The mother of Barnaby Webber has told GB News that her “son would be here today” if the authorities had “done their jobs properly”.
Speaking to the People’s Channel about the Nottingham attacks inquiry, which begins today, Emma Webber declared her “blood pressure is rising” as details begin to emerge about the “epic failings” of the authorities.
The inquiry will search for answers as to what happened before, during and after the fatal attacks carried out by Valdo Calocane in June 2023.
Barnaby Webber, Ian Coates and Grace O’Malley-Kumar were killed after being fatally stabbed by Calocane in his spree of attacks.
Speaking to GB News outside the inquiry, Mrs Webber admitted it is “already a lot to take in” for the families of the victims.
She said: “Today is kind of setting out the stage of what the next few months are going to look like, and it’s an awful lot to take in.
“The counsel to the inquiry are cataloguing all the epic level of failures, and at the moment we’re just hearing how appalling the mental health services and the police forces in Nottingham have been, and this is leading up to the attack, we’re not even touching on the attack or the investigation yet. But it’s a lot, it’s the beginning of nearly four months of this.”
Expressing her anger at hearing the “sheer number” of people who “didn’t do their jobs properly” to protect her son and the two other victims, Mrs Webber declared her “blood pressure is already rising”.
Emma Webber has told GB News her ‘blood is boiling’ as the inquiry into the murder of her son and two others gets underway
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GB NEWS
Mrs Webber stated: “I can feel my blood pressure rising with the sheer number of police officers and mental health professionals who just didn’t do their jobs properly. They just could not be bothered to do their jobs properly and listen.
“And they seem to spend so much time worrying about the patient’s choice and the least amount of detention needed for him to give him the most choice, and this is somebody that we’ve heard consistently did not take as medication, he constantly heard voices, we’ve just been hearing today, but they weren’t ‘aggressive voices’.
“He didn’t pose a risk despite four or five violent assaults on co students during his time at the university.”
She made clear: “So what has to come out of this is that those named individuals will be held to account because if they’d done their jobs properly, my son would be here today.
Ian Coates, Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar were fatally stabbed by Valdo Calocane in 2023
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PA“And by individuals as well as institutions being held to account, change will happen. And that’s the only way things are going to get better in this country, because it is utterly pathetic. It is so infuriating and heartbreaking to hear how appalling our institutions and organisations are.”
Aiming her ire directly at the Chief Executive of Nottinghamshire Mental Health Trust, Ifti Majid, Mrs Webber concluded: “He was exposed last week for writing emails to his staff saying how tiresome and tedious he was finding it, having to give information to this inquiry.
“And this is his hospital trust that failed, that allowed my son to be murdered. So I hope you get to watch this later today, because I can see the back of your head from where I’m sat.”
Following a Freedom of Information request to the trust by Nottinghamshire Live, Mr Majid told employees he was “fed up” of providing “all-consuming” evidence to the inquiry, ending his email with “I am afraid needs must”.
Mrs Webber told GB News that if the authorities had ‘done their jobs properly, her son would be here today’
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GB NEWS
In a statement, a spokesman for Nottinghamshire Healthcare said supporting the Nottingham Inquiry had been an “absolute priority” for Mr Majid and the trust since it was announced in February 2025.
They told Nottinghamshire Live: “He has personally led the trust’s response and supported staff throughout the evidence gathering phase, the detailed preparations for the forthcoming oral hearings as well as ensuring the trust is best placed to learn from the findings to prevent incidents like this happening in the future.
“He is dedicated to supporting frontline staff to improve patient care and personally visits a number of the trust’s 120-plus locations on a weekly basis. Preparing for the Inquiry is time intensive and he has had to balance this with the practicalities of his chief executive role.
“The phrase ‘feeling fed-up when needing to move meetings’ which he used in his weekly staff update should be seen in this context as opposed to not being committed to the Inquiry.“Whilst focusing on the Inquiry and the improvements highlighted in previous health service reviews, it’s important that we recognise the progress we have made and acknowledge the hard work of our staff and teams to provide safe, effective care.”