I’m an ex copper – at every stage it’s been inept cops who have fuelled Nicola Bulley rumours
ONE can only imagine the incredible pain and suffering experienced by the family of mum-of-two Nicola Bulley over the past three weeks.
They found themselves thrust into the spotlight as the nation willed for the vulnerable mortgage broker from a tight-knit Lancashire community to be discovered alive.
The public were understandably very interested in this case because Nicola could be anyone’s wife, sister or mother.
The family hoped she had gone off for some reason and that they would once again feel her embrace.
In that scenario, putting her picture into the media and keeping the story in the headlines was essential.
In my experience the Press helps detectives catch criminals and find missing people.
READ MORE ON NICOLA BULLEY
When a photograph of a suspect or missing person appears on television or in the newspapers, members of the public come forward with fresh information.
If a case receives no publicity at all, it is less likely there will be a positive outcome.
Deflect criticism
But of course, it must be a dreadful situation when you go to the local shop and find your wife, sister or mother’s face on a newspaper stand.
Tragically, Nicola was not found .
Most read in The Sun
Instead, her body was in a reed bed just a mile from where she had gone into the River Wyre last month. In such a situation the family is bound to want answers.
Why did it take a member of the public to spot the body when a huge police search team could not?
But standing on the steps of the force’s headquarters on Monday night, a detective chief superintendent read out a statement from the family which took aim at the media, rather than detectives.
The statement said: “It saddens us to think that one day we will have to explain to them (the children) that the Press and members of the public accused their dad of wrongdoing.”
It is baffling why the police chose to put out this statement when no one in the mainstream Press accused Nicola’s partner Paul Ansell of playing any part in her disappearance.
To suggest he had done so would both be defamatory and risk prejudicing a future court case if there was any criminal intent, which there was not.
Professional reporters know that.
I think they have been responsible and respectful. Journalists have not put out any ridiculous conspiracy theories or hindered the investigation.
Let’s not forget, it was the police who put out a statement saying officers had been called to the family home prior to her disappearance regarding a “concern for welfare”.
That gave the totally false impression that Paul might have been involved, which officers quickly had to correct.
Sadly, the amateur, unregulated social media sleuths have no understanding of legal restrictions or codes of conduct. They speculate wildly. And they did.
All sorts of unregulated idiots on social media channels spread all sorts of unsubstantiated rumours.
Their activities tipped over into real life and included so-called internet sleuths trampling over the gardens of residents and digging close to the river.
Trained members of the Press know that neither activity would be appropriate. The first constitutes trespass and the second risks tampering with a potential crime scene.
So the only conclusion I can draw from this is that by allowing that statement to be released, the police are trying to deflect criticism away from themselves and towards the media.
It is an amateurish press office at Lancashire Police that has handled media relations badly.
I still do not understand why they chose to mislead the media about the likely reason for Nicola’s disappearance.
For the first two weeks she was portrayed by the police as a happy mum without any health issues.
Then, suddenly, they told the world that in fact she was considered “high risk”.
This case would not have garnered such intense coverage if the police had trusted the media with this important information from the outset. The Press knows not to publish information given to them in the strictest confidence.
Both the current Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, and a recent one, Priti Patel, have questioned the competence of the Lancashire force’s investigation.
They are right to want answers from senior officers.
It is a tough job going through cold, murky water, which is totally pitch black at the bottom. A river is a notoriously tricky search environment, with changing currents.
Agonising wait
But the truth is that Nicola had seemingly been in a one-mile stretch of river for the past three weeks.
She was in one solitary set of reeds — an obvious point to hold up a passing body — in an otherwise uncongested stretch of riverbank. We are not talking about the Florida Everglades here.
A search team needs to be open to all possibilities.
When 12-year-old Tia Sharp went missing in South London in 2012, officers looked in the loft of her grandmother.
Because they were treating her as a missing person — someone still alive — they would have called out her name and not delved far enough when no reply came back.
In fact, the body of the murdered girl had been there all along.
A more thorough search of the stretch of the River Wyre close to where Nicola went missing on January 27 might also have found her.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
That would have saved her loved ones from such an agonising wait for answers and public torment.
- Mick Neville is former head of forensic imaging at the Metropolitan Police.
