The police watchdog has insisted it will publish the findings of an investigation into the contact officers had with Nottingham triple killer Valdo Calocane despite his victims’ families being “gagged” by a non-disclosure agreement.
Emma Webber, the mother of Barnaby Webber, said she, alongside the families of Grace O’Malley Kumar and Ian Coates, had been forced to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
The NDA concerns a probe into the way Leicestershire Police officers dealt with alleged assaults by Calocane a month before the Nottingham attacks.
Calocane, who had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order after killing 19-year-old students Barnaby and Grace and caretaker Mr Coates, 65, before attempting to kill three other people, in a spate of attacks in Nottingham in June 2023.
The IOPC previously said two constables and a sergeant were told they were being investigated over how inquiries were progressed.
It is claimed Calocane assaulted two colleagues at an industrial estate in Kegworth, Leicester, in May 2023.
Mrs Webber told the PA news agency she called on the IOPC to “do the right thing” and urged them to make the findings public “so that full scrutiny can take place”.
The watchdog said a confidentiality agreement was “needed” in order to share the report with the victims’ families at the earliest opportunity.
The IOPC said it anticipated being able to publish the findings and outcomes of the investigation “in the coming weeks”.
It follows NHS England’s (NHSE) decision to publish the full report into the mental health care received by Calocane prior to the attacks, after initially intending to only publish a summary.
Mrs Webber told PA: “We were forced to sign NDA’s by NHSE to promise that we would not disclose their investigation into Calocane’s care.
“Under pressure from us, they were forced to U-turn and disclose the report in full themselves.
“As (Health Secretary) Wes Streeting himself said, sunlight is the best disinfectant – the same principle applies to the IOPC investigations into the numerous police failings in our case.”
She continued: “Like the NHS, the IOPC have also sought to gag us from speaking publicly and have forced us to sign NDAs saying we will not reveal their reports and findings.
“I now call on the IOPC to do the right thing like the NHS did and disclose their reports to the public so that full scrutiny can take place.
“It is the only way that real lessons are going to be learned and lasting change put in place so that no other family should have to endure the torture that we are.”
Radd Seiger, an adviser to the victims’ families, told PA the IOPC’s decision to impose an NDA was “inexcusable”.
He said: “It is inexcusable for any watchdog to seek to gag families of victims of serious crimes in this manner.
“That practice must be stopped.”
IOPC director Derrick Campbell said: “We completed an investigation into Leicestershire Police contact with Valdo Calocane prior to the killings and in particular the actions and decisions of officers investigating alleged assaults by him.
“In order to share our report and underlying evidence with the families of his victims at the earliest opportunity, a confidentiality agreement was needed.
“It remains in place until an appropriate time when the investigation findings and outcomes can be published, which we anticipate being able to do in coming weeks.”
