Nicola Bulley diving expert slams 'unfair' claims in BBC documentary

A specialist diver who played a controversial role in the search for Nicola Bulley today slammed 'unfair' claims in a BBC documentary that he provided 'false hope' to her family. 

Peter Faulding offered his services to the mother of two's relatives after she was reported missing in January 2023 while walking her dog along the River Wyre in Lancashire. 

The forensic search specialist vowed in interviews that he would find the missing mother if she was in the river, but after three days of searching with no results suggested she could not be in the water and a 'third party' must be involved. 

Ms Bulley's body was eventually discovered downstream by a member of the public on February 19 following a three-week search.

Last night Mr Faulding was slammed by police for providing 'contradictory opinions', as Ms Bulley's partner described how the expert's stance led him into conflict with officers. 

In response, he called the documentary 'unfair' and repeated claims to have located her within 'minutes' on February 7. He released sonar images he claimed show her body on the bottom of the river, near the bench where she was last seen. 

Mr Faulding declined to be interviewed for BBC documentary The Search for Nicola Bulley, but said he 'wanted to set the record straight'. 

'The Specialist Group International (SGI) was called upon to assist with the search for Nicola by her partner Paul,' Mr Faulding wrote. 'We did so free of charge as we had the relevant equipment and expertise and simply wanted to help a family in distress, after many days of Nicola not being found. 

'My statement that ''if Nicola was there, I would have found her'' comes from nearly 3 decades of experience. Since 1999, I have pioneered the use of side scan sonar for forensic and underwater search in the UK. I make no apologies for being confident in my and my team's skills. 

'I stand by my previous statement outlining our version of events that I located the body of Nicola Bulley at 10.34 on 7th February within 6 minutes. Unfortunately, it is now time to defend myself and my team's unblemished reputation and stand up for the truth. 

Read More

How the police's panic over online drivel failed tragic Nicola's family writes CHRISTOPHER STEVENS

'We have always carried out our role with honesty and integrity and it was never our intention to cause any conflict with the police or the family. However, we feel that it is in the public's interest to know that my findings have not been thoroughly investigated and at no point has any live side scan sonar data been requested by the police, the Coroner or the College of Policing despite my many attempts to provide it. 

'Without this very important data, no information to support the images would be available and no conclusions would be possible to make.'

Detective Superintendent Rebecca Smith, who led the investigation into the 45-year-old's disappearance, told the BBC that Mr Faulding had been providing 'contradictory opinions' that caused conflict between the police and her family.

The documentary also heard from members of her family who told how they were initially pleased about Mr Faulding's offer to aid the search. 

Ms Bulley's sister, Louise Cunningham, said: 'Peter was so confident, I was on tenterhooks the whole time. Peter was there because he was adamant that if she was there, he would have found her.' 

Her partner, Paul Ansell, said: 'I was focusing more on how he was saying he could prove that she wasn't in the water.

'The first day ended and he hadn't find anything, which was exactly what we had hoped for. The next day, the same again.'

Mr Ansell said he became angry at the police after they continued searching the river after Mr Faulding had concluded his partner's body could not be in the water.  

A November 2023 review into the handling of the search for Ms Bulley concluded Mr Faulding had 'caused unwarranted distress and false alarm' to her family, but he rejected the findings. 

The BBC documentary explores the online frenzy that was sparked by Ms Bulley's disappearance in January 2023. 

Unthinking TikTokers filmed themselves rampaging through police search areas and shared unproven and hurtful theories about Ms Bulley and her loved ones to thousands of viewers that at times threatened to disrupt the official investigation. 

Ms Bulley's family said they agreed to take part - despite knowing it would be difficult - in order to give her 'the legacy she deserves', untainted by the stains of social media speculation.

Read More

As documentary about Nicola Bulley airs on BBC - why did her disappearance spark an online frenzy?

'Collectively, we thought long and hard about taking part in a documentary about Nikki. It wasn't an easy decision,' her loved ones said earlier this year.

'Nikki's face and name quickly became very recognisable, but there is so much to share about Nikki the person.

