Son of Nottingham attacks victim found out father had died through Instagram

The son of a school caretaker stabbed to death during the Nottingham attacks has told a public inquiry he learned of his father's death through an Instagram message from a family friend.

Valdo Calocane killed 65-year-old grandfather Ian Coates after killing students Barnaby Webber and Grace O'Malley-Kumar in the early hours of 13 June 2023.

Two of Ian's three sons - James and Lee - added despite multiple calls to police for answers, they were not formally told their dad had been killed until about 17:00 BST, shortly before Nottinghamshire Police told the public in a press conference.

The Nottingham Inquiry is being held at Mary Ward House in London, and chaired by retired senior judge Deborah Taylor KC.

It is examining the events that led up the attacks and the aftermath.

Calocane first brutally stabbed 19-year-old University of Nottingham students Barnaby and Grace at about 04:00 in Ilkeston Road.

He then walked almost two miles across the city and killed Ian in Magdala Road at 05:14, before taking Ian's van and using it to knock down Wayne Birkett, Sharon Miller and Wayne Gawronksi in the city centre.

Police were at the scene in Magdala Road shortly before 05:40, the inquiry was told.

As numerous parts of the city were locked down by police, James and Lee said they became aware of something going on through separate work WhatsApp groups.

James said he then learned "somebody had been killed on Magdala Road" near to his home.

He said it was not until the afternoon when he learned through a message from a family friend on Instagram, saying: "I can't believe what's happened to your dad."

He said: "My first instinct is that it's a hoax message or she'd been hacked."

James called and said she was "in hysterics" and believed it had been a traffic accident.

He then tried to ring other family members to find out what had happened before calling Lee to tell him: "I think dad is dead."

As the day went on, the family said they had pieced together what went on.

Lee said: "We were calling 101.

"We were ringing the helpline. I even went to the lengths of ringing 999 to get some information."

James told the inquiry police made contact "10 minutes before [then chief constable] Kate Meynell went on TV to do her press conference, to let the city of Nottingham know what had happened".

'We were an afterthought'

The inquiry also heard Ian's sons only found out about a vigil, organised by Nottingham City Council, at the Council House in Old Market Square on 16 June from a Sky News journalist.

"Everybody had been invited - we had no information or no official word on it," James said.

James, Lee and their older brother Darren were invited to attend after family members contacted the council.

When they arrived, they learned they had not been formally invited to speak at the vigil, but were told they could if they wished.

"We were kind of going with the flow at this stage but at this point, it already felt that we were a bit of an afterthought, let's say," Lee added.

Lee and James told the hearing they were not kept informed by police from the moment of the attacks, through to the sentencing in January 2024 and then after, when the force's previous interactions with Calocane emerged.

In his statement to the inquiry, Lee said: "I do feel strongly we were perceived as second class, in comparison to others.

"I think I'd already had a bad taste in my mouth from the get-go of the day of 13 June, having to forage for information ourselves, having to contact the police rather than them contacting us."

He said that "saga had continued".

Earlier, Ian's partner Elaine Newton told the hearing she was informed by police officers that Ian had died in a road traffic accident.

She was taken home, but told the inquiry she received no further information for about five hours.

She said: "I kept asking, I needed to go to Ian, I needed to go and see where he was. I said 'is he at hospital?' [The officer] said 'no'."

When a family liaison officer, Mark Kimberley, arrived with a colleague, Elaine said they "looked shocked" to learn she had been told her partner had died in a road traffic accident.

"Ian's been killed and he's been stabbed," they told her.

Elaine added: "It felt like he'd been killed twice.

"It wasn't right. The first information I accepted, but the second I couldn't.

"You don't know which one is true - have they got the wrong person? I felt it was all not right. It was just a mess."