Nottingham attacks family condemn police promotion

ByOlimpia Zagnat

East Midlands

The father of a student who was stabbed to death in the Nottingham attacks has criticised a move by Nottinghamshire Police to promote the senior officer who led the investigation.

Grace O'Malley-Kumar, Barnaby Webber and Ian Coates were stabbed on 13 June 2023 by Valdo Calocane, leading to a public inquiry.

Rob Griffin, of Nottinghamshire Police, was temporary deputy chief constable from 29 April 2025 and was appointed substantively into the role following a selection process in August, the force said.

Sanjoy Kumar, Grace's dad, told the BBC on Friday: "I think this is completely wrong."

Police say the process consisted of an application form, a people panel and external advisors.

Griffin has previously been described by Barnaby's mother Emma Webber as having "blood on his hands", following the force's failure to detain Calocane, who had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2020, after an arrest warrant was issued in September 2022.

Kumar told the BBC Griffin had a "long history" with the Nottingham Inquiry, external, adding: "He also initially was going to go with a statement that the Nottinghamshire Police could not do any more to actually prevent the attacks, which we found really offensive when he admitted at the inquiry that a lot more could've been done.

"Furthermore, he didn't let us know about the professional standards investigations that were taking place."

Kumar said families would have expected people appointed in senior police roles, such as the deputy chief constable, to have "candour and integrity".

"We clearly felt that lacking in this case," he added.

He said he wanted to ask the secretary of state responsible for policing in the UK and the policing minister "what on earth is going on here?"

He added: "This is not someone who is reliable, this is someone who misled victims in a horrific situation.

"This is a person who lacked candour and integrity from our point of view. Why was he appointed to this role and made substantive from an active role?

"I think this is completely wrong, and the message it gives out to people in the country is that this government does nothing but reward failure."

A spokesperson for Nottinghamshire Police said: "Rob Griffin was temporary deputy chief constable of Nottinghamshire Police from 29 April 2025 and was appointed substantively into the role following a selection process on 13 August 2026.

"The selection process took place between 6 July 2026, when the position was advertised, and 13 August 2026, when the process was completed.

"This process consisted of an application form, a people panel, which involved representatives from our support networks, staff associations, and members from external stakeholders, including Independent Advisory Groups and the Youth Commission, and an executive interview, which included two independent panel members."

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