A CHIEF Constable is to be investigated over claims that she tried to stop journalists revealing police failings over the Nottingham stabbings. Kate Meynell is said to have called a private press briefing — but made the reporters sign gagging orders. 3 Ian Coates, Barnaby Webber and Grace O'Malley Kumar were murdered during a rampage in 2023 Credit: PA By forbidding them from publishing what they were told, it is claimed she hoped to hide the fact that knifeman Valdo Calocane had been reported twice to cops for stalking before his rampage in 2023.

In a joint statement, relatives said: “We welcome news that the appalling actions and decisions of Kate Meynell, the Chief Constable of a failing police force, will be fully investigated. “We believe she chose to hold a non-reportable media briefing to withhold information and shackle the press from reporting further gross actions of her force.” Paranoid schizophrenic Calocane, 31, killed 19-year-old students Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Barnaby Webber , as well as Ian Coates , 65, before stealing Mr Coates’ van and ramming into three people.

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I'll never forgive NHS Nottingham’s Police and Crime Commissioner referred the families’ complaint to the IOPC – which has decided Meynell’s conduct warrants an independent investigation seeking to es.