A total of 15 NHS workers have now been sacked for inappropriately accessing the medical records of three people who were stabbed to death.
On June 13, 2023, students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both aged 19, plus caretaker Ian Coates, 65, were killed in Nottingham by Valdo Calocane.
Calocane, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2020 and had a history of noncompliance in taking his medication, also tried to kill three others.
It was later heard that there were failings by authorities who interacted with Calocane, who had been sectioned four times and had a history of violence, prior to the stabbings. He is currently serving an indefinite hospital order after pleading guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
In May 2026, Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust confirmed that it had dismissed 11 staff members for accessing the files of Webber, O’Malley-Kumar, and Coates.
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As of Friday, the investigation fired four more employees, bringing the total to 15.
In addition to the dismissals, the investigation issued 15 final written warnings and two first written warnings.
In two further cases, no action was taken.
Earlier this year, the victims’ families described their actions as ‘a kick in the teeth’.
Dr Manjeet Shehmar, medical director at NUH, said: ‘There is simply no excuse for accessing the records of a patient without a legitimate reason, and I hope this sends a really clear message – we will investigate, and we will take action.
‘To lose a loved one in the way that the families of Ian, Grace and Barnaby have is heartbreaking enough.
‘I am so sorry that they have had this further compounded by the actions of these staff members.’
The Trust confirmed action was taken against ‘doctors, nurses, registered healthcare professionals, and other staff’.
Nottinghamshire Police, the Nursing and Midwifery Council, the General Medical Council, and the Information Commissioner’s Office were also informed.
A probe continues into inappropriate access to the files of the Nottingham attack’s surviving victims: Wayne Birkett, Sharon Miller, and Marcin Gawronski.
Shehmar stressed that action will be taken ‘where necessary’.
The update follows several other incidents of NHS workers wrongfully accessing, or attempting to access, the medical records of victims from high-profile incidents.
In September, bosses removed 10 people from duty after they attempted to access the records of three-year-old Noah Woods, whose body was found in a pond after he went missing from a park, without authorisation.
Then, this week, an investigation was launched after two staff members sought to access William Chapman’s records following his death from a tiger attack at Yorkshire Wildlife Park.
Earlier this year, a campaign was launched to reduce the illicit accessing of sensitive patient information.
The objective of the Your Responsibility, Your Actions, Their Privacy campaign is to reinforce data protection rules and educate staff on the laws surrounding it, reminding them of the importance of confidentiality and the severe consequences of acting on curiosity.
Additionally, automated monitoring systems were implemented, which are designed to flag unauthorised record access in real time.
‘We are doing all we can to educate our staff on appropriate access and how to keep the records of our patients safe,’ said Shehmar. ‘We are also introducing a new system which acts to detect possible data breaches.
‘While the actions of these staff members are disappointing, we know that this represents a small number of our wider workforce.
‘We know staff across the trust are listening, learning and doing what they can to ensure that only lawful and justified access takes place in our hospitals.’
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