16-07-2025
Students killed in Nottingham attacks to be awarded posthumous degrees
Two students stabbed to death in the street in Nottingham are to receive posthumous degrees this month.
Barnaby Webber and Grace O'Malley-Kumar, both 19, were killed as they walked home from a night out in the early hours of June 13 2023 by Valdo Calocane, who went on to kill 65-year-old caretaker Ian Coates and attempt to kill three other people.
The University of Nottingham, where Mr Webber was studying history and Ms O'Malley-Kumar was a medical student, has now announced they will both be awarded posthumous degrees at this summer's graduation ceremonies.
Emotional day for pair's friends
A university spokesman said: 'We will be offering posthumous degrees for both Barney and Grace at this summer's graduation ceremonies later this month, and are working with their families to understand how they would prefer to mark this important milestone.
'We also appreciate that this is likely to be an emotional day for many of their cohort, who will be remembering their friends Barney and Grace.'
Emma Webber, Mr Webber's mother, said his younger brother would be attending the ceremony to accept the degree on the family's behalf.
She told the PA news agency: 'We are so proud that Charlie, who is only 17, is able to go to Nottingham, supported by very close friends and family, to accept Barney's degree on our behalf.
'Sadly, it's too much for us to bear, but we do feel it's important that it's marked.'
Mrs Webber added: 'What should have been a proud, happy day for all of the family is yet another tragically sad one.
'But we will use the day to think of Barney, his beaming smile, his great friend Grace, and also Ian Coates.
'We want to celebrate their lives and not the monster that took them.'
Killer unlikely to ever be released
In January 2024, Calocane appeared at Nottingham Crown Court and admitted three counts of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility, and three counts of attempted murder.
Prosecutors accepted his not guilty pleas to murder charges because he suffers from paranoid schizophrenia.
Calocane, now 33, who had stopped taking his anti-psychotic medications before the fatal attacks, was given a lifelong hospital order, and is likely to spend the rest of his life in a high-security hospital.
