The sentence of a man who stabbed three people to death in Nottingham was not unduly lenient, judges have ruled.
Valdo Calocane killed Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both 19, and 65-year-old Ian Coates on 13 June 2023.
He was given an indefinite hospital order after prosecutors accepted a plea of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
On Tuesday, Court of Appeal judges rejected an appeal against the sentence by the attorney general.
Speaking at the hearing, Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr concluded there was “no error” in the approach taken by Mr Justice Turner at Nottingham Crown Court in January.
She said Calocane was in the “grips of a severe psychotic episode” at the time.
Mr Justice Turner came to the “reasonable conclusion” that the aim of protecting the public would be best served by a hospital order, she added.
In a statement following the hearing, Mr Webber’s mother, Emma Webber, said the ruling came as “no surprise” to the victims’ families.
“Despite the fact that the attorney general herself feels that Valdo Calocane did not receive the appropriate sentence, today’s outcome proves how utterly flawed and under-resourced the criminal justice system in the UK is,” she said.
“It also illustrates the need for urgent reforms in the UK homicide law.”
Calocane, 32, had been diagnosed with treatment-resistant paranoid schizophrenia before the attacks.
In addition to killing Mr Webber, Ms O’Malley-Kumar and Mr Coates, Calocane stole Mr Coates’s van and used it to drive at three pedestrians, who were all left seriously injured.
The review into the sentence was held by the Lady Chief Justice of England and Wales, Lord Justice Edis and Mr Justice Garnham.
In summing up their conclusion, Baroness Carr said: “Had the offender not suffered the mental condition that he did, the sentencing judge would doubtless have been considering a whole life term.
“But neither the judge nor this court can ignore the medical evidence as to the offender’s condition which led to these dreadful events or the threat to public safety which the offender continues to pose.”
Deanna Heer KC, representing the attorney general’s office, had previously argued Calocane should have received a hospital and limitation direction, through which he would be treated in hospital before being transferred to prison.
While not criticising the approach of the original sentencing judge, she said psychiatrists who gave evidence to the court had not commented on the need for custodial action.
