Son Discovers Father's Murder Through Instagram Message at Nottingham Inquiry
The son of a school caretaker stabbed to death by paranoid schizophrenic Valdo Calocane has revealed to a public inquiry that he learned of his father's death through an Instagram message from a family friend. James Coates, whose father Ian Coates, 65, was killed just over an hour after undergraduates Barnaby Webber and Grace O'Malley-Kumar were murdered in the early hours of June 13, 2023, told the inquiry in London that he initially believed the message was a hoax.
Social Media Revelation and Police Communication Failures
James Coates described being aware of a police incident in Nottingham that had cordoned off roads, with colleagues struggling to get to work. He later heard someone had been killed on Magdala Road, near his home, but had no idea it was his father. "It wasn't until 3pm that I was walking up the road to my house that I decided to check Instagram," he testified. "I'd not got notifications on, but I got a message from a family friend saying 'I cant believe what's happened to your dad, please ring me'. My first instinct is it's a hoax message."
He said the family friend was in hysterics, initially stating Ian Coates had been involved in a road traffic accident while having seen events unfolding in Nottingham. James still did not believe it until further messages urged him to call. The family only received a call from Nottinghamshire Police ten minutes before former chief constable Kate Meynell held a press conference informing residents about the attacks. By that time, they had already pieced together information from social media and news reports.
"Police logs showed my number was available to police at 12 minutes to eight in the morning and we didn't get a call back until around 5pm, which is disgusting for me," James told the inquiry. His brother Lee Coates criticised Meynell's television claims that officers were "doing everything for the bereaved families" as rude and disingenuous, noting they had to fight for information about their father.
Family's Trauma and Legal Proceedings
The brothers expressed feeling "abandoned and overwhelmed," not fully informed about what happened to their father, and treated as an "afterthought" during vigils in the city. James described seeing Calocane in court for the first time, noting his large build compared to his father, who was six months from retirement and quite skinny. "Seeing his build, I knew there was never going to be any chance of them protecting themselves against him," he said.
It was during Calocane's sentencing hearing that they learned the full extent of their father's injuries. Lee Coates said he was "absolutely distraught" upon hearing in November 2023 that Calocane might plead not guilty to murder. "I promised Ian's partner Elaine Newton that this guy will go away for the rest of her life," he testified. "So when we got this information that he's potentially not going to go away for the crimes that he's committed... Of course, he is unsafe to go into a normal prison. He's a monster. This is why we have prisons, no? So we can put people like this away."
Partner's Account of Misinformation and NHS Criticisms
Ian Coates's long-term partner Elaine Newton told the inquiry it felt like her partner had been killed twice because police initially informed her he died in a car crash. She did not discover he had been stabbed until more than four hours later. "It felt like he'd been killed twice. It wasn't right," she said. "The first information, I accepted, but the second I couldn't accept. You don't know which one was true, or have they got the wrong person. It was not right, it was a mess."
Newton revealed she only became aware of previous incidents involving Calocane and the police during the inquiry process. "I was never told any information about his past... The first time was this hearing, I didn't know anything about any of this at all," she stated. In the wake of the attacks, she questioned Nottinghamshire Police about how Calocane was allowed to roam the city after the fatal stabbings, receiving what she called "excuses" about insufficient police numbers and Nottingham's size.
Calocane had been discharged by Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust in September 2022. Newton read an email she sent to the trust following meetings, stating she holds the NHS responsible for the deaths and has zero confidence in future changes. "I believe that is how you see Ian Coates, as just another statistic that you brush aside and file away," she wrote. "What I want is the individuals responsible for the catastrophic NHS failings to be held to account. I want those who failed to manage VC's care to be struck off from ever being in a position of care ever again."
Newton concluded by criticising both police and NHS, saying: "I think the police have let the public and myself and all other families down. Because they didn't do their job properly, they didn't communicate with the NHS, the NHS didn't communicate with the police. So I think between them all they've caused this."
