The death of a student killed in the Nottingham attacks was “potentially preventable”, a public inquiry has heard.
Barnaby Webber – along with Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates – were killed by Valdo Calocane, who had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2020, on 13 June 2023.
On Tuesday, ahead of closing statements to the Nottingham Inquiry, external – which is examining the killings – the inquiry was told a “more rapid administration of blood products” could have meant Barnaby’s death was “potentially preventable”.
The inquiry also heard documents found in a bin at Calocane’s address contained a list of explosives, which was not disclosed by Nottinghamshire Police until June this year.
A panel of medical professionals assessed the emergency medical response on the day of the attacks to assess “survivability”, the inquiry was told.
In their assessment, the panel noted the hard work of the emergency responders in their care to the victims.
The panel found if blood products had been administered to Barnaby earlier and more rapidly, it could have increased his chances of getting to hospital with enough of a heartbeat to undergo surgery.
However, multiple other rapid and particular steps would have had to have taken place for him to have survived.
The inquiry heard Barnaby had a less than 50% chance of surviving his injuries, characterised as “potentially preventable”, while Grace and Ian’s deaths were “not preventable”.
The families of the victims sobbed as the assessments were read out by counsel to the inquiry Rachel Langdale KC. Grace’s father, Dr Sanjoy Kumar, left the hearing room.
Langdale said Nottinghamshire Police found the documents in a bin at Calocane’s former property in Burford Road in Nottingham.
He wrote bullet points on one page about explosives under the heading “thoughts”, including TNT and nitrate fertiliser.
Langdale said: “This piece of paper listing thoughts about a number of explosives was not identified or taken into account at the time.”
She added it had not been made available by police to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) or to psychiatric experts.
Calocane was evicted from the Burford Road address on 11 June 2023 and travelled to London, before returning via to Nottingham shortly before midnight on 12 June, a day before his killings, the inquiry heard.
