Twisted triple killer Valdo Calocane is being housed behind a thick panel of glass at one of the UK's few high-security psychiatric hospitals due to the extreme danger he poses to his fellow patients.

Calocane, 34, a paranoid schizophrenic who was diagnosed in 2020, has spent the last two years locked up at Ashworth High Secure Hospital in Maghull, near Liverpool, after he was found guilty of murdering Barnaby Webber, Grace O'Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates. He killed the students and granddad, and attempted to kill a further three people in a vicious Nottingham murder spree on June 13, 2023.

He has been held at Ashworth since under a particularly strict regimen known as long-term segregation (LTS) due to the danger he still poses.

Calocane murdered Barnaby Webber, Grace O'Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates(Image: PA)

Ashworth houses around 200 men, and has long held many of the UK's disturbed criminals, including Moors murderer Ian Brady, who famously dubbed the facility Trashworth. Calocane is under an additional layer of security, an insider told the Daily Mail, in a secure room with a hatch on the door.

He is under strict, round-the-clock supervision and allowed next to zero contact with other patients due to his being "extremely unpredictable".

The insider said: "When he arrived he was distressed and extremely unpredictable which meant he had to be contained under the most secure of regimes." The insider added that staff were briefed that they were dealing with a patient who was "very ill and potentially extremely dangerous".

Ashworth Hospital houses notorious sick criminals(Image: Daily Mirror)

Under LTS rules, the killer, who hears voices even on the highest doses of medication, is placed in a "bare cell" with "little more than a fixed plastic bed", with visitors only able to see him through a glass screen.

Ultimately, the lockdown is designed to ensure staff, who the voices sometimes convince him to attack, and other inpatients are protected. A second insider said:T"hey are placed in a bare cell with little more than a fixed plastic bed, a mattress they cannot tear, a blanket and a pillow.

"If their segregation goes on for months or years, the room may have a few more basic comforts, such as a television, but it is still an intensely restricted existence.

Calocane is under strict lock-and-key at Ashworth(Image: Daily Mirror)

"In a typical day in LTS, a patient might get three half-hour periods out of the room, heavily supervised by several staff, and the rest of the time they are back inside the cell. Meals are usually taken in the room. Even something as ­simple as cutlery becomes a ­security issue, so everything has to be carefully controlled, counted in and counted out."

The second insider added that Calocane may receive food or medication through a hatch to eliminate any potential risks associated with contact.

They said: "If it’s deemed too dangerous for staff, food or medication is passed through a hatch simply to remove any risk. Even showers have to be tightly managed. They would often be taken only after other patients have gone off the ward, so the area could be locked down and staffed safely."

The insider spoke as an inquiry into the triple killer being held last week heard that Nottinghamshire's mental health trust had "locked down" records about his past interactions with staff.