Gracie Spinks’ parents call on Home Secretary for action over Derbyshire Police failings after damning coroner report

This week Chesterfield coroner Matthew Kewley released his prevention of future deaths report following a three-week inquest which found Derbyshire Constabulary had made “serious failings” while investigating the case of stalker Michael Sellers before he killed Gracie on June 18, 2021.

In his report the coroner has raised a number of ongoing concerns addressed to Derbyshire Constabulary – which pose a risk of future deaths “unless action is taken”.

They include officers’ understanding of stalking policy, their failure to complete stalking risk assessments, gaps in the force’s records management system which make risk harder to identify, absence of notes and detail in crime records and failure to investigate dangerous weapons found by the community.

Reacting to Mr Kewley’s recommendations, Gracie’s parents Richard Spinks and Alison Ward said the Home Secretary must “unequivocally communicate” to Chief Constable Rachel Swann “that standards of policing need to improve”.

They added assurances were needed that “not only will recommendations in the report be followed but there will be oversight on implementation across each area identified”.

"Officers should, moving forward, be held accountable to the standards of excellence expected by the public,” said Richard and Alison in a statement.

During Gracie’s inquest jurors heard five officers – including three police constables and two sergeants – failed to follow force stalking-specific risk assessments and conducted limited investigations, the inquest heard.

Twenty-three-year-old Gracie’s initial complaint against Sellers was closed after he was given “words of advice” by a PC and after being considered by her sergeant for “20 minutes”.

While a bag of sinister weapons accompanied by a strange note found near to the field where Gracie kept her horse – where she was stabbed to death just weeks later - was closed by another sergeant as “lost property” with no investigation.

Addressing Mr Cleverly in his report, coroner Mr Kewley is calling on the Government to act on a lack of stalking advocates in police forces across the country, labelling it a “postcode lottery”, in the aftermath of an inquest the killing of Chesterfield’s Gracie Spinks.

During the inquest Mr Kewley was told Derbyshire Police now had now created roles for three stalking advocates and a stalking coordinator to ensure stalking cases were dealt with properly.

Speaking in his report about the implications for forces across the rest of the country, he wrote: “Whilst I was reassured to hear that Derbyshire now benefits from stalking advocates, I heard evidence that many other areas around the UK do not have stalking advocates.

"This essentially creates a postcode lottery for victims who report stalking to the police.

"I am concerned about the lack of consistency and availability of stalking advocates to victims of stalking across the UK.”

Writing to the Home Secretary, Mr Kewley said: “In my opinion action should be taken to prevent future deaths and I believe you have the power to take such action.”

Government legislation dictates that Mr Cleverly has a duty to respond to this report within 56 days of the report's publication.

In his response the Secretary of State must set out what action will be taken with a timetable.

Speaking about Mr Kewley’s recommendations to the Home Secretary and Derbyshire Constabulary, Gracie’s parents said: “We would like to thank the coroner for preparing a comprehensive and insightful report.

"The report is a damning indictment, it details the colossal failures and the many areas of concern that were sadly evident throughout the Inquest.

“It has been forwarded by the coroner's office to the Home Secretary James Cleverly and the Chief Constable of Derbyshire Constabulary Rachel Swann.

"Both will clearly appreciate and acknowledge how Gracie was tragically let down.

“Vulnerable victims of stalking need to feel safe in the knowledge that the police will listen, investigate and protect them.

"Victims need to be instilled with confidence to make the initial complaint.

"We hope in the future that no parents have to sit through an Inquest with broken hearts, overwhelming grief, knowing that the grief will be ever present for life and continue long after the officers who failed Gracie have given evidence and left the court building.”

In his report the Chesterfield coroner identified a number of ongoing concerns regarding Derbyshire Constabulary’s investigation of stalking cases.

He noted that, while giving evidence at the inquest, Detective Superintendent Darren De’Ath told the coroner that although there had been improvements since Gracie’s death “we still have not achieved what we aimed to achieve”.

Noting that Derbyshire Constabulary had accepted ”serious failings” in how Gracie’s complaint was investigated, the coroner says the current force guidance should be reviewed.

He also recommended ensuring that officers were aware of and consulted force training on stalking, as the inquest showed none of the officers involved in Gracie’s case consulted it and nor were they even aware that it existed.

Jurors heard during the inquest that call handlers involved in the very early stages of Gracie’s stalking complaint in February 2021 were the only police staff who completed stalking risk assessments.

Mr Kewley wrote in the report: “I am concerned that there may be an ongoing lack of understanding about the importance of completing comprehensive risk assessments which include the initial identification of risk and also, importantly, a regular re-assessment of risk as the investigation progresses.

"I consider that further steps should be considered in order to improve understanding and appreciation of the importance of completing comprehensive risk assessments.”

In the aftermath of Gracie’s death the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) carried out an investigation into the five officers involved in Gracie’s case.

The IOPC noted that locations were not individually tagged to incidents on the force’s “Niche” records management system - missing opportunities to link suspects with locations and failing to identify risk.

Speaking about the Niche system and the IOPC recommendation, Mr Kewley wrote: “The inquest heard that specific geographical locations can be particularly important in stalking investigations (i.e the horse field in Gracie’s case).

"As such, it seems to me that the IOPC recommendation is an important one which could assist in future cases with linking suspects and particular locations relevant to the stalking

investigation.”

During the inquest the jury heard how none of the officers who investigated Gracie’s initial complaint or the bag of weapons found metres from where she kept horse Paddy just weeks before her death made any notes, and no video footage such as that recording the words of warning given to Sellers by one officer was retained.

While crime reports entered by investigating officers contained almost no details, and thus provided no useful information for anyone reading them.

Writing about the lack of notes, Mr Kewley said: “I am concerned that a lack of contemporaneous notes/insufficient detail within a crime report may impact on the ability to make properly informed risk assessments which rely on the existence of a good written record of important conversations/steps taken during an investigation.

"This may become an issue where, for example, an investigation is re-allocated to another police officer who has had no prior involvement in the investigation such that the newly allocated police officer will be reliant upon the quality of the original police officer’s records/notes.”

The coroner noted in his report that despite officers’ failure to properly investigate the bag of weapons, a similar failing occurred over two years later when a member of the public reporting a knife found in a Chesterfield park was simply told to “destroy” the weapon.

He wrote in the report: “While I recognise that further steps have been taken very recently in response to this latest incident, I am concerned that there appears to be an ongoing issue within Derbyshire Constabulary around the ability of some police officers/staff to deal effectively with reports of potential dangerous weapons found in the community.”