The UK Home Secretary has demanded to know why Lancashire Police released Nicola Bulley‘s private medical information as it was revealed that the force has referred themselves to the police watchdog over contact they had with the missing mother prior to her disappearance.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said they were assessing the information to determine whether an investigation would be necessary over the contact officers had with the missing mother-of-two on January 10.
The referral comes after Ms Bulley’s family called for an end to the ‘speculation and rumours’ about her private life.
Police were criticised for disclosing that she suffered ‘some significant issues with alcohol’ in the past, which had resurfaced over recent months.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman is said to be ‘deeply concerned’ by the actions of Lancashire police and has demanded an explanation.
Lancashire Police has sparked anger and grief after detectives revealed that mother-of-two Nicola Bulley, 45, (pictured with her partner Paul) had been struggling with alcohol issues brought on by ongoing struggles with menopause
Lancashire Police have referred themselves to the police watchdog over contact the force had with missing mother Nicola Bulley prior to her disappearance. Pictured: Assistant Chief Constable Peter Lawson (left) and Detective Superintendent Rebecca Smith of Lancashire Police during a press conference on Wednesday
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said they were assessing the information to determine whether an investigation would be necessary over the contact officers had with the missing mother-of-two on January 10. Pictured: Officers in St Michael’s on Wyre on Thursday
Ms Bulley’s parents and sister spoke at an appeal a number of weeks ago to try and find her
Confirming a referral had been made to the watchdog, a spokesman for the IOPC said on Thursday: ‘This afternoon we received a referral from Lancashire Constabulary regarding contact the force had with Nicola Bulley on January 10, prior to her disappearance.
‘We are assessing the available information to determine whether an investigation into that contact may be required and if so, who should conduct that investigation.’
The Home Office said it was receiving regular updates from the force about its handling of the case – including ‘why personal details about Nicola was briefed out at this stage of the investigation’.
A source close to Ms Braverman told MailOnline on Thursday: ‘The Home Secretary was concerned by the disclosure of Nicola Bulley’s personal information by Lancashire Police and asked the force for an explanation, which was received yesterday evening.’
After the force revealed her issues with alcohol ‘brought on by her ongoing struggles with the menopause’, they were strongly condemned by MPs and campaign groups.
The Conservative police and crime commissioner for Lancashire, Andrew Snowden, said the force was being ‘as transparent as they can be’ following the press conference.
Ms Bulley vanished after dropping off her daughters, aged six and nine, at school on January 27 in St Michael’s on Wyre, Lancashire. She was last seen at 9.10am taking her usual route with her springer spaniel Willow, alongside the River Wyre.
Her phone, still connected to a work call for her job as a mortgage adviser, was found just over 20 minutes later on a bench overlooking the riverbank, with her dog running loose.
The referral came on Thursday as Ms Bulley’s family pleaded with people to stop making up ‘wild theories about her personal life’ and instead focus on ‘finding’ her.
In a statement released through Lancashire Constabulary, the 45-year-old’s family chose to share more detail of her fight with the menopause and their fears that her decision to suddenly stop taking HRT may have ‘ended up causing this crisis.’
It came after the force was heavily criticised for releasing a statement that revealed she was battling alcohol problems.
The family said in their statement that Ms Bulley ‘would not have wanted this’ and said they were ‘aware’ it was going out – though stopped short of saying they approved of it.
The police force’s extraordinary briefing – where it disclosed details about the missing mother-of-two’s private life and medical details – has sparked an enormous backlash and accusations of victim blaming.
Nicola Bulley and her partner Paul Ansell were planning on getting married in the near future
Police officers are seen searching the Wyre river bank at Wardley Yacht Marina on Thursday
The bench where Nicola’s mobile phone was last seen when she vanished on January 27
A police officer walks past a missing person appeal poster for Nicola Bulley and yellow ribbons and messages of hope tied to a bridge over the River Wyre in St Michael’s on Wyre
A candle is lit in front of a photo of Nicola Bulley (left) and her partner Paul Ansell (right) on an altar at St Michael’s Church in St Michael’s on Wyre on Thursday
A briefing on Wednesday explained Ms Bulley, 45, was immediately classified as high risk when she was reported missing due to her ‘vulnerabilities’.
