'My uncle stabbed Dad to death while we hid in bed - I can't thank him enough'

A beauty queen whose abusive father was killed by her uncle wants to show the world that her traumatic childhood won’t define her future.

Marcie Reid, now 30 and living in York, was just three years old when her mum’s brother stabbed her biological dad, Graham Binks, to death inside her home in Croxley Green, Herts.

She and her three terrified siblings huddled in bed together, as a deadly fight raged downstairs between the two men, who had been out drinking.

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Former security guard Binks had a long history of violence against her mother Shirley - on one occasion breaking her jaw and regularly beating her black and blue.

The father-of-four had told his wife to get an abortion when they found out she was pregnant and she had tried to leave him several times during their tumultuous marriage.

Seventeen stone bully Binks had also turned his fists on Shirley’s younger brother twice and had beaten up his own father-in-law.

“My only memories of my father were of raised voices and being scared,” says Marcie, who in October will be competing for the title of Miss Great Britain at the pageant’s 80th anniversary celebrations.

“I remember having to crawl under the TV - you couldn’t walk in front of it while he was watching. Little things like that.”

On the night of January 29, 1998, Binks was in a belligerent mood, as he and Marcie’s uncle returned to the family home after an evening of drinking.

He woke up his wife to pick a drunken argument with her and bit her on the arm, prompting her to come downstairs to ask her brother, then 24, why her husband was in such a bad mood.

A fight broke out between the men, and Shirley fled to the hallway.

“Dad stabbed my uncle with a screwdriver,” Marcie recalls, but Binks hadn’t realised his brother-in-law had stashed a seven-inch carving knife in the back pocket of his trousers, which he thrust into Binks’ chest and stomach three times.

By the time terrified Shirley returned to the living room, her brother was on top of her husband, covered in his blood and still holding the knife. She called the emergency services, but Binks was dead by the time he reached hospital.

"All I remember from that night is my uncle coming upstairs and kissing all of us on the forehead. He told us, 'You're safe now, but I’m going away for a very long time. I love you lots,'" says Marcie.

After her uncle was jailed for manslaughter, Marcie’s mother suffered a mental breakdown and was hospitalised. The four young siblings were placed in care, staying together for their first few placements, before being split up - with the two eldest being sent to boarding school by social services.

Marcie and her little sister Kim moved 13 times in six years, eventually finding "the best foster parents ever" in Marion and Bob, who helped them rebuild their shattered childhood. They lived there for three years and Marion was instrumental in helping the girls stay in touch with their traumatised mum.

“My childhood nickname was Marcia Mouse, because I was scared of everything,” Marcie recalls. “Loud noises, shouting, men. I would avoid men for many, many years - all throughout school.

“I was just petrified of boys and men, couldn’t be near them. I didn’t want to go outside, didn’t like noises. And it was all because of things that I’d witnessed and experienced.”

Once Marcie’s mum was well enough to come home, the two youngest girls were returned to her care, although their troubles were far from over. The family had little money and were forced to use food banks to feed and clothe themselves.

When she was old enough, Shirley gave her daughter the stack of police reports and therapy notes she’d kept in the aftermath of Graham’s death.

“We've got reports of my brother aged six, trying to get in the middle of Dad when he was hurting my mum,” she says. “He would say, ‘Stop it, stop hurting my mummy.’ It’s heartbreaking.”

Marcie also recalls her father’s chilling tactics to isolate his wife from the outside world.

“It got to the point where he would hold one of us kids hostage while he sent Mum to the shop, because he knew that she wouldn’t leave with just three of us and leave one child with him,” she says.

On one occasion, before Marcie’s birth, Shirley had fled the marital home with her eldest children, Lieselle and Nick. Lieselle, not realising why they were escaping, had wanted to speak to her father, so Shirley had called him from a public payphone.

“After he hung up he called back the payphone and spoke to the operator,” Marcie says. “He said, ‘I’ve just spoken to my wife and her car’s broken down, can you give me the location of the payphone?’ And he found her. He used to find her, he used to turn up at women’s refuges when we would run away, which is why he started holding us hostage.”

Graham, a keen darts player, was mourned by the local community in the wake of his killing, as nobody knew what he was really like behind closed doors.

“Our local community centre still has a darts trophy named after him in his memory, because he was such a great guy…”

Marcie’s uncle was released from prison after serving three years. His first marriage broke down, and she didn’t see him until she was living back with her mum.

“One day, Mum told us her brother was coming round, but if we weren’t comfortable with that she could go out and meet him for a cup of tea,” she remembers.

“We all said it was fine for him to come over. When he arrived, my brother Nick - who would have been about 13 - walked straight up to him and shook his hand. He just said, ‘thank you.’”

Marcie’s own healing only started in her twenties, having dropped out of university with depression. Her best friend, Matt - now her boyfriend of many years - encouraged her to build up her confidence by enrolling in a beauty pageant.

“I bought a £40 dress - some of the girls spend thousands - and I was only going to do it once, but I ended up placing top 12 out of 60 girls,” she smiles. “I was like, ‘OK this is actually quite fun!””

In October, Marcie - who works for the charity Action For Children - will be competing against 39 other women for the title of Miss Great Britain, having bagged the title of Miss York at the semi-finals in April.

And her mum will be watching proudly alongside Marcie’s stepdad, who legally adopted all four children after meeting Shirley in hospital.

Marcie’s the first finalist ever to have been in care, and says she's proud of how far she's come.

"Over 50% of care-leavers will experience homelessness, and a quarter of us will end up in the justice system at some point," she says. "So that leaves you less than a 25% chance to actually just survive.

“Being care-experienced sets up so many additional barriers.

“I was always put into the lowest sets at school, because it was assumed I was stupid.”

Winning Miss Great Britain would, she says, “mean the world”.

“I’d be over the moon,” she laughs. “I’d be able to show others that they can also achieve big things.

“For those of us with adverse childhood experiences, it's not just about surviving; you can actually thrive, and you can be your own definition of success.”