For me I think that says it all. Someone like VC needed to be locked up in jail or deported back into their own country rather than be given special privileges for 9 days waiting for a PICU bed.
You wanted someone âlocked up in jailâ or deported after being detained on a s135(1) warrant and âsectionedâ?
Might we enquire: under what law, precisely would either thing happen?!
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Iâm not looking at one specific incident with him on a warrant under s135. You have to look at the bigger context - the bigger picture.
If you look at the timeline of events in his case with the inquiry and other news sources. His first incident occurred on May 2020 when he was trying to break into his neighbourâs flat - then again. Before he was seemingly lost into the mental health act process.
"On 23 May 2020, the court heard he went to A&E, believing he was having a heart attack, then went home and tried to get into another apartment in his building by breaking down the door.
He was arrested for criminal damage and assessed by psychiatric services while in custody.
They concluded he was psychotic but that the risk to others was low, and that he should be referred to a crisis team for review at home.
He was released without charge, but an hour later he knocked down another door in his apartment block.
Calocane was arrested for criminal damage a second time, re-assessed, then detained under the Mental Health Act."
This is the link. Valdo Calocane: What do we know about the Nottingham attacks killer?
To me - this is subjective. He needed to be charged and taken to court on that instance. I do not know the laws surrounding police jurisdiction when it comes to someone trying to break into someoneâs property - not once, but twice. But, rather than him being seen as mentally unwell; as he committed a crime - therefore it required the same validation as one.
After this, once he was recognised as someone unstable (apologies if wording is not correct). It looks as if the police simply incompetently excused him of every crime he was causing because he was seen within his records as âmentally unwellâ.
You can see in the inquiry - multiple attempts of the NHS services from all areas trying to intervene - detaining him - medicating him etc. Many years. I had it wrong initially - it looked like the MH services failed him. However, no - it appears they did all they could - and still it made no impact. Why? If that much attention is given to him - still nothing? In fact - after each intervention - he escalated.
So, you have to ask the question - if all his acts were seen for what it actually was - would the end result be different? Would that have saved lives?
Would he even be required to be detained using up beds under s135 or s136?
Even now - he has somehow been treated with âundiminished responsibilityâ for killing so many innocent citizens. Essentially pardoning him with what he did simply because of his past records giving him an easy excuse.
There are maybe a few arguments/issues in my view here:
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If police treated him as a criminal rather than a mentally unwell patient from the start - would that have made a difference?
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If the MH services did not intervene afterwards and begin writing all of these diagnoses in his records which any officer would have checked when deciding his case - would that have made a difference to how each police officer judged him?
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There appears to be an issue where the police and NHS services are far too connected in a legal sense. There is a clear disconnect between how police handle such cases with MH and how they communicate with MH. I canât put my finger on it yet. But the law somehow needs to separate itself between these two in order to distinguish such cases more clearly. Because with the way they are - it has created confusion and ambiguity. These are two different fields - they should remain that way. The police need to do what they need to - the NHS MH need to do what they need to. Separately. If say VC is wrongly incarcerated as a criminal in 2020 - then let the courts deal with it by proving he is not a criminal. No need in this case for MH services to be brought in by whoever was dealing with his criminal damage in 2020. It was a mistake created by complexities of the law, lack of skill - perhaps a little discrimination or even too much emotional involvement - I donât know.
I see his case a situation where the initial police officers or police officer in 2020 perhaps made a wrong decision about the reasons of his criminal damage. It was a decisive; critical error at that point in time. Once he was in the MH Act system everything they (VC) did was excused.
A lot of emphasis on him not taking medication - maybe another way could be looked at here with the idea that he went into each detention with the awareness of what he needed to do in order to get discharged - then once he was released - he came off the medication to restart what he actually wanted to do (?).
The pattern shows to me. His acts were not those of someone mentally incapacitated suffering from Schizophrenia - they were the acts of someone the opposite of good.
In terms of deportation - haha (laughing to myself as I do not know) - Iâm not entirely sure at what point. But seeing he migrated here in 2007 at 16 and was not a native of the UK. Maybe - although unrealistic - once he was causing havoc - there would be some legal directive to deport him? I do not know the laws surrounding UK law, crime, immigration and deportation.
WellâŚlike I said this is just an interpretation of how Iâve read the data - doesnât mean Iâm right. Always open to what other people have to say - albeit, please be gentle when pointing out any of my errors - as I am still trying to learn about all of this. Thanks 