A nurse who believes he was foisted with dangerous Nottingham killer Valdo Calocane as his colleagues were scared of him gave evidence to the Nottingham Inquiry today.
Gary Carter, who was put in charge of paranoid schizophrenic Calocane’s care from April 2022 to his disastrous discharge by Nottinghamshire Healthcare trust in September that year, told Nottingham Inquiry on Thursday, April 30, that he had tricked and outmanoeuvred mental health workers.
The judge-led inquiry, which started in February and is being chaired by Her Honour Deborah Taylor, is looking into how failings by the NHS trust, police, and others led to Calocane killing Grace O’Malley-Kumar, Barnaby Webber and Ian Coates, before attempting to kill Wayne Birkett, Sharon Miller and Marcin Gawronski on June 13, 2023.
Calocane’s mental healthcare had been coordinated by nurse Claudia Birtles from June 2020 to April 2022, but Mr Carter took over on April 28 and had previously visited the eventual killer.
Mary Ward House in Tavistock Place, London, where the Nottingham Inquiry is being held (Image: Joseph Raynor/ Reach PLC)
A NHS report found that the rationale for this change was primarily based on Calocane’s prior history of violence and unpredictable behaviour when acutely mentally ill.
However, the inquiry’s opening was previously told that Mr Carter was not at the meeting on April 28 when it was decided he would take on the difficult and dangerous patient.
Mr Carter, who was the only male on his team at the trust’s Early Intervention in Psychosis (EIP) service, explained how he believed the decision for him to take on Calocane was delivered to him as a fait accompli, as it had been made while he was on annual leave.
His colleague Ms Birtles said on Wednesday, April 29, that there was no formal handover despite the complexities of Calocane’s case and her evidence that he was a particularly difficult patient to assess.
Neither Ms Birtles nor Mr Carter, who had the most experience in managing dangerous Calocane outside of in-patient care, were present at the meeting that decided to discharge him back to his GP.
On Thursday, April 30, the inquiry also heard from Abi Parsonage of Nottinghamshire Healthcare trust.
Ms Parsonage had also visited Calocane in her role as a nurse at the EIP team.
She was involved in trying to engage him in 2022 before he was discharged.
The inquiry was previously that, in July 2022, Calocane had told Ms Parsonage that he was abroad and would be back in October.
However, Calocane’s mother Celeste had told Mr Carter in July 2022 that he was in fact in Nottingham.
Our live coverage of the hearing has now concluded. You can catch up on what happened below.