{"id":145715,"date":"2023-11-29T13:34:58","date_gmt":"2023-11-29T13:34:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebritywshow.com\/?p=145715"},"modified":"2023-11-29T13:34:58","modified_gmt":"2023-11-29T13:34:58","slug":"gracie-spinks-parents-to-bring-national-change-to-stalking-probes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebritywshow.com\/world-news\/gracie-spinks-parents-to-bring-national-change-to-stalking-probes\/","title":{"rendered":"Gracie Spinks&apos; parents to &apos;bring national change&apos; to stalking probes"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Gracie Spinks&#8217; parents vow to &#8216;bring national change&#8217; to the way stalking is investigated after &#8216;heartbreak&#8217; of learning how police failed to stop their daughter&#8217;s obsessed ex-colleague before he stabbed her to death<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Police admitted a catalogue of failures in its investigation into Gracie&#8217;s stalker<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The parents of Gracie Spinks have vowed to &#8216;bring national change&#8217; to the way stalking offences are handled by police after hearing how officers failed to stop their daughter&#8217;s &#8216;obsessed&#8217; ex-colleague from stabbing her to death.<\/p>\n<p>An inquest jury concluded that Ms Spinks, 23, was unlawfully killed by Michael Sellers, 35, in Duckmanton, Derbyshire, on June 18 2021, months after she had reported him to Derbyshire Police for stalking and harassing her.<\/p>\n<p>The inquest heard the force admitted multiple failings over their investigation into her complaint, with Sellers only graded as posing a low risk and no action being taken over a bag of weapons, later linked to Sellers, found near where Ms Spinks was killed a month later.<\/p>\n<p>In his report to Derbyshire Constabulary and Home Secretary James Cleverley, Coroner Matthew Kewley said there was a lack of consistency in police forces&#8217; abilities to investigate stalking reports nationwide and warned that victims faced a &#8216;postcode lottery&#8217; if they report concerns.<\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday morning, Ms Spinks&#8217; parents Alison Ward and Richard Spinks told BBC\u00a0Breakfast that many young girls, women and men are &#8216;afraid&#8217; to report their concerns to the police in case they are not treated seriously.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/29\/11\/78367241-12804287-image-a-41_1701255943441.jpg\" height=\"633\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>An inquest jury concluded that Gracie Spinks, 23, was unlawfully killed by Michael Sellers, 35, in Duckmanton, Derbyshire, on June 18 2021<\/p>\n<p>Mr Spinks described hearing police admit failures in the case as &#8216;heartbreaking&#8217; and added he feels as though &#8216;Gracie is pushing us along&#8217; in their calls for change.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The couple are pressing ahead with plans for Gracie&#8217;s law to help other victims after the loss of the daughter, and say they are on a &#8216;mission&#8217; to reform the way stalking complaints are investigated.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Spinks said: &#8216;Anything that makes [police] stand up and make changes across the board, across the country, we are open to do.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It feels like Gracie is pushing us along, saying &#8220;dad do this&#8221;, because that&#8217;s the way she was.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;To sit there and listen to those police failings and what they didn&#8217;t do regarding the investigation was heartbreaking.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;We want to see all police forces reacting the same, not a postcode lottery. If somebody makes a stalking report in London, it should be the same in Leeds, Aberdeen, Plymouth, wherever.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I don&#8217;t know why they can&#8217;t all do the same and have the same procedures in place to deal with stalking so that the police officers are trained and know what to do.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Mrs Ward added: &#8216;The coroner, Matthew Kewley, did a comprehensive report detailing all the failings that has gone to Derbyshire Constabulary but also the Home Office, and we couldn&#8217;t ask for anything better to be fair, because it&#8217;s gone right to the top.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/29\/11\/78368223-12804287-image-a-42_1701256907806.jpg\" height=\"354\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Ms Spinks&#8217; parents Alison Ward and Richard Spinks told BBC Breakfast that many young girls, women and men are &#8216;afraid&#8217; to report their concerns to the police in case they are not treated seriously<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/29\/11\/78368221-12804287-Mrs_Ward_told_the_programme_We_have_got_to_make_a_change_if_we_c-m-44_1701257047037.jpg\" height=\"441\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Mrs Ward told the programme: &#8216;We have got to make a change &#8211; if we can just stop one more death then we have achieved something&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/29\/11\/78368479-12804287-image-a-45_1701257082203.jpg\" height=\"845\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Mr Spinks and Mrs Ward said the support they have received since Gracie&#8217;s death helps them stay focused on their plans to help other stalking victims<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Hopefully if we have that backing, we can make a change. We know Humberside Police are already using Gracie&#8217;s case in their training.