Gracie Spinks ‘unlawfully killed’ by stalker she reported to police as force admit failings
Derbyshire Police had only given Michael Sellers ‘words of advice’ after Ms Spinks reported her former colleague
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A young woman stabbed to death by her former colleague months after she reported him for stalking was unlawfully killed, a jury has found.
Gracie Spinks, 23, was killed while tending her horse on the morning of 18 June 2021, with 35-year-old Michael Sellers found dead 150 metres away later that morning. The talented horserider suffered 10 stab wounds and died of “catastrophic” bleeding despite the best efforts of the emergency services.
The 10 members of the jury – who wore pink and purple wristbands in Ms Spinks’ memory – concluded on Thursday she was unlawfully killed by Sellers, whom she had reported to police over stalking concerns several months earlier.
Police later discovered a suicide note in Sellers’ bedroom in which he said he “could not deal with all of her lies”, which a coroner said was one of “various pieces of evidence” that Sellers had killed Ms Spinks and then taken his own life.
Multiple failings already admitted by Derbyshire Police were referred to in the record of inquest filled in by the jurors, but they had been prevented by a coroner from deciding whether the failings had contributed to Ms Spinks’ death.
Returning their conclusion on Thursday, in which he referred to Sellers as “the supervisor”, the jury foreman said: “Derbyshire Constabulary had admitted the following serious failings.
“However, it could not be concluded that these failings contributed to Gracie’s death on June 18 2021. It was the supervisor that killed Gracie.”
Ms Spinks had reported Sellers to both their employer and the police over stalking concerns in the months before their deaths after she turned down his romantic attention, and he was given “words of advice” by officers.
But they took no action when a bag of weapons was found near where her horse was stabled in Duckmanton, Derbyshire, which included a note saying “Do not lie”, just over a month prior to their deaths.
It later emerged Sellers had a history of stalking and harassing eight women prior to Ms Spinks, including several in the workplace, yet police officers failed to request his previous employment history.
“It was a complete non-investigation, they didn’t look into anything,” her mother Alison Ward told The Independent. “We have no faith in Derbyshire Police whatsoever at all, they were so unprofessional in not following procedures and ticking the boxes, just a complete lack of training.”
Detective Superintendent Darren De’ath, who leads the force’s public protection team, said improvements had been made but the evidence heard at Ms Spinks’ inquest had provoked “some concerns” about the force’s progress.
Ms Spinks first met Sellers when she got a job at a warehouse run by e-commerce firm xbite in April 2020.
Sellers, a supervisor, had been with the company since 2015 and had been the subject of complaints from “a number of female colleagues” about his behaviour towards them.
He “started to show an interest” in Ms Spinks and the pair met up outside work “on a number of occasions”, but she decided in December 2020 that she did not wish to continue meeting up or be in a relationship with him.
She became increasingly concerned about his behaviour after realising he was abusing his position to ask fellow employees to “spy” on her, and in January 2021, he was caught parked at lay-by by the stables where she was tending her horse.
Ms Spinks reported him to their employer and he was dismissed, yet during the disciplinary process he said he “thought Gracie had lied about the nature of the relationship between them”.
A month later, she contacted Derbyshire Police and told the operator that Sellers had become “obsessed” with her, but he was only given “words of advice”.
Then, on May 6 that year, a member of the public found a rucksack containing knives, an axe and a hammer near Blue Lodge Farm, which contained a note which read “Do not lie”.
While the bag contained a Marks & Spencer receipt, which was traced back to one of Sellers’ relatives after his death, officers “were not concerned” and no further action was taken.
Following the deaths, the Independent Office for Police Conduct said five Derbyshire Police officers had cases to answer for misconduct.
Her family is now campaigning for increased funding for stalking cases, and for police forces across the country to have dedicated co-ordinators and advocates to deal with stalking victims.
Mr Kewley said that a Prevention of Future Death Report would be issued to Derbyshire Police’s Chief Constable and others over the coming days.