Families slam UK authorities as killer of three sent to secure hospital

LONDON: Families of the victims of a random stabbing in Nottingham, central England, slammed the police on Thursday as a 32-year-old man was sentenced to indefinite detention at a psychiatric hospital over the killings.

Valdo Calocane stabbed to death two 19-year-old students and a 65-year-old school caretaker during the attacks in June last year that resulted in police locking down the entire city.

Prosecutors earlier this week accepted Calocane´s plea of guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Judge Mark Turner, handing down the sentence, said Calocane would “very probably” be detained in a high-security hospital for the rest of his life.

“Your sickening crimes both shocked the nation and wrecked the lives of your surviving victims and the families of them all,” he told the killer.

Nottingham University students Barnaby Webber and Grace O´Malley-Kumar were stabbed near the city centre just after 4:00 am (0300 GMT) on June 13.

Ian Coates, the caretaker, was found stabbed nearby shortly afterwards.

After sentencing, Webber´s mother Emma said that “true justice has not been served”, and claimed that prosecutors had “railroaded” families over accepting the manslaughter plea, rather than murder.