Emma today tells how she’s standing together with the families of Elsie Dot Stancombe, Alice Da Silva Aguiar and Bebe King
The mum of Nottingham attack victim Barnaby Webber has revealed she’s formed a special bond with the parents of one of the little girls murdered in Southport, saying: “Together we demand change.”
Emma Webber’s world fell apart when paranoid schizophrenic Valdo Calocane killed her boy and two others in a rampage in Nottingham in 2023.
As a statutory inquiry into the horror continues to reveal catastrophic blunders by the police and mental health services, Emma today tells how she’s standing together with the families of Elsie Dot Stancombe, Alice Da Silva Aguiar and Bebe King – who were knifed to death by Axel Rudakubana.
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Multiple agencies were aware of serious risks posed by the two individuals, but failed to intervene. Last night Emma told the Mirror: “The family of one of the girls got in touch and we’ve stayed in touch – we’re hoping to get a chance to meet in person soon.
“As a mother who’s been through unimaginable loss, I stand in deep solidarity with the families from Southport. No parent should ever bury their child. We’re in the middle of a far reaching public inquiry, yet we know we’re not the exception to institutional failures. Attacks like these expose cracks that were already there. Together we demand accountability and change, so no other family has to suffer like this.”
Emma spoke as a report from the first stage of the Southport inquiry – set up to examine the circumstances surrounding the attack – is due to be published today. Teen knifeman Axel Rudakubana murdered Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice Da Silva Aguiar, nine, and injured 10 others during a Taylor Swift themed holiday club on July 29, 2024.
It later emerged the UK’s Prevent counter-terror scheme prematurely closed Rudakubana’s case three times between 2019 and 2021, despite teachers highlighting his obsession with extreme violence. A string of similar errors has been laid bare at the Nottingham inquiry, which enters its seventh week today.
Paranoid schizophrenic Valdo Calocane hid in the shadows near Nottingham’s Ilkeston Road before fatally stabbing Barnaby Webber and his pal Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both 19, and grandad Ian Coates, 65, in the early hours of June 13, 2023.
The inquiry heard how despite admitting to hearing voices and displaying extreme aggression, Calocane was discharged back to his GP due to “non-engagement.” And mental health professionals decided not to detain Calocane over a violent incident in fear of appearing racist.
Reacting to the findings, Emma previously said: “The trauma that we’ve already had has been multiplied immeasurably. “I didn’t know some of the details we now know, because I was trying to protect myself. All of us are so traumatised by all of this. The reality of it and the horror of it slapped me in the face, ran over me like a steam train.”
