{"id":39197,"date":"2024-04-30T15:03:47","date_gmt":"2024-04-30T15:03:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/30\/grace-omalley-kumar-pm-backs-calls-for-19-year-old-stabbed-to-death-in-nottingham-to-be-awarded-george-cross\/"},"modified":"2024-04-30T15:03:47","modified_gmt":"2024-04-30T15:03:47","slug":"grace-omalley-kumar-pm-backs-calls-for-19-year-old-stabbed-to-death-in-nottingham-to-be-awarded-george-cross","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/30\/grace-omalley-kumar-pm-backs-calls-for-19-year-old-stabbed-to-death-in-nottingham-to-be-awarded-george-cross\/","title":{"rendered":"Grace O’Malley-Kumar: PM backs calls for 19-year-old stabbed to death in Nottingham to be awarded George Cross"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Rishi Sunak has backed calls for a student who was stabbed to death while trying to save to her friend to be awarded a posthumous George Cross.<\/p>\n

Grace O’Malley-Kumar<\/a><\/strong>, 19, fought Valdo Calocane <\/strong>when he attacked fellow student Barnaby Webber<\/a><\/strong> as they returned from a night out celebrating the end of exams last June.<\/p>\n

During Calocane’s trial, prosecutor Karim Khalil KC said Ms O’Malley-Kumar had shown “incredible bravery” by trying to protect Mr Webber from Calocane’s blows and tried to fight him off, pushing him away and into the road.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Calocane admitted killing Grace, Barnaby and school caretaker Ian Coates on the basis of diminished responsibility<\/a><\/strong>, a plea which the Crown Prosecution Service has accepted<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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\n (L-R) Ian Coates, Barnaby Webber, Grace O’Malley-Kumar
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Ms O’Malley-Kumar’s parents today called for her to be awarded the George Cross, an award recognising “the greatest heroism or of the most conspicuous courage in circumstances of extreme danger”.<\/p>\n

And Downing Street has now weighed in – saying the prime minister<\/a><\/strong> “would certainly” back the family’s campaign and “pay tribute to the bravery that Grace demonstrated whilst faced with perilous and terrifying circumstances”.<\/p>\n

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\n Rishi Sunak. Pic: PA
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Mr Sunak’s spokesman noted that “decisions around the George Cross are made by an independent committee to review, and final decisions are then made by His Majesty the King”.<\/p>\n

“But of course, the prime minister would support those nominations,” he added. “The leadership example [Grace] provided in that tragic circumstance was commendable and absolutely the PM would get behind that campaign.”<\/p>\n

Ms O’Malley-Kumar was a first-year medical student who played for the England under-18s hockey team.<\/p>\n

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\n Grace O’Malley-Kumar with her family. Pic: Nottinghamshire Police
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Her mum Sinead O’Malley said in an interview with The Sun<\/a><\/strong>: “The George Cross would be a remarkable acknowledgement of her bravery, for sure.<\/p>\n

“Grace is never coming back to us, but we never want her to be forgotten, and this would certainly make sure she is remembered forever.”<\/p>\n

Her father Dr Sanjoy Kumar said the award “would be an example to every other young person”, as her brother James hailed her a “hero”.<\/p>\n

Tory MP Marco Longhi, who sits on the Home Affairs select committee, said Ms O’Malley-Kumar deserved the medal as she “showed selfless bravery”.<\/p>\n

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\n Grace O’Malley-Kumar’s parents outside Nottingham Crown Court. Pic: PA
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David Morris, another Conservative MP, also called for her to be given the “ultimate honour”.<\/p>\n

Her brother James, 17, had said in a previous interview with Sky News<\/a><\/strong>: “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.”<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/strong>
Families traumatised by police messages about killings<\/a><\/strong>
Timeline of missed opportunities to stop Calocane<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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\n Her brother James said ‘she would never leave a friend’. Pic: PA
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\n Follow Sky News on WhatsApp<\/span><\/p>\n

Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News<\/p>\n

Tap here<\/a>\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

He added: “She tried her best to save her friend. That was how Grace lost her life in the most vulnerable manner.<\/p>\n

“She would never leave a friend, never, and that was very evident from her last moments. She passed fighting.”<\/p>\n

James described his sister’s death as a “loss to the country” as he pointed to her riding a Vespa to a clinic to vaccinate hundreds of people during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as her aspirations of serving as a medic in the armed forces.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rishi Sunak has backed calls for a student who was stabbed to death while trying to save to her friend to be awarded a posthumous George Cross. Grace O’Malley-Kumar, 19, fought Valdo Calocane when he attacked fellow student Barnaby Webber as they returned from a night out celebrating the end of exams last June. During […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/01\/768x432\/skynews-nottingham-attacks_6430521.jpg?20240212194519","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[41541,11985,3443,1187,4899,1860,630,11934,41542,41540,9873],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39197"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39197"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39199,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39197\/revisions\/39199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}