Families 'tortured' by authorities, inquiry told

The partner of a man who suffered a traumatic brain injury in the Nottingham attacks has said the organisations involved in a public inquiry have "tortured" the victims' families "over and over again".

Valdo Calocane deliberately struck Wayne Birkett, Sharon Miller and Marcin Gawronski with a van, after he killed students Barnaby Webber and Grace O'Malley-Kumar and grandfather Ian Coates on 13 June 2023.

Wayne - who said he lost all memory of his life before the attacks as a result - and his partner Tracey Hodgson told the Nottingham Inquiry that police, the NHS and other authorities had "prolonged their suffering".

In evidence on Thursday, Tracey added: "We are learning of so many failures."

Wayne, Sharon and Marcin survived the attacks were but all seriously injured.

The inquiry, which is examining the events that led up to the attacks and the aftermath, heard from Wayne and Sharon - and their respective partners - earlier. Marcin has not been involved with the inquiry.

In a statement to the inquiry, Tracey said it should not have taken the inquiry for the police "to be honest".

"All the organisations involved in this inquiry should have been open from the beginning.

"They have caused extra suffering for the families, which could have been prevented, and they have prolonged their suffering when they should have been allowed to just get on with grieving.

"You have tortured these families over and over again," she said.

Wayne thanked the inquiry team, and said it was important to "finally learn the truth".

The 62-year-old was on his way to his job as a forklift driver in the city centre when Calocane deliberately swerved across the road and drove into the back of him, sending him several feet into the air.

By then, Calocane had already stabbed to death Barnaby, Grace and Ian, and was driving Ian's van.

Wayne suffered two skull fractures, bruising to the left side of his brain, numerous lacerations to the face and body, severe bruising to his body, and several broken bones.

He spent more than six weeks in hospital and was eventually transferred to a rehabilitation unit. He said all he could remember was being in pain.

"I didn't know why I was in pain, why my head was hurting.

"It was confusing. They wouldn't give me answers as to why I was there," he said.

Wayne and Tracey were allocated a family liaison officer (FLO), Det Con Raj Johal, who they said was "very friendly", however the inquiry was told she did not share any details about what had happened on the day of the attacks.

"I just wanted to know the severity of what he [Calocane] did to me," Wayne said.

Tracey told the inquiry she later realised Johal had been "sitting on all this information" about Calocane's previous interactions with police.

"She said there was no history at all with the police," Tracey said.

Calocane, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2020, had been sectioned under the Mental Health Act numerous times between 2020 and 2023, and was involved with a number of violent incidents before his killings.

A warrant for his arrest was also outstanding at the time of the attacks.

Wayne said he was not prepared for the details of the attacks that emerged at Calocane's sentencing at Nottingham Crown Court in January 2024.

"I thought it was horrifying listening to what happened because I wasn't expecting it at all," he said.

Wayne and Tracey told the inquiry following the attacks by Calocane - who is being referred to in the inquiry as VC - they learned more from the media and social media than they did from police.

When it emerged police officers had looked at sensitive information about the attacks without a policing purpose, Wayne received an email from Kate Meynell, the then chief constable, the next day.

However, in response to Meynell, Tracey said: "Unfortunately this information was old news.

"Literally word for word, [it] had already been on social media and this shouldn't be the way we find out."

In that email, she added: "Also, do you or any of the force remember that there are three other victims of the 13 June 2023 attacks?

"Wayne, Sharon and Marcin all seem to be forgotten because they are survivors of this horrendous crime that was committed by VC."

In their evidence to the inquiry, Sharon Miller and her partner Martin Reed said they felt "sidelined" by authorities.

In their statements, the couple said they were "kept in the dark" about the criminal process and had no contact with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) or the prosecution counsel before Calocane's sentencing.

"I didn't get to speak to anybody in person, apart from that FLO [family liaison officer]," Sharon said.

The inquiry also heard the couple did not want to attend court as they did not want to see Calocane, but were never told they could have followed proceedings remotely.

Sharon added she and her partner were "absolutely disgusted" to find out about Calocane's history with the police through media reporting,

She said she was walking to work in the city centre when Calocane struck her with Ian's van.

"I looked over to make sure there's nothing coming, I see the police car behind the white van with flashing lights so I just assumed that the police were pulling him over.

"Sirens come on and the next minute I'm in the air," she said.

Sharon said she believed police "spooked" Calocane, and that before they turned on their sirens, he was "letting people cross the road".

She suffered 12 fractured ribs, a broken toe and damaged spleen.

Following the attacks, Sharon said she received a letter from Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust about a potential data breach.

The letter said there had "potentially been inappropriate access to your records when you were brought into the emergency department".

Sharon added she was "disgusted".

Det Ch Insp Claire Gould, the family liaison advisor and retired Det Con Raj Johal - a family liaison officer - also gave evidence on Thursday.

Gould was responsible for assigning liaison officers to victims of the attacks and their families.

The inquiry has previously heard the family of Ian Coates were wrongly told that he had died in a road traffic accident, and it was only later the family were told it was a stabbing.

Gould told the inquiry that "should never have happened".

"Quite clearly, there has been a terrible error and the family should not have been given the wrong information as to Ian Coates's cause of death," she said.

Gould also apologised for the force's delay in telling Ian's sons about his death until about "10 minutes before" a press briefing on the day of the attacks.

There was also a delay of months to tell the families about misconduct investigations against officers for potential data breaches, and for offensive WhatsApp messages sent about the attacks in a group chat of police officers.

Gould intended for the families to be told in September 2023, when the investigations by the force's professional standards department first emerged.

However by December, an officer had been dismissed by the force but discussions about what to tell the families were still ongoing.

It was then deemed "too late" and too close to Christmas, and the inquiry heard Gould asked for communications to be pushed back to the new year.

Asked what she thought went wrong, Gould said: "I believe it's just not been gripped.

"I believe the families should have been told three months sooner, and I don't know where this has got lost, but it certainly shouldn't have been December and we're still discussing updating the families."

Meanwhile, Johal was the liaison officer allocated to all three of the survivors, Wayne, Sharon and Marcin, and their respective families.

Disputing Tracey's earlier evidence, Johal claimed she did not tell her Calocane had had no previous interaction with the force, but that instead said she "didn't know".

She said: "I wasn't aware of any police contact with [Calocane] until this inquiry."

However, Johal added she had heard from "different sources within the police that he may have been known", but was not "briefed" on this.

On reflection, she said she should have asked.

The inquiry continues.

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