A man has admitted killing two university students and a school caretaker and trying to murder three other people in a spate of knife attacks in Nottingham.
Valdo Calocane, 32, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Barnaby Webber, Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates, but guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter at the city’s crown court.
Those pleas were entered on the basis of diminished responsibility, his barrister Peter Joyce KC told the court.
Calocane, also known as Adam Mendes, entered guilty pleas to the attempted murders of three other people on June 13 this year.
University of Nottingham students Mr Webber and Ms O’Malley-Kumar were stabbed to death in Ileston Road shortly after 4am.
Mr Coates was found dead later in Magdala Road after his van was allegedly stolen.
The van was then driven at three pedestrians in Milton Street and Upper Parliament Street, in the city centre.
The family of Mr Webber, a history student from Taunton in Somerset, described their ‘complete devastation’ at the ‘senseless murder of our son’, saying he was a ‘beautiful, brilliant, bright young man, with everything in life to look forward to’.
Ms O’Malley-Kumar’s family described her as a ‘truly wonderful and beautiful young lady’ and that she would be ‘so dearly missed’.
The medical student, from Woodford in London, had represented Essex in cricket as a teenager and had also played for England Hockey.
Two of Mr Coates’ sons said his death had ‘rocked everyone’s world’, adding: ‘Nobody deserves this but he definitely didn’t.’
Thousands attended vigils at the university and Market Square to remember the victims, and a minute’s silence was held ahead of the first Ashes cricket Test in the city.
