Cops did nothing to stop Gracie's murderer

Parents' fury as inquest finds 'weirdo' killed model daughter

- STEPHEN WHITE

THE parents of a model murdered by a stalker accused police of "total incompetence" yesterday.

An inquest jury, who wore pink and purple wristbands in Gracie Spinks' memory, unanimously ruled the 23-year-old was stabbed in the neck by Michael Sellers, 35, as she looked after her horse, Paddy, in June 2021.

Police had admitted multiple failings over a complaint Gracie made about Sellers, the inquest heard. He was graded as low risk and given "words of advice" on his offending. And no action was taken over a bag of weapons, later linked to Sellers, found near where Gracie was killed a month later.

After the verdict, her father Richard said: "I'm not happy with Derbyshire Police at all because it's just been a catalogue of errors.

"They just seemed to want to deal with the bag or deal with the complaint and shelve it and forget about it. There was no investigation.