Woman who fell from window fleeing Nottingham attacker warned he could have killed her

A woman who broke her back falling from a window trying to flee Nottingham attacker Valdo Calocane was warned by police he could have killed her, an inquiry heard.

Three years before going on his killing spree in 2023, Calocane tried to get into the woman's flat while she was showering - forcing her to escape by leaping from the first-floor of her student accommodation. When police detained him, Calocane was taken to a mental health unit rather than charged with an offence by police, chair of the hearing Deborah Taylor was told.

The woman said she was told by police Calocane could not be prosecuted because of his mental health problems and was instead taken to hospital. Calocane had also been arrested earlier in the day on suspicion of causing criminal damage to a different door in the same block of flats, but the incident was not given "the attention it deserved" by officers, the public inquiry heard on Thursday.

Police body-worn camera footage of the first arrest could not be found, an officer told the hearing. Calocane killed University of Nottingham students Barnaby Webber and Grace O'Malley-Kumar, both 19, as well as 65-year-old caretaker Ian Coates, and attempted to kill three more people in the June 2023 attacks.

He admitted manslaughter by diminished responsibility and attempted murder and was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order in January 2024. The inquiry heard more than three years before the attacks, on 24 May 2020, the young woman believed there was a group of thieves trying to break in when the triple-killer shook her door.

The woman, who was left needing surgery after suffering a fractured spine, was visited by an officer after she was discharged from hospital who told her she had been "brave" when she escaped and told Calocane could have killed her or been violent if he got to her, the inquiry was told. Read more:Police failed to arrest killer on warrant months before attacksAttack survivor demands 'someone take the blame' 'I was very scared' The woman said she heard "someone knocking repeatedly on the door.