The man who killed three people in a wave of attacks in Nottingham last year should have his sentence changed to life imprisonment, the Court of Appeal has heard.
Valdo Calocane was given an indefinite hospital order after admitting manslaughter over the diminished responsibility of Barnaby Webber, Grace O'Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates, and the attempted murder of three others last June.
Prosecutors accepted the 32-year-old's not guilty pleas to murder at his sentencing hearing in January after medical evidence showed he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.
But Attorney General Victoria Prentis referred the sentence to the Court of Appeal in February, with lawyers saying at a hearing on Wednesday that it was “excessively lenient”.
Deanna Heer KC, representing the Public Prosecution Service (AGO), said Calocane should instead be given a life sentence as part of a “hybrid” order, under which he would be treated in hospital before serving the remainder of his sentence would serve prison time.
She said: “The exceptional seriousness of the offenses was such that the case required the imposition of a sentence with a criminal element, a punitive element.
“The harm caused by his crimes and the harm the public risked was extreme.”
Several members of the victims' families and friends attended the hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice, while Calocane attended via video link from the high-security Ashworth Hospital near Liverpool.
He fatally stabbed 19-year-old university students, Mr Webber and Ms O'Malley-Kumar, 10 and 23 times respectively as they walked home from a night out in the early hours of June 13 last year, in what prosecutors describe as as an “uncompromising act”. brutal” attack.
He then stabbed Mr Coates, a 65-year-old schoolteacher, 15 times and stole his van, which he used to stab three pedestrians – Wayne Birkett, Marcin Gawronski and Sharon Miller – in Nottingham city center before being arrested.
He refused to provide toxicology samples and made no comment during police questioning.
Calocane's sentencing hearing was told that multiple medical experts concluded he had paranoid schizophrenia. During the court hearing, he had had several interactions with mental health services in the months before the attacks.
He was sentenced by Mr Justice Turner to an indefinite hospital order with further restrictions imposed if he were ever discharged, which must be approved by the Secretary of State for Justice.
One expert, Dr Nigel Blackwood, said the attacks were “entirely caused” by psychosis and that he was in “a severe psychotic episode” at the time.
Dr. Blackwood, professor of forensic psychiatry at King's College London, also expressed concern that Calocane's mental state was treatment resistant and that he had “significant concerns” about Calocane receiving a hybrid sentence.
He said of Calocane: “He has shown a profound lack of understanding of the fact that he has a disease.
“If he were to stop taking medications in prison, there is a significant risk that deadly behavior would return, both against prison staff and fellow inmates.”
In written submissions, the AGO said: “The learned judge did not give sufficient weight to the evidence that the perpetrator's guilt had not been extinguished.
“While it is accepted that his ability to exercise self-control and make rational judgment was significantly impaired, he understood the nature of his behavior and that it was wrong, even in the context of his psychotic beliefs.
“Having found that the culpability of the perpetrator was low, the learned judge failed to take into account the aggravating features which required a broadening of the starting point for a single offence.
“The result was that, although the learned judge made a significant increase to reflect the totality, the custodial sentence failed to adequately reflect the seriousness of the offence.”
If judges decide a hybrid order should be imposed, they will determine how long Calocane should remain in custody, with his release then arranged by the Parole Board.
The hearing before Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr, Lord Justice Edis and Mr Justice Garnham will conclude on Wednesday, with judgment due at a later date.