The families of the three victims of the 2023 Nottingham attack have delivered a devastating verdict on the public inquiry into their children’s deaths, declaring that every single agency involved failed without exception and demanding a meeting with the Prime Minister, Attorney General, Home Secretary and Justice Secretary within the next month.
Speaking at a press conference in central London on the eve of the third anniversary of the attack, Emma Webber — the mother of 19-year-old Barnaby Webber, who was stabbed to death alongside Grace O’Malley-Kumar as they walked home from a night out celebrating the end of their first year at the University of Nottingham — delivered one of the most searing indictments of institutional failure heard in modern British public life.
“Three years ago, our beautiful son Barney was murdered in Nottingham — 19 years old, walking home from a fun night out with his friends, with Grace, celebrating the end of his first year at university,” she said. “His life was stolen in a moment because the systems that should have protected him failed. A monster was left at large in the shadows to stalk his prey.”
Having sat through months of evidence at the statutory public inquiry, Webber said the picture that had emerged was one of total and systemic failure across every institution responsible for protecting the public. “Every single agency failed. Every single one. Without exception. Mental health services failed to treat and manage. Police repeatedly failed to act. Agencies didn’t talk. Individuals chose to look the other way. Warnings were ignored. People chose not to care or be curious. And the fear of stigma and bias was placed above safety and duty. And when it went wrong, too many closed ranks. Instead of owning their mistakes.”
She described the outcome as “an undoubted miscarriage of justice” and made clear the families would not accept warm words as a substitute for action. “This isn’t about vengeance. It’s about doing the right thing, righting this grievous wrong and changing the systems that failed. The excuses stop here and accountability starts today.”
The press conference was opened by Dr Neil Hudgell, the families’ lawyer, who characterised Friday’s conclusion of the inquiry’s evidence-gathering phase as merely “a temporary pause” in a much longer fight. “The families continue to fight on many fronts for truth, accountability and change in the face of cover-up and subterfuge,” he said. He pointed to a recurring pattern throughout the inquiry’s proceedings. “They were failed before, during and after the attacks. They were failed by those institutions tasked with keeping us all safe and well. A common theme has been a failure in leadership and letting down those at the core first.”
Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both 19, and Ian Coates, 65, were murdered by Valdo Calocane in Nottingham in the early hours of 13 June 2023. Calocane, who had a lengthy history of contact with mental health services and law enforcement in the period leading up to the attack, pleaded guilty to manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility — a decision that has itself been a source of profound anguish for the families, who have challenged it as inadequate given the nature and premeditation of the killings.
