ian", adding that the individuals and agencies behind the failings "share that burden of responsibility".

"After listening to the evidence over the last three months, I have lost all trust in the NHS and the police," she said.

"Fundamental issues were ignored or covered up. Powerful people in positions of trust have lied.

"To hear the full extent of the systemic failings has been horrifying, and without the inquiry I don't think we would have ever known just how deep the culture of negligence really is."

Calocane had been sectioned four times while under the care of Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, before he was discharged to his GP in 2022.

The inquiry heard he was discharged by the trust's Early Intervention in Psychosis service because he failed to turn up for appointments and the team had "lost" him.

Ms Newton said the attacks "all could have been avoided had the NHS done its duty".

"Three cruel and unnecessary deaths are the results of their negligence and poor care for the mentally ill," she said.

"The system is broken, and it can only change if these organisations are properly monitored and truly held to account.

"Those people who concealed the truth and or did not fulfil their duty, I hope they understand and take responsibility for the irrevocable damage they have caused so many lives."

Nicola Ryan-Donnelly, of Fletchers Solicitors, which represents Ms Newton, said: "Elaine has shown remarkable strength throughout this inquiry, in the face of some unimaginably difficult evidence.

"The catalogue of failings, moral shortcomings and deceit have left her feeling deflated and forgotten.

"We support her calls for those responsible to face full accountability and look forward to the chair's report. Elaine must now be given the privacy she needs to recover."

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