Gracie Spinks was doing what she loved most – feeding her beloved horse one morning before work – when a stalker she had previously reported to the police killed her.
Her death came just a few months after Sarah Everard was murdered by police officer Wayne Couzens in March 2021, triggering a nationwide conversation about violence towards women and confidence in policing.
But a year on from Everard’s death, the parents of Spinks have delivered a stark warning that mistakes are still being made in the cases such as their daughter’s. “After everything that happened last year, the perception of the police with the general public is really low at the moment,” said her father, Richard Spinks.
“They’ve got to realise people don’t trust them. They’ve got to do something, they’ve got to make some changes.”
The 23-year-old’s family remember her as a young woman who lived a life full to the brim, spending most of her spare time tending to her horse, Paddy, and taking him to competitions. She played the piano, painted, worked as a swimming teacher and had a busy social life. There simply wasn’t time for a boyfriend.
“She had her whole life mapped out. I say this all the time, but she did light up the room wherever she went. Everybody took to her,” Spinks added. “She was a very talented girl.”
The family often reflect on the chain of events that led Gracie’s death, and how things could have turned out differently. As well as her many hobbies, she juggled multiple jobs in and around Old Whittington, in Chesterfield, while studying, said her mother, Alison Heaton.
So it was no surprise that when Covid hit, Gracie struggled to sit at home on furlough and found a job at a local e-commerce company, Xbite.
It was at Xbite that she met 35-year-old Michael Sellers, her supervisor, who asked her out for dinner. The pair met a handful of times, but Gracie soon decided she was too busy for a relationship and ended things. But Sellers had become infatuated with her.
She told her parents that he would bombard colleagues with hundreds of messages asking questions about her. At one point he spent £15,000 on a white Scirocco, which Gracie had told him was her favourite type of car.
But it was the morning she found him waiting for her before work at the field where she kept her horse that she decided to report him to her employer. “She said, ‘It’s really spooking my mum’, and I think she’d decided then enough was enough,” said Heaton. “But I think she was a bit nervous to complain about him because he was her supervisor.”
After her complaint, Sellers was fired from his job. Gracie was advised to report him to the police, but chose not to pursue a restraining order and asked police to caution him instead.
Gracie had no more contact with Sellers, and as far as she and her family were concerned, the problem was dealt with. “He was completely off the radar. We had drawn a line under it all and thought, ‘That’s it,’” said Heaton.
A few months later, on the morning of 18 June 2021, Gracie left the house in a rush. “She said she’d not got time to drink her tea and actually took it with her in one of the mugs,” said Heaton, who remembers every detail of that morning.
When she got a call to say Gracie had been found lying in the field, covered in blood, her first thought was that a horse had kicked her. An inquest revealed she died from a stab wound to the neck, and police believe Sellers – who was found dead in a nearby field – killed Gracie.
“It’s probably the worst thing that can happen in your life. Nobody wants to see their children die, especially in that way,” said Spinks.
It later emerged that around a month prior to the attack, a rucksack containing weapons – a hammer, axe and knives – as well as Viagra had been found across the road from the field and handed in to Derbyshire constabulary. An investigation after Gracie’s death revealed that documentation in the bag, which Sellers frequently carried to work, had details on it linking it to his family home.
The force is now being investigated by the police watchdog over its handling of Gracie’s original complaint against Sellers, and the rucksack. A police sergeant and two constables were served with misconduct notices in November.
“Them admitting that they failed, it doesn’t alter anything for us. I just want them to say it. Because it’s ruined our life, absolutely ruined our lives,” said Heaton.
In the months since Gracie’s death, her parents and the local community have thrown themselves into a campaign to get more funding for stalking advocates, and have gathered more than 100,000 signatures on a petition, which prompted a debate in parliament.
“When Gracie was killed, it was the last straw for me. I was appalled. I started the petition and the response was overwhelming,” said local campaigner Jackie Barnett-Wheatcroft, who has now set up a charity, Stalking Victims Support UK, to continue pushing for change in Gracie’s memory. “We’re doing this for the past victims and the future victims. It doesn’t feel like the police, or government, are learning from past mistakes, and we need to change that.”
In a significant win for their campaign, last month Derbyshire constabulary said it was recruiting a stalking coordinator in response to rising cases, and to ensure investigations are properly carried out.
“We’ve achieved something already, but we want it across the board, with all constabularies. A lot of police forces now have sat up and thought they need to do something about this.” said Spinks. “People say to us: ‘You’re doing really well, I don’t know how you can do all this.’ And I think, ‘Well, we’ve got to do it.’ How can we say we’re not going do anything about it? We’ve got to make a difference.”
The couple take solace in the fact that Paddy is now being cared for by Gracie’s best friend, Ben, thanks to a fundraising drive after her death.
“We’ll never get over what happened to Gracie, we’ll never accept it,” said Spinks. “But we feel that we’re on a mission to make some changes.”
Derbyshire constabulary said: “We continue to support and fully cooperate with the IOPC investigation into the circumstances leading up to the tragic death of Gracie.
“We are keeping the IOPC up to date with a number of improvements we have implemented in recent months and we would encourage all victims of stalking and harassment to report incidents to us for investigation.”
Xbite said: “Gracie will always be a part of our work family. She is missed each and every day and we will keep her in our hearts and minds always.”