<\/p>\n<h3>READ MORE: Gracie Spinks&#8217; heartbroken parents slam &#8216;total incompetence&#8217; of Derbyshire Police after force admitted it repeatedly failed to protect model, 23, from her stalker killer\u00a0<\/h3>\n<p>&#8216;Things are happening, it&#8217;s one force at a time, baby steps, but hopefully it will bring a national change.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Mr Spinks and Mrs Ward said the support they have received since their daughter&#8217;s death helps them stay focused on their plans to help other stalking victims.<\/p>\n<p>Mrs Ward said: &#8216;We have got to make a change &#8211; if we can just stop one more death then we have achieved something.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Stalking is overlooked as a crime and people live in fear, they have to change their lifestyles and it&#8217;s horrendous.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Since we lost Gracie it has really been highlighted &#8211; we didn&#8217;t realise how much of a bigger problem it was for both men and women.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It makes us get up in the morning. We have had loads and loads of support, in Chesterfield and nationally from people we don&#8217;t even know and that just gives us the drive to keep pushing.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Paying tribute to his daughter, Mr Spinks said: &#8216;She was a lovely, beautiful young lady at the start of her life and it was ripped away.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It is so sad but we have to keep our strength up for the cause.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;She was a bright light who packed so much into her 23 years, we are so proud of her and proud to do this.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;We want to make a difference, Gracie&#8217;s law is about making changes.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/29\/11\/78368489-12804287-image-a-46_1701257113232.jpg\" height=\"637\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Paying tribute to his daughter, Mr Spinks said: &#8216;She was a lovely, beautiful young lady at the start of her life and it was ripped away&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/29\/11\/78368485-12804287-image-m-48_1701257145138.jpg\" height=\"544\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Michael Sellers, 35, fatally stabbed Ms Spinks before killing himself<\/p>\n<p>Gracie was friends with killer Sellers for around two months, initially thinking him &#8216;sweet and caring&#8217; before an incident in which he kissed her and &#8216;got on top of her&#8217;, forcing her to tell him to stop and inform him she was not looking for a relationship.<\/p>\n<p>But Sellers could not accept that she did not want a relationship with him and began a campaign of stalking, including monitoring her on work CCTV and parking outside the field where Gracie tended to her horse.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Gracie described feeling &#8216;anxious and scared&#8217; by Sellers&#8217; actions &#8211; which included buying a VW Scirocco after discovering it was her favourite car &#8211; and told how he had other employees monitoring her social media for him.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>She reported him to police in February 2021 via 101, and said\u00a0colleagues had told her that Sellers had previously displayed similar behaviour with other women at work, and had got &#8216;worse and worse&#8217; each time.<\/p>\n<p>Ms Spinks said she didn&#8217;t want to pursue a prosecution but wanted something on record because she was worried that &#8216;next time he could kidnap someone&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>Officers cautioned Sellers but did not request information from his employer about complaints against him or carry out a national database check.<\/p>\n<p>They categorised him as &#8216;low risk&#8217; despite him telling a constable that he thought he was in a relationship with Gracie.<\/p>\n<p>The constable admitted at the inquest that she had never seen a key risk assessment form which all officers were supposed to complete in stalking cases \u2013 and agreed she was &#8216;effectively left to her own devices&#8217;, having received no training from her force on stalking.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Less than three months later, on May 6 2021, a dog walker discovered a cache of weapons in a rucksack dumped in a farm track at Duckmanton and contacted police.<\/p>\n<p>But officers failed to investigate and labelled the items as lost property, even though the Nike bag contained hunting knives, an axe, a hammer, a packet of Viagra and a sinister note which read: &#8216;Don&#8217;t lie&#8217;.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Six weeks later, Gracie was found dead. Sellers was also discovered dead shortly afterwards and is thought to have killed himself.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-12804287\/gracie-spinks-parents-bring-national-change-vow-stalking-investigation-police-fail.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gracie Spinks&#8217; parents vow to &#8216;bring national change&#8217; to the way stalking is investigated after &#8216;heartbreak&#8217; of learning how police failed to stop their daughter&#8217;s&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145714,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Gracie Spinks&amp;apos; parents to &amp;apos;bring national change&amp;apos; 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