on our patch PA IMAGES / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO


Frenzy by the river


After Nicola Bulley vanished, a social media circus hit relationships with local people – and police stonewalled. Ruth Addicott reports


W


hen mother of two Nicola Bulley disappeared on January 27 2023 while walking her dog along the River Wyre in Lancashire, no one could have envisaged the scenes that ensued. The story of the missing mother, who


vanished without a trace after dropping her daughters off at school, prompted a social media response never seen before. The incident first appeared as a missing person plea on the Lancashire Post and Blackpool Gazette websites. Within 24 hours, Lancashire Constabulary had launched a major operation with drones, helicopters, search dogs and mountain rescue and underwater search teams. When Bulley’s mobile phone was found at a bench – still connected to a conference call, along with her dog, the mystery deepened. The village of St Michael’s on Wyre was inundated with not


only journalists but also an army of amateur sleuths, including TikTokers, bloggers and influencers. With police keeping ‘an open mind’ and no background


briefings, questions began to mount. The Sun led on a ‘stained’ blue glove and ‘shabby red van’. The Mail turned to ‘expert


Investigators vs influencers


Ethics One TikToker filmed Bulley’s body being recovered from the river. The video was viewed nearly one million times. He was arrested, but not charged.


22 | theJournalist As Rebecca Camber, crime


and security editor of the Daily Mail, told the Police Superintendents’ Association in September 2023: “How long before one of those conspiracy theorists knocks


on the door of the deceased’s family or attempts to meddle with a crime scene?”


Reporting Hollie Bone, north west reporter for the Mirror, says:


diver’ Peter Faulding. Paul Ansell, Bulley’s partner, was targeted (despite being ruled out by police) – as were journalists. By week three, police were getting calls from landowners saying people were walking up their drives with spades. Nicola Adam, who was editor of the Lancashire Post and


Blackpool Gazette, says: “It went from a small community united in pulling out the stops to find a loved one to one wildly resentful of intrusion, questions and cameras. “We were hounded night and day for a hot take and subjected to some particularly unpleasant hate across social media and in person, but also directly in our inbox which particularly affected younger members of the team.” Adam says the mantra was ‘facts without speculation’. “Not


every editor would agree and I’m fine with it,” she says. Former Sky News correspondent Inzamam Rashid also


received abuse. “I was targeted for my reporting and, in some instances, accused of being the person who pushed Nicola into the river. I’ve never experienced covering a story as crazy as this. Not because of the story, but all the noise around it. I remember parents bringing their kids down to the river and the bench where Nicola went missing as if it was some sort of tourist attraction. At times, it felt like Blackpool seafront.” Rashid says there was ‘a hunger’ from newsrooms for


updates and new lines, with the smallest bit of news making headlines: “There was a real pressure for the journalists on the ground. That pressure was sometimes hard to deal with


“You’ve got to really question what you read on social media with an even stronger degree of scrutiny, particularly with the rise of influencers and armchair sleuths. Online journalists get excited by things trending and it’s not always genuine. “At the start, the family


wanted as much media coverage as possible and, by the end, they didn’t want to speak to anybody. “If we’d had an opportunity


to understand the evolving message the family wanted to put out, the relationship might not have broken down in such a tragic way.”


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28