Lee Anderson Column: Authorities need to learn the lessons from the Nottingham Attacks inquiry

Students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, and school caretaker Ian Coates were brutally killed by Valdo Calocane in the most awful circumstances in 2023.

Wayne Birkett, Sharon Miller and Marcin Gawronski were also injured when Calocane ran them over with a stolen van.

The 14 weeks of evidence hearings for the long-awaited Nottingham Inquiry recently concluded.

These hearings have laid bare a catalogue of failings from agencies both in the lead up to, and aftermath from the attacks.

I am full of awe at the incredible courage and strength shown by all the families, relentless in their pursuit of justice and accountability.

I cannot begin to imagine how difficult this process must have been for them, repeatedly hearing about the seemingly never-ending list of catastrophic failings that led to the tragic, and entirely preventable attack in 2023.

What has been so striking is the failure of so many agencies.

I would like to quote Barnaby’s mother Emma, who perfectly encapsulates the sheer extent of the institutional negligence that the Inquiry has uncovered when she said ‘every single agency failed – without exception’.

Whether it’s the fact Calocane was known to the police for repeated incidents in the past.

The fact he should have been arrested in 2022 for attacking a police officer.

The fact he wasn’t sent to a psychiatric hospital in 2020 due to fears of the ‘overrepresentation of young black males’ in detention.

Or the fact mental health services essentially couldn’t find him, so chose to discharge him just nine months before the attack.

It’s clear this man should never have been on the streets.

I believe knife crime is one of the most important issues facing us in Britain.

This is why I held a debate in Parliament on this issue last October.

We must never become desensitised to the horrific examples we see far too frequently.

Too many families are being forced to live with the unimaginable pain of losing a loved one in these circumstances.

We need to deliver a zero-tolerance society to knife crime, where there is a clear deterrent to carrying knives, deployment of stop and search to remove deadly weapons from our streets and a judicial system that prioritises victims and puts criminals behind bars.

But the Nottingham attacks was a story of widespread failure and negligence, and a horrendously broken system.

Valdo Calocane should never have been on the streets in the first place.

I sincerely hope justice and accountability can finally be delivered for the families who have suffered far too much already.

We owe it to the victims to hear what their families are saying, hold those responsible accountable, and deliver real, genuine change to ensure nobody can be so tragically let down by the agencies supposed to protect them ever again.

Rest in Peace Barnaby, Grace and Ian.