True justice has not been served

Victims' mum slams 'failures'. Police, CPS and NHS blasted

- MARTIN FRICKER

FAMILIES who are grieving for the victims of the Nottingham rampage killer are horrified he has not been tried for murder.

The relatives have criticised the Crown Prosecution Service for accepting Valdo Calocane's guilty pleas to manslaughter.

He was yesterday sentenced to an indefinite hospital order for killing 19-year-old students Grace O'Malley-Kumar and Barnaby Webber, and school caretaker Ian Coates, 65, in June last year.

Barnaby's mum Emma said: "True justice has not been served." She accused the CPS of not consulting them before deciding not to put Calocane on trial for murder, adding: "We were horrified."

Emma said: "We trusted in our system - foolishly as it turns out." The CPS made the decision after psychiatrists said Calocane was suffering from "treatment-resistant" paranoid schizophrenia.

Not being tried for murder meant he could not be handed a whole-life prison sentence. Families have also blasted officers and health services.

Emma, 51, said of the police: "You have blood on your hands.

"If you had done your jobs properly, there's a very good chance my beautiful boy would be alive today.

Outside Nottingham crown court after the sentencing hearing, she added the three victims were "stolen from us for ever and let down by the very system that should be protecting us".

There were missed opportunities by various agencies that may have prevented the tragedy.

Calocane, 32, had been on the run from police for nine months when he launched the killing spree.