Staff 'not curious enough' about woman who killed

Probation staff dealing with a woman who befriended a man she later murdered were "insufficiently curious", a coroner has concluded.

Barry Spooner, 74, was found dead at his home on Gladstone Street, in the Forest Fields area of Nottingham, on 7 June 2023.

Sarah Hansford, from Coalville, pleaded guilty to his murder, and was sentenced to life in prison on 4 December 2023.

On Tuesday an inquest at Nottingham Coroner's Court found Mr Spooner was unlawfully killed.

The court heard Hansford was jailed in 2019 after extorting money from her grandfather "in order to fund her chronic substance misuse".

On her release the following year she was deemed by probation service staff to present a high risk to her grandfather, and a medium risk to the general public, and she soon struck up a friendship with Mr Spooner.

She had told a member of probation staff she had moved in with him, and the inquest was told police were called to his address on numerous occasions for incidents including reports of threats of violence and theft.

A number of public protection notices (PPNs) - a document police use and share to record safeguarding concerns about an individual - had been made after visits, but not all the incidents were acted upon.

In the days before his body was found agencies had attended the property due to concerns for Mr Spooner, but Hansford told them that he was away.

When his body was found on 7 June it was discovered in a state of decomposition, which the court heard suggested he had been murdered weeks earlier.

Returning a conclusion of unlawful killing, assistant coroner Nathanael Hartley said there was "a lack of information sharing" between probation services and police over Hansford.

"I find that probation practitioners were insufficiently curious about [Hansford's] living arrangements," he said.

"Nobody contacted [Mr Spooner], probably because they were too focused on [her] offending-related needs."

Mr Hartley said the lack of curiosity had been recognised by the probation service, which has since made changes to the way it records and assesses PPNs, adding Nottinghamshire Police has used it as a "case in training" exercise for officers.

Following the inquest's conclusion, Det Supt Paul Lefford from Nottinghamshire Police said the force referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct to review its previous contact with Mr Spooner.

He said they had accepted both recommendations regarding reviewing information around PPNs, and paid tribute to the deceased's family.

"They have been through a horrendous ordeal and have shown considerable courage and dignity throughout the legal process," he said.

The Ministry of Justice declined to comment.

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