Prison staff could be facing criminal charges after they allegedly illegally accessed records involving the Nottingham killings of three people in 2023.
Employees of courts and prisons have been accused of ‘repugnant voyeurism’ as they allegedly opened files and images of Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both 19-year-old students, and Ian Coates, 65, with no legitimate authority to do so.
Students Barnaby and Grace, both 19, were stabbed to death by paranoid schizophrenic Valdo Calocane, 31, as they returned from a night out in the early hours of June 13 2023.
He then killed 65-year-old school caretaker Mr Coates and attempted to kill three others.
The families of the victims have been left heartbroken to have learned that several unauthorised staff were privy to information about their loved ones without permission.
They called it ‘gross and inexcusable voyeurism at the most repugnant level’.
The South East Regional Organised Crime Unit has been investigating their actions to decide if offences have been committed under the Computer Misuse Act.
It is said the Crown Prosecution Service will consider whether there is enough evidence for criminal charge, according to The Times.
Prison staff could be facing criminal charges after they allegedly illegally accessed records involving the Nottingham killings in 2023. Grace O’Malley-Kumar and fellow University of Nottingham student Barnaby Webber, both 19, were killed by Valdo Calocane
A spokesman said there have been no arrests, but voluntary interviews had been carried out.
It comes as 91 NHS staff illegally accessed the victims’ medical records.
The Nottingham Trust, which runs the Queen’s Medical Centre where the victims were taken, has apologised and said it was investigating ‘concerns’ staff may have ‘inappropriately’ looked at their A&E records.
Barnaby’s mother Emma Webber previously told the Daily Mail: ‘Whilst we know that a number legitimately needed to do so, it’s almost certain that a significant number did not.
‘It is sickening, disrespectful, unprofessional, and a gross invasion of privacy.’
A year before, the leader of Nottinghamshire city council apologised after three council officers also accessed police systems to view information about the attack.
While a Nottinghamshire Police officer was handed a final written warning after accessing police files about Calocane without permission and sharing a WhatsApp message that went into details of the students’ injuries.
Another staff member was sacked for using police systems to look up details of the murders, and a special constable was also let go after viewing bodycam footage of the students before they died.
Ian Coates was also stabbed to death by Calocane in June 2023
Calocane was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order in January 2024 after admitting manslaughter by diminished responsibility and attempted murder
The family have had to deal with a number of burdens by officials as watchdog staff are being investigated over allegations they told officers being probed over failures around the stabbings that the inquiry was ‘politically motivated’.
Investigators from the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) are said to have told Leicestershire Police officers who failed to arrest Valdo Calocane a month before he killed three people that their disciplinary case was ‘being driven by the families of the victims’.
The officers, who did not arrest the triple killer for assault even though he was wanted on a warrant for not attending a court hearing relating to previous violence, claim they were told they would get off with ‘words of advice or reflective practice’.
The officers have made a complaint about the conduct of the IOPC investigators who interviewed them initially, The Times reported.
An IOPC spokesperson said: ‘We are aware of allegations made about IOPC staff by Leicestershire police officers who are subjects of an IOPC investigation.
‘The allegations involved comments alleged to have been made about that investigation.
‘We are treating this matter extremely seriously and have commissioned an external party to investigate them alongside other complaints about the investigation made by the families of the victims.’
The IOPC previously prepared a report which concluded that officers failed to properly investigate an assault on warehouse workers by Calocane in May 2023 – which could have stopped his murder spree a month later.
Victim Grace, left, pictured with father Dr Sanjoy Kumar, who has criticised Nottinghamshire NHS Foundation Trust for their ‘failure’ to treat Calocane, alongside Grace’s mother Sinead and brother James
The family of Barnaby Webber, second left, with his father David Webber, left, mother Emma and brother Charlie
In March, the watchdog said it would reinvestigate whether Calocane’s previous history and outstanding arrest warrant were seen by officers before the investigation was closed down.
The report’s findings led to a misconduct meeting being arranged rather than a more serious misconduct hearing for three Leicestershire Police officers, meaning they would have faced a maximum of a final written warning.
It is understood that the staff who are alleged to have made the comments would not have made decisions about whether the officers had a case to answer, nor would they have any sway on what sanctions might have been imposed were disciplinary proceedings to go ahead. They are also no longer working on the case.
Emma Webber, Mr Webber’s mother, said on behalf of all the victims’ families: ‘The scale of failures that we have already endured at the hands of the institutions and organisations that contributed to the entirely preventable deaths of Grace, Barney and Ian are shameful.
‘To now be made aware that the IOPC, the very body that alleges to independently hold our police force to account, may itself be complicit in such gross misconduct is terrifying.’
Meanwhile Dr Sanjoy Kumar, father of 19-year-old Grace, said doctors at the Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust must be held responsible for their ‘failure’ to treat Calocane, 33, appropriately.
Dr Kumar said earlier this year: ‘We’ve been failed at every intersection that Valdo Calocane had with any authority.’
He said doctors knew Calocane ‘was an evil, violent man – a known risk to the public who did not take his medication’. Dr Kumar went on: ‘Ultimately, they are responsible for discharging him into the community to do harm. They failed to consider public safety.
His comments came before it was revealed by The Times that the NHS tried to suppress a report that revealed Calocane had been allowed to skip medication, was discharged despite a significant history of violence, and that staff feared him.
Nottinghamshire Police, Leicestershire Police, the Crown Prosecution Service and the Ministry of Justice have been contacted for comment.
