MEETING Michael Sellers for the first time, Alison Ward thought daughter Gracie Spinks might have found her Mr Right and asked if he was “boyfriend material”.
But shortly afterwards, the behaviour of Sellers, Gracie’s supervisor at work, took a sinister turn as he became “obsessed” with her.
When he turned up at the stable where she kept her horse, she reported him to police for stalking and warned he would “kidnap someone”.
Four months later, in June 2021, Sellers, 35, murdered the 23-year-old at the same yard in Duckmanton, Derbyshire, stabbing her ten times, before killing himself.
It later emerged that police had missed several warning signs – including a bag of weapons found nearby, six weeks before the murder.
Now, Gracie’s parents are speaking out ahead of a new ITV documentary, Stalking: State Of Fear, which includes 999 calls and police interview footage of the shocking case.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun, Gracie’s dad, Richard Spinks, 68, says: “Gracie was non-stop with her interests and passions. She had her whole life mapped out.
“It was all ripped away.”
Asked how he feels towards his daughter’s killer, he says: “He obviously wasn’t right in the head. He needed help right from the start.”
Cameras for the film – which airs on Tuesday – followed the former couple, who also have a son, Tom, 25, during an inquest into their daughter’s death last year.
A jury concluded that Gracie was unlawfully killed by Sellers.
It was revealed Sellers had previously harassed at least eight other women.
Derbyshire Police admitted a number of failings in the handling of her case.
These included not investigating a sinister bag of weapons, found by a member of the public close to Blue Lodge Farm stables.
The rucksack contained three knives, an axe, a hammer, a packet of Viagra and a chilling handwritten note which read ‘DON’T LIE!’.
The bag, which belonged to Sellers, could have been linked to him by a shop receipt found inside.
But an officer dismissed the contents as theatre props and filed them in lost and found property.
Alison, 53, says: “Sadly, the police failed Gracie with basic policing throughout her complaint.
“Maybe this whole thing could have been avoided had the police investigated and done their job properly?”
Gracie met Sellers, who lived with his parents in Sheffield, when she started working at Xbite, an e-commerce firm in Chesterfield, Derbys, in April 2020.
She took the temporary job after being furloughed from her role as a children’s swimming instructor at the start of the year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
He immediately showed an interest in the part-time model, with the pair meeting up outside of work.
In December 2020, Sellers visited Gracie at her home in Chesterfield that she shared with mum Alison, a hospice catering assistant, her step-dad Richard Ward, 45, a maintenance controller, and her half-sister Abi, now 18, Alison’s daughter from a previous marriage.
Gracie was five when her parents split up but the former couple have remained close and dad Richard, a radio presenter, lives on the same street.
Alison says: “I met Sellers briefly. He came to the house to bring some things from work.
“When he left, I said to Gracie: ‘Oh he’s really nice.’”
And she adds: “She’d only ever had one boyfriend before. She split up with him in 2017. He’d broken her heart, bless him.
“She’d been on her own. She just dedicated herself to her horses.
“She went out for a meal with him, then she went for a couple of walks with him. She rode the horse and he walked alongside it.
“So I did think then, ‘oh, is something gonna happen?’”
Gracie was non-stop with her interests and passions. She had her whole life mapped out. It was all ripped away.
Richard Spinks
The pair sat in another room from Alison. Unbeknown to her, Sellers kissed Gracie and tried to climb on top of her. She asked him to stop and to leave.
Alison says: “I never knew that night when he came round to the house that he forced himself on her. We were very close but she didn’t tell me.
“From then on, she called him a ‘weirdo’ and said ‘nothing’s gonna happen between me and him because I don’t like him.’”
Reflecting on what might have happened if she had told them, Richard says: “Things might have taken a different course.”
But he adds: “We can’t go into the ‘what ifs’.”
The next day, Gracie told Sellers she didn’t want a relationship – something she did 28 times in total. He started bombarding her with messages and watching her on CCTV at work.
Alison says Sellers also tried to get information about Gracie from her 17-year-old work colleague.
She says: “He was good friends with Gracie. Sellers kept pumping him for information about her, asking him what she was doing at the weekend.
“And he was offering him incentives like extra hours.”
Alison says Gracie was “freaked out” when she saw Sellers parked up near the paddock where she kept her horse, in January 2021. She immediately reported him to her bosses and he was later dismissed.
