Parents of woman killed by stalker say police let her down'

The parents of Gracie Spinks have said the police response to their daughter's stalking case was "diabolical" as they called for more funding for stalking support workers in forces to protect future victims.

- Jessica Murray

An inquest jury concluded yesterday that Spinks was unlawfully killed by a man she had reported for stalking, after Derbyshire police admitted to several failings in the handling of her case. The three-week inquest heard that Michael Sellers, 35, who met 23-year-old Spinks through work and became "obsessed" with her, had previously harassed at least eight other women.

Spinks reported his behaviour to the police four months before her murder in June 2021. Officers cautioned him but did not request information from his employer about complaints against him or carry out a national database check, and categorised him as "low risk".

They also failed to investigate a bag of weapons found six weeks before Spinks's death near the field in Duckmanton, Derbyshire, where she was killed while tending to her horse. One officer told the inquest she had thought they could be theatre props. A rucksack containing several knives, an axe, a hammer, Viagra and a note that said "do not lie", and a receipt that could be traced to Sellers, were logged by the force as lost property.