{"id":1530,"date":"2026-03-30T23:19:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T23:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/1530\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T23:19:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T23:19:09","slug":"father-of-nottingham-attacks-victim-slams-psychiatrist-for-ignoring-evidence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/1530\/","title":{"rendered":"Father of Nottingham attacks victim slams psychiatrist for ‘ignoring evidence’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sanjoy Kumar was also offended by his daughter’s death being referred to as ‘an assault’<\/p>\n

Martin Naylor Courts and legal affairs correspondent<\/p>\n

16:32, 30 Mar 2026<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Dr Sanjoy Kumar has criticised a psychiatrist taking part in the inquiry(Image: Joseph Raynor\/ Reach PLC)<\/p>\n

The father of a Nottingham attacks<\/a> victim has slammed a leading psychiatrist for \u201cignoring key pieces of evidence\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sanjoy Kumar, the father of Grace O\u2019Malley-Kumar, says Professor Nigel Blackwood also \u201coffended\u201d him and the families of those who were killed by Valdo Calocane when he referred to the savage attack on his daughter and Barnaby Webber in Ilkeston<\/a> Road as an \u201cassault\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Kumar added that in his opinion Calocane deliberately changed his clothing before he stabbed three people to death as though he was \u201cgetting ready for battle\u201d.<\/p>\n

But Prof Blackwood told the hearing his assessment of the killer, having read material on him as well as interviewing him for five hours in a secure mental health hospital, was not \u201cpre-judged\u201d.<\/p>\n

University of Nottingham<\/a> students Grace, Barnaby, and school caretaker Ian Coates were all stabbed to death by Calocane in the early hours of June 13, 2023.<\/p>\n

The killer then took Mr Coates van from where he killed him in Magdala Road and deliberately drove it into Wayne Birkett, Sharon Miller and Marcin Gawronski in the city centre<\/a> as they went to work.<\/p>\n

Speaking after Prof Blackwood gave his evidence, Mr Kumar told NottinghamshireLive<\/a>: \u201cSomeone who is making a decision on what is the most important matter in our lives has not asked for key pieces of evidence in order for him to make his assessment and reach his conclusions.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid he ask to see previous medical notes? No.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said [Calocane] told him that voices in his head told him he had to assault a co-worker (during a previous, earlier, incident). Did he explore that? No.<\/p>\n

\"Dr<\/p>\n

Dr Sanjoy Kumar, the father of Grace O\u2019Malley-Kumar pictured outside Mary Ward House in Tavistock Place, London(Image: Joseph Raynor\/ Reach PLC)<\/p>\n

\u201cA key thing we agree on and this is something we have never argued about is VC\u2019s diagnosis.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe say he was relapsing at the time (of the attacks) but Blackwood disagrees, he says \u2018no this is all his psychosis\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything we have seen today shows that VC was highly manipulative, but Blackwood says this is not manipulation and instead it is a lack of insight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Counsel Tim Maloney, for the families, asked Professor Blackwood about his interview with Calocane which took place at Ashworth Hospital, in Merseyside, which took place over five hours in November, 2023 and the reports he filed following it.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cYou have accepted today that some people who are suffering from a psychotic disorder are capable of not telling the truth in pursuit of what they believe to be their own interest?\u201d<\/p>\n

The witness replied: \u201cAbsolutely, yes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Maloney asked: \u201cIt is important to have as much material as possible provided to you by the police<\/a> in order to ensure that your assessment is as informed and rigorous as possible?\u201d<\/p>\n

He replied: \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Grace<\/p>\n

Counsel asked: \u201cDid you feel there was any gap in your knowledge as to VC’s developmental history?\u201d<\/p>\n

The professor said: \u201cI think we had a very full dataset.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Maloney said: \u201cWe have heard he didn\u2019t have friends, he was a loner, he was moving from one part of the country to another, there are a few things emerging that you didn’t really know about at the time aren’t there?”<\/p>\n

He replied: \u201cThat is absolutely correct, yes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rachel Langdale KC, counsel for the inquiry, told the hearing that Calocane had been looking at real-life \u201cterrorism and shootings\u201d on his phone ahead of the killings.<\/p>\n

She asked the professor: \u201cHe\u2019s a dangerous man isn\u2019t he?”<\/p>\n

He replied: \u201cI think his risk to others has increased as a result of his psychotic illness.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis may be reflective of the fact that he\u2019s beginning to have murderous intentions.<\/p>\n

\"Dr<\/p>\n

Dr Sanjoy Kumar, father of Grace O\u2019Malley-Kumar, Emma Webber, mother of Barnaby Webber and James Coates, son of Ian Coates (Image: Joseph Raynor\/ Reach PLC)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know he buys a knife in 2022, he buys knife-sharpening equipment, so there is a new interest in weaponry at this point. He is concerned that the powers that be are interfering with his mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Langdale asked: \u201cIs there anything in his behaviour that you view as manipulation?<\/p>\n

Prof Blackwood replied: \u201cWell being manipulative is being aware of what an individual is seeking and while being aware of that, going out of your way to frustrate that aim.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo there is nothing in his police interviews I would ascribe to manipulation.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was asked: \u201cWere you aware how many weapons he had in his rucksack that night (of the killings in Nottingham)?\u201d<\/p>\n

He replied: \u201cYes, I think there were four in the rucksack and there was a piece of piping.<\/p>\n

She asked: “Calculated to cause harm?\u201d<\/p>\n

He said: “Absolutely, they speak to his murderous intentions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Langdale asked about Calocane wearing all black on the morning of the attacks and how other people walked past him as he lurked in the shadows off Ilkeston Road before claiming his first two victims.<\/p>\n

The witness said: \u201cI think he\u2019s in the grip of strong psychosis at this moment and the fact that other people passed before he decided who to assault before coming out to assault others is informed potentially by that – there is an internal struggle with command, hallucinations, for example.<\/p>\n

\u201cQuite why he decided to come out of the shadows and attack two students at this point I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe simply don\u2019t know why these two students (Barney and Grace) were the people he assaulted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe emotional impact of his symptoms, the emotional impact of those symptoms, his anger, his fear were such that I argued his responsibilities for these events was diminished.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat there were substantial impairments to his actions to form a rational judgement and to exercise self-control.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe acts would not have occurred but for his psychosis.<\/p>\n

Mr Kumar told NottinghamshireLive: \u201cI found it very offensive that he said he \u2018assaulted\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe did not assault our children, he killed them.<\/p>\n

\u201cVC changed into combat boots, black sweater, black beanie, black jumper and totally changed his clothing getting ready for battle.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is all about pre-planning.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sanjoy Kumar was also offended by his daughter’s death being referred to as ‘an assault’ Martin Naylor Courts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1531,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[61,28,1138,1141,1139,1140,5,6,1137],"class_list":{"0":"post-1530","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"tag-crime","9":"tag-education","10":"tag-ilkeston","11":"tag-nottingham-attacks","12":"tag-nottinghamshire","13":"tag-terrorism","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-university-of-nottingham"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}