Gracie also contacted the police. Her 999 call is played during the documentary and she can be heard explaining how Sellers had become “obsessed” with her.
She told the call handler: “I want him on file and for you to report it – work says this has happened before and this is the worst that’s happened.
“I’m worried if it happens to someone else it could be worse – he might actually kidnap someone.”
Officers visited Gracie to take a statement, but Alison says: “They weren’t at our house very long. They didn’t take notes or anything.
“And they left saying that they would go and have a word with him.”
She now knows Gracie should have been offered a Stalking Protection Order, a civil order which must be applied for by the police.
Officers cautioned Sellers but failed to request information from his employer about complaints made against him, nor did they check the national database, before categorising him as “low risk”.
Alison recalls: “After she reported it to the police, we thought we could draw a line under it. We weren’t too concerned because he had only visited the field.
“It never crossed my mind that he might go over there to do any harm.”
Women's Aid has this advice for victims and their families:
If you are a victim of domestic abuse, SupportLine is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 6pm to 8pm on 01708 765200. The charity’s email support service is open weekdays and weekends during the crisis – messageinfo@supportline.org.uk.
Women’s Aid provides a live chat service – available weekdays from 8am-6pm and weekends 10am-6pm.
You can also call the freephone 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247.
On the day Gracie was fatally stabbed, on June 18, 2021, nursery assistant Alison was getting ready for work when her daughter left to go to the stables to feed Paddy.
Gracie’s body was found by a family friend, Nicola Dixon, who kept her horse in the same field, and her ten-year-old daughter Ella.
Alison recalls: “I’d just got to work. Her partner phoned me to say Gracie was covered in blood.
“Little Ella had seen a man running down the field.
“It was only a 12 minute run from work. I could not get there fast enough. I thought, ‘maybe one of the horses had kicked her or something but which one would hurt because they are such gentle horses?’
“I never saw Gracie that morning. They wouldn’t let me see her.”
It was such an exceptional case, the Ministry of Justice funded Gracie’s family’s legal team for the inquest into her death last November.
Alison says: “It came out at the inquest that he’d never had a girlfriend, which was weird.”
Richard adds: “That really spooked us.”
Sellers’ body was found about 150 metres from where Gracie was discovered . A suicide note found at the scene said he could not deal with “all of her lies”.
Richard says: “It’s just the coward’s way out.”
I’m worried if it happens to someone else it could be worse – he might actually kidnap someone
Gracie in 999 call
Alison adds: “People have said to me, ‘Oh, he took the easy way out. You’ll never have your day in court with him.’
“And did we ever really want to have that time in court with him? I don’t know.”
“It’s just very, very sad. At the end of the day, Mr and Mrs Sellers have lost their son.
“They’ve lost their boy and they’ve got to live with now for the rest of their life, knowing what he did to our daughter, and I do feel sympathy for them, I really do.”
The documentary also features other victims. Reports of stalking cases have steadily been on the rise.
On average, two women are murdered each week in England and Wales. Research suggests that stalking features in 94 per cent of these cases.
After Gracie’s death, Alison admits she had to get rid of the sofa where evil Sellers sat in her home – and she couldn’t bear to look at her daughter’s horse due to the painful memories.
They’ve lost their boy and they’ve got to live with now for the rest of their life, knowing what he did to our daughter, and I do feel sympathy for them
Alison Ward
But she says: “We still own Paddy. Another girl rides him now. She’s fantastic with him and is doing everything Gracie wanted to do with him.
“Now, when I go to see them jump, I see Gracie sitting behind her.”
Her parents have since campaigned tirelessly to introduce Gracie’s Law, to make a national change in the way police forces respond to stalking as well as calling on Government funding for forces to provide advocates to support victims of stalking.
A petition launched after the tragedy reached 100,000 signatures by January 2022 and was discussed in Parliament.
They are also working with Derbyshire Police to create training videos for new and serving officers. The former couple are due to meet the force’s dedicated stalking co-ordinator, a role created following Gracie’s tragic death.
Richard says: “We have made a lot of progress already. We’re quite proud of that.”
While there is nothing they can do to bring their daughter back, they are determined that no other family should endure the same heartbreak.
Alison says: “It’s about keeping Gracie’s name out there and ultimately bringing the change that we want.”
Stalking: State Of Fear, ITV, Tuesday April 30, at 9pm