Lancashire police revealed the mortgage adviser suffered ‘significant issues with alcohol brought on by ongoing struggles with menopause’.
Police initially said she had ‘vulnerabilities’, but hours later shared more details, explaining they felt it was ‘important to clarify’.
The decision to publicly share personal information about the mother-of-two has been called ‘deeply troubling’ by MPs and campaigners.
Police experts have also questioned why officers had not shared the fact Ms Bulley was deemed high risk and vulnerable from day one, something potentially relevant to the search.
It was completely at odds with a press conference held by Supt Sally Riley on February 3. There the officer was directly asked if there were any other factors with Ms Bulley – such as depression, medication or underlying conditions – which may have contributed to her going missing.
Supt Riley had responded: ‘We have clearly considered the whole picture but this is not relevant at this time.’
But the family said in a police-distributed statement on Thursday: ‘We, as a family, believe that the public focus has become distracted from finding Nikki, and more about speculation and rumours into her and Paul’s private life.
‘As a family, we were aware beforehand that Lancashire Police, last night, released a statement with some personal details about our Nikki.
‘Although we know that Nikki would not have wanted this, there are people out there speculating and threatening to sell stories about her. This is appalling and needs to stop.’
It continued: ‘The public focus has to be on finding her and not making up wild theories about her personal life.
‘Despite what some media outlets and individuals are suggesting, we are being updated daily and receive support from our family liaison officers.’
Concluding their statement, Ms Bulley’s family issued a direct plea for her to return, saying: ‘Your girls want a cuddle.’
The statement read: ‘Nikki is such a wonderful daughter, sister, partner and mother and is missed dearly – we all need you back in our lives.
‘Nikki, we hope you are reading this and know that we love you so much and your girls want a cuddle. We all need you home.
‘You can reach out to us, or you can contact MissingPeople.org.uk. Don’t be scared, we all love you so very much.’
Ms Bulley’s parents, Ernest, 73, and Dot Bulley, 72, left a yellow ribbon tied to the bridge over the River Wyre in St Michael’s on Wyre, where their daughter vanished on January 27.
Among other ribbons left by friends and well-wishers, the message from Ms Bulley’s parents read: ‘We pray every day for you. Love you, Mum + Dad XXX.’
A second ribbon, believed to be from Ms Bulley’s sister, Louise Cunningham, read: ‘Nikki please come home. I love you. Lou XXX’.
More officers seen by the river on Thursday as they search for missing Ms Bulley
Assistant Chief Constable Peter Lawson (left) and Detective Superintendent Rebecca Smith of Lancashire Police updates the media on Wednesday
Two people are arrested for sending local councillors ‘malicious’ messages about Nicola Bulley search
Two people have been arrested on suspicion of sending malicious communications over the disappearance of Nicola Bulley.
Lancashire Police said it received reports over the weekend of messages being sent to Wyre Council members.
A 49-year-old man from Manchester and a 20-year-old woman from Oldham have been arrested on suspicion of malicious communications offences.
A 49-year-old man, of Manchester, and 20-year-old Oldham woman were arrested on Tuesday for messages sent to Wyre Council (pictured) members over the weekend, Lancashire Police have confirmed
The man has been bailed pending further inquiries until May 12 while the woman remains in custody.
On Monday, Wyre Council removed councillors’ contact details from its website due to ‘inappropriate emails and phone calls’ about Ms Bulley’s disappearance.
It said it had temporarily removed contact details for ‘parish and town council members’ after Lancashire Police confirmed its investigation.
Questions as to why the constabulary had not been ‘forthright from the start’ and suppressed the fact the beloved mother-of-two was vulnerable were raised on Thursday.
In missing person cases it is extremely common for people to be described this way if it is relevant to the case.
