On Monday, the HM Crown Prosecution Inspectorate (HMCPSI) released a report on the CPS’s actions in the case of Valdo Calocane.
In June last year, Calocane killed students Grace O’Malley-Kumar, Barnaby Webber and school caretaker Ian Coates, and attempted to kill three other people, in a rampage of terrible violence in Nottingham.
No reasonable jury could conceivably have convicted him of murder
The report was commissioned by the Attorney General, Victoria Prentis, after the CPS was criticised for accepting Calocane’s guilty plea for manslaughter, on the basis of diminished responsibility. As a result of the plea, Calocane was sentenced to indefinite detention in a psychiatric hospital. He will be released, if at all, only when both his treating psychiatrists and the Ministry of Justice say he can be let go. The Attorney General also referred the sentence to the Court of Appeal on the grounds that it is unduly lenient.
HMCPSI has often shown itself willing to be severely critical of the CPS.
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