Nottingham attacks: PC given warning for looking up murder suspect

A police officer has received a final warning after accessing files on Nottingham attacks murder suspect Valdo Calocane without authorisation.

Students Barnaby Webber and Grace O'Malley-Kumar, both 19, and school caretaker Ian Coates, 65, died after being stabbed on 13 June.

A misconduct hearing was told PC Matthew Gell used systems to look up Calocane following his arrest.

He admitted his "lapse of judgement" amounted to gross misconduct.

In November, Calocane, also known as Adam Mendes, denied murder but admitted three counts of manslaughter on the basis of diminished responsibility.

He also admitted the attempted murder of three others who were hit by a van.

Two days after the attacks, the Nottinghamshire officer used the police system to look up custody records for Calocane.

Nottinghamshire Police said his decision to do this represented a data protection breach, due to the officer having "no role whatsoever in the investigation".

PC Gell also breached strict professional policing standards by sharing information about the case in a text message on 13 June, the force said.

The officer was linked to the breaches on 16 June, following an investigation by Nottinghamshire Police's Professional Standards Directorate (PSD).

PC Gell was subsequently issued with a final written warning at a public hearing on Friday.

Supt Andrew Reynolds, from the PSD, said: "When officers join the police service, it is made clear to them that they are not allowed to access information relating to criminal proceedings that they're not part of.

"There is no excuse for any officer to read criminal files and materials that relate to cases they're not investigating.

"While this case might seem like a minor breach from a public perspective, the actions of this officer fell below the high standards that we expect at Nottinghamshire Police."

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