Experts and former officers expressed disbelief at Lancashire’s failure to do this and said the omission had fed a three-week mystery that saw the force at one point have to issue a dispersal notice to deter TikTokers and amateur sleuths.
Ex Scotland Yard detective and former head of Lambeth’s missing persons unit Mick Neville, told MailOnline: ‘I don’t think they needed to mention the alcohol and the menopause, but they should have mentioned mental health from the start.
‘At the start they said she was completely ordinary – they’ve told a lie.
‘It is bad management of publicity, there has been this covering up, things they have not disclosed, that has caused all this.
‘The police have created an unnecessary circus by not being forthright from the start.
‘I would have said she was vulnerable at the beginning, with a mental health background from the start.’
‘In my experience the police don’t know how to handle media and they have got very insular.
‘You can only imagine that in this case they have decided to treat her and portray her as a kind of ‘everymum’.’
Former undercover Met detective Peter Bleksley – who is also known for his appearances on Hunted – also lambasted Lancashire Police.
He said: ‘The naivety on behalf of the police has been absolutely staggering. They’ve tried to manage the situation and they’ve got it wrong at virtually at each and every turn.
‘If the public can’t trust what the police are telling us, and they have no trust in their media strategy, it’s quite natural for some people to perhaps not trust their investigation.’
Mark Williams-Thomas at the bench where Nicola Bulley was last seen three weeks ago
Lancashire Police said that Nicola was immediately graded as ‘high-risk’ due to ‘specific vulnerabilities’
Since Ms Bulley vanished, huge public and media interest has resulted in what police described as ‘false information, accusations and rumours’ and an ‘unprecedented’ search of both the River Wyre, downstream to Morecambe Bay and miles of neighbouring farmland
In a scathing attack, Mark Williams-Thomas said Lancashire Police’s media strategy is ‘totally wrong’ in the probe into the mortgage adviser’s disappearance while out walking her dog three weeks ago.
Mr Williams-Thomas, who exposed the crimes of Jimmy Savile and investigated the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, criticised their decision to initially withhold details of the missing mother’s vulnerable state which seriously hampered the search.
He claimed the force then left her family in turmoil by revealing information about her ‘alcohol issues’ after interest in the case had been allowed to mushroom.
Speaking on the riverbank in St Michaels on Wyre, close to where Ms Bulley, 45, was last seen on January 27, Mr Williams-Thomas told MailOnline on Thursday: ‘They [Lancashire Police] got their media strategy totally wrong.
‘The family are now in turmoil. The last 24 hours have been horrific because the police decided yesterday to release that she was a high-risk missing person. Their performance yesterday was shocking.’
The ex-detective went on: ‘Not only in the fact that [they said] she was a high-risk missing person in the press conference and then refused to explain what that was about.
‘How did they think that they could release a piece of information like that and journalists and investigators weren’t going to say, what are you talking about?’
Mr Williams-Thomas, a former Surrey Police detective, said Lancashire Police only revealed details of Nicola’s vulnerability after he told them he had information about police having being called to her home just weeks before she went missing.
He said: ‘They have acknowledged they’ve made major failings. And I know that because I’ve spoken to them in the police press department and they acknowledge that.’
‘When I spoke to the police early yesterday before lunch and I said to them: “Listen, I have information that something has gone on in the family… there have been emergency services called at the address, what are you going to do about it? Can you please confirm if that’s true or not?”
‘And as a result of that, they then in the early evening released information that there have been issues in Nicola’s life.’
He went on: ‘What they should have done is done it on day one – get rid of all the speculation, dealt with it, and have had a very clear strategy.
‘Nicola has issues in her life – we all have issues in our lives – but that doesn’t mean she’s any less vulnerable than anyone else in terms of [being abducted by] third parties.’
