Triple killer Valdo Calocane brought a hammer back to a hospital as he wanted to ‘hang up items’ at his new home – but the property did not exist.
Calocane, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, fatally stabbed Barnaby Webber, Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates, before running over three others in the early hours of June 13, 2023.
A public inquiry into the tragedy was told that, during his admission at The Priory Hospital, a private mental health hospital in Arnold, he brought a hammer back in his rucksack after a period of leave.
Calocane had been transferred to the ward on October 1, 2021, almost a month after being sectioned following his assault of a police officer.
On Monday, May 11, Dr Ajith Gurusinghe, a consultant psychiatrist responsible for his care at the time, said Calocane’s explanation for bringing a hammer to the ward on October 10 was that he was moving into a new property and needed a hammer to hang up items.
But he did not have a new property, as counsel to the inquiry Craig Carr pointed out.
Dr Gurusinghe admitted the reasoning was ‘nonsense’ but the incident was not officially reported by the doctor and a new risk assessment was not carried out.
The hammer was put in Calocane’s locker before being returned back to him when he was discharged and released back into the community on October 21, the inquiry was told.
“This is somebody who has come back with something that can be used as a weapon and it sounds like you thought it was nonsense,” said Mr Carr.
“I admit that it’s been missed to be included as an incident. But in terms of any harm occurring to anyone there was no harm,” Dr Gurusinghe said, admitting he could have explored the reasoning further.
“That’s probably why it may not have been highlighted enough.”
Pressing Dr Gurusinghe on his decision to discharge Calocane eight days later, Mr Carr said: “He didn’t engage, he was isolated, he didn’t have any of the therapies, he turned up with a hammer.”
The doctor replied: “I didn’t want to link the hammer incident to his general presentation. He was detained for nearly eight weeks or so.
“There were no incidents of significance in terms of violence intimidation, or aggression towards staff. He complied really well with medication.
“So there was no reason for me to justify detaining him any longer based on that presentation.”
Hearings for the Nottingham Inquiry have been running in London since late February, examining failings both in the run-up to and in response to Calocane’s rampage.
On Monday, the inquiry also heard from Helen Foster, a charge nurse at the Priory Hospital in Arnold.
She said she believed the hammer incident was “not followed up at all”.
“They didn’t do it obviously but it should’ve been done,” she said.
“A lot of staff don’t know how to record an incident, and it’s better coming from the person who spoke to him.
“We didn’t know where, how he’d got it, or anything. Obviously if it’s not recorded, it didn’t happen, it has to be recorded.
“If we don’t record things people are just completely unaware of it and it’s a really serious thing.”
The inquiry also heard evidence from Roseanna Crane, an approved mental health practitioner (AMHP) who was involved in a Mental Health Act assessment of Calocane on January 19, 2022, after he assaulted a flatmate and kept him hostage at his university accommodation.
The hearing was told Ms Crane recorded in her notes that Calocane’s answers were “just about on topic but evasive and superficial”.
She added she “got the impression he knew what to say and what not to say”.
Asked about these comments, Ms Crane said: “We were leading the questions and he would consider his answer and say something back. He gave the minimal amount of information needed to progress the assessment.”
When Calocane was asked about medication concordance, risk and hospital admission, Ms Crane said he would “steer his answers towards what he felt was the right thing to say to minimise or present those things as less risky”.
Asked whether he was manipulating healthcare professionals, she said: “I’m describing somebody who doesn’t want to go to hospital, and is filtering the information that he’s sharing.
“I understand why you’re using the word ‘manipulate’ but the word I’m using might be ‘persuasion’ or selective ‘information’.”
Ms Crane said this created concern as it “increased uncertainty” in the decision of whether to detain Calocane.
Calocane was also noted to have described the flatmate assault as “a normal interaction between peers over household tasks”, something Ms Crane also said was concerning.
“Yes it is concerning. He was minimising the incident of assault.”
The inquiry continues.
