Triple murderer Valdo Calocane will be able to claim thousands in state benefits every year even while he is detained, it has been reported.
The 32-year-old killer was sent to the high-security Ashworth Hospital in Merseyside rather than being jailed. As a result, he will be able to claim Universal Credit payments of up to £360 a month.
Prisoners are banned from receiving such payments, but those kept in psychiatric hospitals remain eligible. Calocane was originally charged with the murders of 19-year-old students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar and school caretaker Ian Coates, 65.
However, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) downgraded the charge to manslaughter on account of Calocane’s paranoid schizophrenia.
Emma Webber, Barnaby’s mother told The Telegraph: “This is truly devastating to hear and it adds yet more layers of grief and a sense of injustice to those of us left behind.
“Whilst we are desperately trying to process our enormous grief, battle to try and find a way forwards to return to work and support our families, this vicious monster not only has tens of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money spent to keep him inside, he can also amass a small fortune of state benefits.
“How can this possibly be fair? This may be the law, but we strongly suggest the law is wrong, and urgently needs to be reviewed.”
The policy should be subject to review “immediately,” said Sir Mike Penning, a former justice and home office minister. “How can it be right that someone who is a killer and guilty of such a horrendous crime can still get benefits at the taxpayers’ expense?” he added.
Mel Stride, the Work and Pensions’ Secretary, is understood to be urgently considering the case.
Rishi Sunak has also not ruled out a public inquiry into the Nottingham killings.
Calocane is entitled to claim state benefits because the judge ordered that he should be detained in a high-security hospital under sections 37 and 41 of the Mental Health Act.
Had the judge issued a section 45 or 47 order, requiring his transfer to prison on release from hospital, he would have been categorised as a prisoner.
A Government spokesman said: “We have been clear that questions need answering in all aspects of this case. Entitlement to benefit is, by law, dependent on sentences handed out, and the Work and Pensions Secretary is looking at the specifics of this case.”
