The parents of Barnaby Webber, who was killed by Valdo Calocane in a knife attack in Nottingham, have expressed concern that the killer’s father has not attended the inquiry into the tragedy.
Emma Webber told Martin Daubney on GB News: “How on earth can that be allowed to happen? We had the mother and the brother every single day from the 23rd of February without fail. They attended, and I don’t want to sound too vindictive at all, but they, the mother saw him twice in two years, but she’s attended the inquiry every single day since February.
“That’s just an observation on my part. This is a family unit. Much reliance has been put upon him having a happy childhood, a stress-free childhood, a wonderful Christian family who were super, super close. Where throughout the evidence that was given, it became very apparent that there were cracks and there were fractures, and there were questions, particularly from the parents of Calocane, that we, as parents of Barney, need to understand of childhood trauma, of background, of lifestyle.
“The father made an application not to attend. He gave his written evidence. I think He’s given three statements, which are available online. You can give answers in a statement, can’t you, a written statement, but that doesn’t explore any opportunity to say, but why, or but, or expand, and for me it wasn’t about wanting to publicly see his face, or even hear his voice, necessarily.
“But if even if he wanted to do it completely in private as a private link, for me that is the biggest gap, the one part of the puzzle that’s really missing, because he did have contact with his son, phoned him the night before he murdered our son. I need to know what happened, why did you do that, and that’s why I can’t lie at rest until I know the answers.”
David Webber said: “It’s a difficult one, because we don’t know the facts. I think he should be there, and there could be very good reasons why he’s not, but we’ve heard through this entire process about the fact that, well, to start with, we were told there were no mental health issues in the family, and then all of a sudden they start to come creeping through him to the point where the mother…basically said she had severe anxiety.
“You’re thinking, well, that counts as a mental health issue. It’s not about being vindictive, it’s about – we just want to understand the truth, and some of the stuff that’s being said doesn’t add up.”
He added: “It’s not about shaming you, we just need to understand, because it can help people going forward.”