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Lethal failures

THE families of Valdo Calocane’s victims have been betrayed again and again and again. Their anger is absolutely justified.

Despite Calocane being sectioned four times, mental health officials lost track of him and had no idea if he was taking vital medication.

Families of Valdo Calocane's victims have been betrayed  - their anger is justified
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Families of Valdo Calocane's victims have been betrayed - their anger is justifiedCredit: PA

Police repeatedly set this ticking timebomb free despite a history of violent altercations. And the CPS meekly accepted his manslaughter plea and dropped their murder charges.

It is bewildering that they swallowed Calocane’s “diminished responsibility” claim. Why did the CPS buckle?

Why was the jury not allowed to decide whether this apparently cunning, calculating monster murdered Grace O’Malley, Barnaby Webber and Ian Coates? That looks more like justice to us — as it plainly does their heartbroken families.

Grace’s father Dr Sanjoy Kumar believes Calocane “deceived” the court.

READ MORE ON VALDO CALOCANE

If so, why was the killer given the benefit of the doubt yet again? Failing agencies always vow to “learn lessons” — but never learn the most crucial one of all:

Public safety MUST trump misguided sympathies.

Coup d’prat

TORY rebel Simon Clarke’s attempt to overthrow Rishi Sunak is a wild fantasy born of panic.

We understand his fears over the party’s dire polling. But you cannot install your fourth Prime Minister in two years and expect voters’ applause.

They will think you’ve gone insane. Your prospects will be far worse.
Kicking another PM out would be bad enough in election year even if MPs backed it unanimously. But the Tories would tear themselves apart picking a new one. It would be political suicide.

Besides, it is short-sighted to blame Mr Sunak solely for the Tories’ woes. Some are not of his making, nor even theirs.

MPs need to rally round him and show some fight, as he did in the Commons yesterday.

Stamp on this

ALLOWING the Royal Mail to go part-time would be folly.

Its regulator Ofcom seriously believes it would perform better if it only delivered three days a week.

But, parcels aside, the sole reason still to use the Royal Mail is to have letters, cards and documents delivered door-to-door overnight, or in two days maximum. Without that its business case ceases to exist.

One reason for its declining popularity aside from email, texts and WhatsApp — is that too often it FAILS to deliver on time or even every day.

Don’t entrench that failure in some reduced new remit. Fix it.

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