The death of a student killed in the Nottingham attacks was “potentially preventable”, an inquiry has heard.

Barnaby Webber – along with Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates – were killed by Valdo Calocane, who had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2020, in June 2023.

On Tuesday, ahead of closing statements to the Nottingham Inquiry, the hearing was told a “more rapid administration of blood products” could have increased Barnaby’s chances of getting to hospital with enough of a heartbeat to undergo surgery.

The inquiry heard Barnaby had a less than 50% chance of surviving his injuries, characterised as “potentially preventable”, while Grace and Ian’s deaths were “not preventable”.

A panel of medical professionals assessed the emergency medical response on the day of the attacks to assess “survivability”.

In their assessment, provided to the inquiry, the panel noted the hard work of the emergency responders in their care to the victims.

The panel found that even if blood products had been administered to Barnaby earlier and more rapidly, multiple other rapid and particular steps would have had to have taken place for him to have survived.

The families of the victims sobbed as the assessments were read out by counsel to the inquiry Rachel Langdale KC. Grace’s father, Dr Sanjoy Kumar, left the hearing room.

The Nottingham Inquiry started hearing evidence in February, with more than 100 witnesses questioned over three months.

Witnesses included police staff and officers, mental healthcare practitioners, Calocane’s former flatmates and family members, the bereaved families and the survivors of the attacks.

A number of revelations emerged in evidence about errors in Calocane’s care, his previous interactions with police and failings both during and in the aftermath of the attacks.

Calocane – who also seriously injured three others in the attacks on 13 June 2023 – is currently serving an indefinite hospital order in a high-security facility after pleading guilty to three counts of manslaughter, on the grounds of diminished responsibility, and to three counts of attempted murder.

The inquiry is currently hearing updates in evidence since the end of oral evidence earlier this year.

In her closing remarks, Langdale reiterated the evidence of former parliamentary ombudsman Sir Rob Behrens.

She said: “Too often these cases are dependent upon bereaved families campaigning at a time when they are least prepared to do so, and it is an outstanding public service that they perform.”

Langdale added: “Although Sir Rob was talking generally about bereaved families, his words could have been written as a description of the bereaved families and their legal team in this inquiry. Indeed, without their efforts there would not have been a public inquiry at all.”

“The evidence we have obtained has revealed one failure after another.

“There is a suggestion in some submissions that further oral evidence should be called. We submit that there’s no need for further oral evidence from any source.

“Barney, Grace and Ian should be alive. And the survivors – uninjured.”

These further updates will be followed by closing statements – the final oral submissions to the chair, retired senior judge Deborah Taylor KC.

On Tuesday, Taylor said it was “disappointing” that over the break, evidence had emerged which “ought to have been identified” and disclosed earlier.

She directed core participants to provide any corrections to errors or omissions by no later than 31 December.

The evidence – which was not disclosed during public hearings – included a holdall bag discovered at Calocane’s former address in Burford Road in Nottingham.

Calocane was evicted from the address on 11 June 2023 and travelled to London, before returning via to Nottingham shortly before midnight on 12 June, a day before his killings.

The inquiry was told detailed examination of the holdall bag was not prioritised because efforts were focused on finding a bag which Calocane had with him on the evening of the attacks.

The notebooks were not disclosed to the inquiry until June this year, which was described as an “oversight by Nottinghamshire Police”.

In those notebooks, Calocane had written that he had died, that he was god and made references to police having “mind-reading software”.

Tim Moloney KC – representing the bereaved families – said in his closing statement that the notebooks revealed “relevant information including what we say was a deep-seated misogyny”.

In documents found at the Burford Road address, Calocane had also listed explosives and made reference to a number of public venues.

The inquiry heard further violent assaults by Calocane on colleagues at warehouses in Nottinghamshire were also not disclosed to the inquiry team until after the public hearings took place.

This included an assault on a colleague in a warehouse in Eastwood in 2021 and another in Normanton in February 2023.

Footage of the February 2023 attack, described by Moloney as “sustained attack with punches thrown”, was shown to the hearing on Tuesday.

In his closing statement, Moloney focused on the timeline of contact between Calocane – who is being referred to in the inquiry as VC – and public services.

“We say the timeline contains a litany of unnoticed red flags, missed opportunities and individual and systemic failures,” he said.

“The bereaved families firmly believe that if opportunities had been taken to effectively deal with the behaviour of VC, if there had not been so many failures by so many people in institutions between 24 May 2020 and 13 June 2023, then their loved ones would still be here today.

“They have good reason to believe that, because VC’s history of contact with public agencies is one of repeated individual and systemic failures in the face of the clear and growing risk that he presented.”

Moloney said there were failures by authorities to follow policies and procedures and adequately consider harm with “every incident” involving Calocane between 2022 and 2023.

“Police were too quick to let things go in the teeth of really quite serious incidents, and clinicians were too quick to adopt a least restrictive practice which ignored the rights of his victims as we say ultimately and the rights of the public,” he said.

“Together, these practices diverted VC away from the criminal justice system or forensic psychiatry and he should have been going down that pathway.

“Together, these practices failed VC and the people he affected who sit in this room.”

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