Valdo Calocane brother tells inquiry he felt powerless over killer’s mental ill health

The younger brother of Valdo Calocane, who killed three people in an attack in Nottingham , said he felt “powerless” over his sibling’s mental ill health and believed violent messages his brother had sent concerned suicidal thoughts. Valdo Cacocane, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2020, stabbed to death Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both 19, and caretaker Ian Coates, 65, on 13 June 2023, and seriously injured three others. Calocane’s younger brother, Elias, gave evidence to the Nottingham inquiry for the first time on Wednesday, which is looking at the events leading up to the attacks. During his evidence, Elias was asked about several messages he received from Calocane in 2020, before his first hospital admission, which contained violence and paranoia about technology. From left, Ian Coates, Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar who were killed by Valdo Calocane in June 2023. Photograph: Nottinghamshire police/PA In one message, Calocane said he was “thinking about red rum”, which is murder spelt backwards. In another, Calocane told his brother he wanted to “hurt permanently”. Elias repeatedly told the inquiry that from 2020 until the attacks in Nottingham in 2023, he had a “belief” Calocane would take his own life. The inquiry saw messages Calocane had sent Elias where he described “immense anguish, paranoia, anger, hatred” and that he had the “darkest thoughts”. …