Paul Ansell (right), the distraught partner of missing dog walker Nicola Bulley (left), is growing ‘frustrated’ with police over their stalling investigation, it was revealed on Tuesday
Ms Bulley’s long-term partner Paul Ansell sat down for a TV interview with Channel 5’s Dan Walker
Police officers near the River Wyre in St Michael’s on Wyre, Lancashire, as police continue their search on Thursday
Peter Faulding (centre, pictured searching for Nicola on February 8) said it is ‘absolutely outrageous’ the information was withheld from him, as it would have changed how he searched the stretch of the River Wyre in the village of St Michael’s
Former detective Martyn Underhill told Sky News that he had never ‘seen such a level of detail’ released in a missing persons case.
Speaking to Kay Burley, Mr Underhill said ‘You can understand why some people are saying it’s victim blaming to protect their own reputation.
‘I can’t see how it progresses the case any further forward now we’re three weeks in, to be frank.’
A forensic diving expert involved in the search for Ms Bulley said she ‘could have ended up in the sea’ after police revealed she was ‘high risk’ and had been struggling with alcohol.
Peter Faulding said it is ‘absolutely outrageous’ the information was withheld from him, as it would have changed how he searched the stretch of the River Wyre in the village of St Michael’s.
Mr Faulding previously said the mother could not be in the river, after conducting a search under the premise she had slipped in.
But he now believes she could be much further downstream if she intended to take her own life.
Mr Faulding told Jeremy Kyle on TalkTV that: ‘If she had jumped in, intended to take her own life or walk off, that would change my whole plan.
‘She could have ended up in the sea.’
And he told The Times: ‘I find it absolutely outrageous this was not shared with me. It’s disgraceful and someone needs to take responsibility for this.’
Nicola Bulley, 45, from Inskip, Lancashire, was last seen on the morning of Friday January 27, when she was spotted walking her dog on a footpath by the River Wyre off Garstang Road in St Michael’s on Wrye
Police drone searchs the Wyre river bank at Wardley Yacht Marina on Thursday
Police officers search the Wyre river bank at Wardley Yacht Marina on Thursday
An aerial view of Blackpool Lane in St Michaels on Wyre, which was not covered by CCTV on the day that Nicola Bulley went missing, on February 15
The mortgage adviser had been struggling with menopause. Experts say women go through the menopause at the age of 51 years on average, although it can begin when someone is anywhere between 40 and 58 years old.
During this period the body goes through major hormonal changes, as the ovaries stop making estrogen and progesterone.
In the early stages this triggers hot flushes, night sweats and mood swings among other symptoms.
Reacting to the police announcement, Stella Creasy, Labour MP for Walthamstow, said: ‘The decision to disclose this level of detail on a missing person’s private life, with no evidence that this is assisting in finding her, is deeply troubling.
‘The police need to be much clearer as to why any of this helps find Nicola Bulley or support this investigation.’
Silkie Carlo, of civil liberties group Big Brother Watch, said the decision to broadcast Ms Bulley’s health issues and hormone status was ‘serious invasion of her privacy with no obvious benefits for the investigation’.
Zoe Billingham, the former Inspector of HM Constabulary criticised Lancashire Police for releasing health details about Ms Bulley.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme on Thursday, Ms Billingham responded: ‘I have to say, it stopped me in my tracks.’
‘Why on earth was this information even vaguely relevant to an investigation that’s 20 days on? If there are issues relating to Nicola that needed to be put in the public domain, why wasn’t this done earlier? And why was such personal information, such potentially sensitive information, disclosed?’
‘I’m very conscious that I’m adding to the speculation and that armchair detective melee that the force has had to deal with. But I think we need to think about what message this sends to women. What confidence will women have in the future in reporting their mum, their sister to the police as missing if there’s this fear that very deeply personal information is going to be put into the public domain for no apparent reason?’
