Grace O'Malley-Kumar "heroically and valiantly fought" Valdo Calocane when he attacked Barnaby Webber, her father Dr Sanjoy Kumar said.

She was killed in the knife attacks in June, alongside Mr Webber, as the pair returned from a night out celebrating the end of their exams.

Calocane then made his way from the scene of the double killing to stab school caretaker Ian Coates, 65, to death.

His guilty pleas to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility were accepted at Nottingham Crown Court on Tuesday.

The two 19-year-old university students had been walking home along Ilkeston Road at around 4am after an end-of-term night out when Calocane approached, pulled a dagger out of his bag and started stabbing Mr Webber, the court heard.

Prosecutor Karim Khalil KC said Ms O'Malley-Kumar had shown "incredible bravery" by trying to protect Barnaby from Calocane's blows and tried to fight him off, pushing him away and into the road.

The killer then turned his attention to her and was "as uncompromisingly brutal in his assault of Grace as he was in his assault of Barnaby", Mr Khalil said.

Family members in the public gallery sobbed as Mr Khalil told the court Grace's injuries were too severe and she collapsed as Barnaby tried to defend himself from the ground, kicking out at his attacker, before Calocane "calmly" walked away.

From the witness box, Calocane was branded "wicked", a "monster" and a "menace to society" as family members urged the judge, Mr Justice Turner, to hand him the harshest sentence possible.

Nottinghamshire Police's assistant chief constable Rob Griffin has since said the force previously "engaged" with the attacker "mostly while supporting our colleagues in the NHS on a number of occasions between 2020 and 2022".

He admitted "we should have done more to arrest him" after he allegedly assaulted an officer and failed to attend court prior to the knife attacks.

"Because of the circumstance prevailing, at the time of the alleged assault, in my opinion it is highly unlikely that he would have received a custodial sentence," said Mr Griffin.

"Of course, an arrest might have triggered a route back into mental health services, but as we have seen from his previous encounters with those services, it seems unlikely that he would have engaged in this process."

Grace fought 'heroically and valiantly'

Dr Kumar described his daughter as a hero who had shunned the opportunity to run away.

"She bravely intervened. She would never leave a friend in adversity. It was not in her nature," he told Calocane.

"She heroically and valiantly fought you. Like a hero she put herself in harm's way.

"But unfortunately because of the weapon you carried she stood no chance.

"You showed yourself to be a cold, cowardly and calculating killer. You casually walked away, leaving my child lying in the street."

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'She passed fighting'

Her brother, James, 17, told Sky News: "Grace's last moments were in pain and that's something that really hurts me to think about and she was a hero, that was her character.

"She tried her best to save her friend. That was how Grace lost her life in the most vulnerable manner. She would never leave a friend, never, and that was very evident from her last moments. She passed fighting."

Sinead O'Malley, Grace's mother, said Calocane's "revolting cowardice" compared with "the heroism of our Gracie is incomparable".

She said: "I'm so proud of the person she was. She was a wonderful friend. She always stood up for her friends and she paid the ultimate price with her life. I remain immensely proud of her bravery."

Calocane will also be sentenced for three counts of attempted murder after he tried to run over three pedestrians with a van on the same day he killed Ms O'Malley-Kumar, Mr Webber and Mr Coates.