The police watchdog has said three officers are under investigation in connection with the investigation into the alleged assault of Valdo Carro Ane before the triple murder in Nottingham.
Leicestershire Police could face misconduct charges over the way they investigated a suspected triple murder a month before the deaths of Grace O’Malley-Kumar, Barnaby Webber and Ian Coates, The Independent has learned, citing the Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
Two officers and a sergeant have been informed they are being investigated in the course of the investigation, the IOPC said.
Carrocane allegedly attacked two colleagues on an industrial estate in Kegworth, Leicester, in May last year.
The following month he went on a stabbing spree in Nottingham, killing students Webber and O’Malley-Kumar and janitor Coates.
Leicestershire Police contacted the regulator in February this year. A spokesman said: “Police are actively cooperating with the IOPC’s investigation”.
The watchdog is also investigating several complaints from the families of the Nottingham victims.
Investigators are looking at what information police had about Carro Cane before the murder on 13 June 2023.
They are also investigating:
- Decisions and actions taken by Nottinghamshire Police in relation to Carro Cane between September 2021 and 13 June last year.
- How police informed families of their relative’s death and what support they offered.
- Whether senior police officers followed relevant policies and procedures in their supervision of officers investigating the incident on 13 June and its aftermath, including in relation to communicating with family members and members of the public about handling inappropriate WhatsApp messages and the potential exchange of information about the incident.
The IOPC said that all Nottinghamshire Police officers are currently being treated as witnesses and that there is no evidence of wrongdoing at this stage.
Carocane, 32, was hospitalised indefinitely in June last year for the manslaughter of Grace O’Malley-Kumar, Barnaby Webber and Ian Coates, and the attempted murder of three others.
His guilty plea was accepted due to medical evidence that he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.
In passing the sentence, the judge said it was “highly likely” he would be detained in a high-security hospital for the rest of his life.
Attorney-General Victoria Prentiss referred the sentence to the Court of Appeal in February, saying it was “too lenient”.
At a hearing in May, his lawyers said Carocane should instead receive a “hybrid” life sentence, in which he would first receive treatment for his paranoid schizophrenia and then serve the remainder of his sentence in prison.
However, senior judges at the Royal Courts of Justice in London later ruled that the sentence was not too light.