Weeks after the mystery disappearance, police continue to focus almost exclusively on the theory that Ms Bulley fell into the river at St Michael’s on Wyre
RNLI boat our on the river Wyre Estuary at Knott End on Thursday as part of the Nicola Bulley missing person search, now in its third week
Police officers walk along a footpath in St Michael’s on Wyre, Lancashire, on Sunday as they continue their search for missing woman Nicola Bulley
Pictured: The bench where Nicola Bulley’s phone was found, on the banks of the River Wyre in St Michael’s on Wyre
‘No evidence to indicate a criminal aspect or third party involvement’ in Nicola Bulley’s disappearance, Lancashire Police Assistant Chief Constable Peter Lawson said to a press conference on Wednesday morning
Ms Billingham said she was particularly shocked by the police’s decision to reveal that Ms Bulley had problems linked to the menopause.
She said: ‘For some many women who have been menopausal … you do look in complete bewilderment don’t you at a statement that seems to suggest that that’s a reason for potentially what may have occurred.’
‘Could you imagine a situation if a man went missing that details relating to their reproductive status was put into the public domain? It’s inconceivable isn’t it, it wouldn’t happen.’
‘I think when the concern around PR and image gets in the way of a police investigation, we as members of the public need to be concerned.’
Many social media users felt the decision highlighted the police’s treatment of women – which has recently been under scrutiny following high-profile cases involving former officers such as Wayne Couzens and David Carrick.
Jamie Klingler, co-founder of social justice organisation Reclaim These Streets, said she ‘was not invested in the Nicola Bulley story until the police started using her as a shield to protect their own incompetence’.
She added: ‘This is not how to treat a missing woman. It is cruel to her babies and to her. And they do it all the time.’
Jo Maugham, director of the Good Law Project, asked how the police will justify their decision if the mother is found alive.
He tweeted: ‘If, as we all hope, Nicola Bulley is found alive how will the police justify a breach of her confidentiality to, what looks like, manage their own reputation?’
Alicia Kearns, Conservative MP for Rutland, tweeted: ‘I am deeply uncomfortable with the police releasing Nicola Bulley’s so-called ‘vulnerabilities’ on menopause & alcohol.
‘I struggle to ascertain how this will assist Police in their search & investigations.
‘I do see how it would assist those wishing to victim-blame or diminish.’
Nearly three weeks have passed since Ms Bulley vanished, but a search expert advising the police told the newspaper that it can take up to 100 days to find a body in a river.
The expert, who was not named, said in some cases the body is never found.
On the day Ms Bulley went missing, the river was flowing at a rate of 3.8 cubic metres per second – enough to carry her over the weir and off downstream, according to the expert.
Detective Superintendent Rebecca Smith of Lancashire Police gives a press conference at Lancashire Police HQ on February 15
Charlotte Drake, a next-door neighbour and friend of Ms Bulley, ties a ribbon with a message of hope written on it, to a bridge over the River Wyre in St Michael’s on Wyre on Tuesday
A yellow ribbon, with a message from Nicola Bulley’s parents written on it, is tied to a bridge over the River Wyre in St Michael’s on Wyre on Thursday
In the highly-detailed public briefing from Lancashire Police, the force said it had an open mind but that there was no evidence anyone was involved.
It remains the the police’s ‘working hypothesis’ that Nicola fell into the river while taking her dog, though they were following a number of lines of inquiry.
Detective Superintendent Rebecca Smith said: ‘As soon as she was reported missing, following the information that was provided to the police by her partner Paul, and based on a number of specific vulnerabilities that we were made aware of, Nicola was graded as high-risk.
‘That is normal in a missing person investigation with the information we were in possession of. As any senior investigating officer does, you form a number of hypotheses – that is scenarios which are possible from the information to hand.’
On Wednesday, Lancashire Police’s Assistant Chief Constable Peter Lawson said the force had undertaken an ‘unprecedented amount of work’ in searching for Nicola.
He said this had included visiting more than 300 premises, speaking to almost 300 people and receiving roughly 1,500 pieces of information.
Senior investigating officer Detective Superintendent Rebecca Smith said at the time: ‘Those vulnerabilities based our decision-making in terms of grading Nicola as high risk and have continued to form part of my investigation throughout.’
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk