Gracie Spinks ‘anxious and scared’ by ‘creepy’ colleague’s actions, inquest told

Gracie Spinks described feeling “anxious and scared” by the actions of her colleague Michael Sellers in a complaint to their workplace months before he is believed to have stabbed her to death and then taken his own life.

A complaint Gracie, 23, had made to e-commerce firm xbite about the actions of supervisor Sellers on January 5 2021 was read out at an inquest into her death at Chesterfield Coroner’s Court on Friday.

Gracie had told her workplace she was “uncomfortable” around Sellers and thought his actions were “creepy”.

Sellers is believed to have killed Gracie as she tended to her horse Paddy at Blue Lodge Farm in Duckmanton on June 18 2021 after becoming “obsessed” with her.

Her body was found by a child and her mother just after 8am that day when they arrived to see their own horses.

Sellers’ body was discovered hours later in a nearby field.

Coroner Matthew Kewley read out the statement Gracie had made after previously informing Sellers she did not want a relationship, in which she had told of an incident where she had seen him parked up in a lay-by near the field where her horse was.

She 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 Gracie.

A statement from Gracie’s best friend Rachel Pemberton also heard how Sellers had asked Gracie what car she liked, and when she told him she liked the Volkswagen Scirocco that her brother owned, he went out and bought the same car to try to “impress” her.

“Gracie thought this was over the top,” Ms Pemberton wrote. “She thought he was becoming clingy.”

Ms Pemberton’s statement also told how, after police left Gracie’s home when she reported him for harassing her, he sent her a text “straight after” apologising for asking colleagues about her, despite her not hearing from him for a few months.

Ms Pemberton wrote: “I told her I thought he wasn’t sorry for what he had done, just that he had been found out.”

She also paid tribute to her best friend, describing Gracie as “party animal” who “loved to have a laugh” and would “have a go at anything”.

The inquest continues.