Gracie Spinks inquest: Murder victim reported 'creepy' colleague

A woman murdered by her "obsessed" ex-colleague made a complaint at work about his "creepy" actions, an inquest has heard.

Michael Sellers killed Gracie Spinks, 23, in Duckmanton, Derbyshire, before killing himself. Miss Spinks died on 18 June 2021 from 10 stab wounds.

This was six months after she refused to have a romantic relationship with him.

Sellers had been dismissed from work after her complaint.

The inquest also heard a relative of Sellers saw knives in his bedroom months earlier and a rucksack of weapons was found near to where Miss Spinks was killed.

His mother asked him to get rid of the knives and his father warned him police would "throw away the key" if they discovered them.

Miss Spinks had complained to e-commerce firm Xbite about supervisor Sellers on 5 January 2021.

She told her workplace she was "uncomfortable" around Sellers and thought his actions were "creepy".

Miss Spinks' father Richard Spinks thought the issues his daughter was having with Sellars had been resolved after she informed police of his behaviour.

He said in a statement: "Had I known how dangerous and obsessed Sellers was with Gracie, and how events might escalate, I would have done everything in my power to protect and safeguard her.

"As a family, we would have made sure she was not vulnerable or alone in public places."

Deleted from Facebook

Coroner Matthew Kewley read out the statement Miss Spinks had made after previously informing Sellers she did not want a relationship.

She had told of an incident where she had seen him parked up in a lay-by near the field where her horse was.

Miss Spinks had decided not to stop to see her horse as usual and instead carried on to work to tell them what happened.

In her statement, she described deleting Sellers from her Facebook but he added her again "within five minutes".

She said: "I thought it was creepy, like he was watching my Facebook page."

She also described how she felt she could not go and see her horse because of the incident where Sellers was parked nearby and told how he had other employees checking her social media and reporting back what she was doing.

Sellers was later dismissed from Xbite for misconduct in relation to his behaviour towards Miss Spinks.

Michael Sellers, who was 35, murdered Gracie Spinks six weeks after the bag of weapons was found

A statement from Det Con Daniel Ball, who spoke to Sellers' family after Miss Spinks was found dead in a field and Sellers' body was discovered hours later, was also read out at the hearing.

DC Ball said Sellers' mother told him her son was "dying inside" after losing his job at Xbite.

His statement read: "His personality changed. He always looked after himself, went to the gym and kept fit.

"He went on a downward spiral, stopped exercising, stopped caring and started bottling things up."

DC Ball also said that a family member saw knives on Sellers' bedroom floor and told him he could speak to them or a doctor if he needed support.

Sellers "laughed" and said "they can't sort this out for me", the inquest heard.