{"id":622253,"date":"2026-04-21T22:13:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T22:13:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/622253\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T22:13:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T22:13:19","slug":"mental-health-experts-give-evidence-to-nottingham-attacks-public-inquiry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/622253\/","title":{"rendered":"Mental health experts give evidence to Nottingham attacks public inquiry"},"content":{"rendered":"

The public inquiry into the Nottingham attacks<\/a> has been told evidence from more mental health experts at the beginning of the eighth week of hearings.<\/p>\n

Triple killer Valdo Calocane<\/a>, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, fatally stabbed Barnaby Webber, Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates<\/a> in the early hours of June 13, 2023.<\/p>\n

He then tried to kill a further three people using the van he had stolen from Mr Coates.<\/p>\n

Hearings for the Nottingham Inquiry have been taking place in London since late February, examining failings <\/a>both in the run-up to, and in response to, Calocane’s rampage.<\/p>\n

Shortcomings by police forces, the NHS and watchdogs have so far been exposed by the inquiry, which is being led by retired judge, Her Honour Deborah Taylor.<\/p>\n

Two mental health experts, Professor John Morgan and Dr Seena Fazel, gave evidence on Monday, April 20.<\/p>\n

\"Dr<\/p>\n

Dr Seena Fazel giving evidence to the Nottingham Inquiry(Image: Nottingham Inquiry)<\/p>\n

Neither of them had direct involvement in the care of Calocane – referred to as VC throughout the proceedings – but can offer opinions on scenarios his clinicians may have faced.<\/p>\n

In September 2022 – less than nine months before the killings – Calocane was discharged by Nottinghamshire Healthcare Foundation Trust to his GP due to ‘non-engagement’ after he stopped taking his medication and turning up to appointments.<\/p>\n

Asked about whether a risk assessment should be undertaken when a patient is being discharged to a GP on those grounds, professor Morgan said ‘absolutely, yes’ and added a contingency plan should also be put in place.<\/p>\n

Dr Fazel, an expert on the relationship between mental illness – such as schizophrenia – and violence, said there was still a \u201cstrong body of opinion\u201d in psychiatry that there was no connection between the two, something he believes was partly driven by fears about stigmatising patients with schizophrenia.<\/p>\n

Dr Fazel said there is ‘quite clearly’ a link.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t deny the evidence because you\u2019re worried about a risk of stigma,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are worried that by identifying the link you increase stigma for a group of people who are already very heavily stigmatised. The concern is you make that worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur view is no. The best way to address stigma is by preventing it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can see where people are coming from. When you go into their history you are very cautious about upsetting people and don\u2019t want to create barriers.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think what we found is it\u2019s not actually something patients share.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Professor<\/p>\n

Professor John Morgan giving evidence to the Nottingham Inquiry(Image: Nottingham Inquiry)<\/p>\n

Asked what recommendations he would make to the inquiry, Dr Fazel said police and prosecutors should pursue criminal charges as a ‘default approach’ rather than dropping charges, as Nottinghamshire Police did after Calocane tried to break in to a neighbour’s flat, resulting in her jumping from the window, in May 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are a signal that actions have consequences and people are taking it seriously,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The professor added charges were also important for record-keeping.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes what happens, particularly if people move services, it is the only way you\u2019ll know if someone has a history of violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

A host of mental health workers who treated Calocane are scheduled to give evidence later this week, including the first team to assess him in 2020, as well as a doctor who warned he could “end up killing someone”.<\/p>\n

The inquiry continues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The public inquiry into the Nottingham attacks has been told evidence from more mental health experts at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[64,63,48,137,514,515,3285,292465,301597],"class_list":{"0":"post-622253","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-crime","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-mental-health","13":"tag-mentalhealth","14":"tag-nhs","15":"tag-nottingham-attacks","16":"tag-nottinghamshire-police"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}