Valdo Calocane brother tells inquiry he felt powerless over killer's mental ill health

"Elias repeatedly told the inquiry that from 2020 until the attacks in Nottingham in 2023, he had a belief Calocane would take his own life. The inquiry saw messages Calocane had sent Elias where he described immense anguish, paranoia, anger, hatred and that he had the darkest thoughts. Elias told the inquiry that he believed an I love you message he received from his brother in January 2020 was a goodbye message."

"During his evidence, Elias was asked about several messages he received from Calocane in 2020, before his first hospital admission, which contained violence and paranoia about technology. In one message, Calocane said he was thinking about red rum, which is murder spelt backwards. In another, Calocane told his brother he wanted to hurt permanently."

"Counsel to the inquiry, Rachel Langdale KC, suggested to Elias that the messages sent by Calocane did not explicitly state he was going to hurt himself. He responded: If you take the messages around it, there's no other subject other than Valdo, right? He's talking about the situation, the monitoring thing, feeling immense anguish and talking about it being overwhelming."

"He added: I guess maybe it's difficult for people to read these [text] messages now without"

Valdo Calocane, diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2020, killed three people in Nottingham on 13 June 2023 and seriously injured three others. His younger brother, Elias, gave evidence to a Nottingham inquiry for the first time, describing feelings of powerlessness over Calocane’s mental ill health. Elias said he believed violent messages Calocane sent raised concerns about suicidal thoughts. The inquiry heard about messages from 2020 before Calocane’s first hospital admission, including references to murder and desires to cause permanent harm. Elias repeatedly told the inquiry he believed Calocane would take his own life from 2020 until the attacks. He also interpreted an “I love you” message in January 2020 as a goodbye.

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