'Our sole aim is to provide the definitive record on Nikki to ensure she has the legacy that she deserves.

'Many people have aired their views about her disappearance and her untimely and tragic death, only we can speak about her as a mummy, partner, daughter and sister.

'In addition, if our experience of being in the eye of a media storm makes people think twice about how they act and what they say online, then we will have achieved some further good.'

Ms Bulley disappeared on the morning of January 27 after dropping her two daughters, aged six and nine, at school.

She then took the family dog for a walk in St Michael's on Wyre by the River Wyre in Lancashire and was on a work Microsoft Teams call when she vanished, having just texted a friend to arrange a playdate.

Her phone, still connected to the Teams call, and the dog lead were both found at a bench beside the river, as was the dog.

It would be more than three weeks before her body was found a mile downstream from St Michael's on Wyre - the tragedy compounded by a path of devastation wreaked online.

Social media speculators were drawn to the case by the fact an ordinary mother of two had seemingly vanished into thin air for no reason.

Suspicion was immediately cast on her partner Mr Ansell, who was cruelly demonised by wannabe sleuths who appeared to suggest he might have had something to do with her disappearance.

The documentary features contributions from Mr Ansell and other members of Ms Bulley's family who hope to put to bed once and for all the 'monstrous' online mob who made the case into lurid, frenzied content to digest on social media.

Mr Ansell, speaking for the first time since Nicola's body was found on February 19 2023, told the BBC last week that he had initially mistaken the extreme interest in the case from strangers as a positive phenomenon that could lead to answers.

But within days it had become clear that the disappearance was being mined by amateur detectives to fuel their social media presences.

Read More

Nicola Bulley's partner agreed to take part in new tell-all BBC documentary so he could tackle 'entitled' social media sleuths, director reveals

Mr Ansell says in the documentary: 'Social media... Nikki used it more than I did. It wasn't a huge part of our lives but when you experience something like this you realise what a huge monster it can be, I guess.

'I was getting direct messages from people that I've never met. They don't know me, they don't know us, they don't know Nikki, they know nothing about us.

'Just messages like "you b******", "we know what you did", "you can't hide Paul", that kind of stuff. You can't do anything about it... You're poking a monster.'

Louise Cunningham, Ms Bulley's sister, tearfully adds: 'As far as Nikki going missing and the "mystery" to it: it was just an accident. It doesn't always have to be something sinister.

'Sometimes bad things just happen. I just wish it hadn't happened to us.'

Rachel Lob-Levyt, the director behind the documentary, said it was 'nerve-racking' to put the partner of the Lancashire mother back into public focus, but she felt it was 'the right thing to do'.

She added: 'The social media sleuths felt entitled to say whatever they wanted.

'In the past we'd have talked about these things in the pub, whereas now people broadcast it online and everything is accelerated. Opinion takes on similar weight to verified information.'

Friends of the couple had begged social media sleuths to leave them alone - but as salacious gossip was spread online it began to have a real-world impact.

The videos were numerous, and twisted: from TikTokers who filmed themselves searching a house near the River Wyre that had been wrongly described as 'abandoned' to those who shared theories about who they thought was responsible for Nicola's vanishing.

Some users claiming to be clairvoyants even filmed themselves saying they could 'see' where she had gone.

It had a real-world impact on the investigation: Lancashire Constabulary, which led the investigation, received 75,000 social media comments over the course of a month, overwhelming the force as it tried to pick out useful information.

An independent College of Policing review of the investigation into her disappearance found the relationship between police and the media 'to be fractured', and urged for it to be rebuilt.

Read More

Nicola Bulley's grieving parents reveal heartbreaking daily ritual on BBC documentary into her death

It also criticised the disclosure of personal information about Ms Bulley's health struggles as 'avoidable and unnecessary'.

The ghoulish behavior of social media detectives continued even after detectives found Ms Bulley's body in the water a short distance from where she was last seen.

Wannabe sleuth Curtis Arnold duped police into letting him walk down the road where Nicola's body was being retrieved from the River Wyre so he could film it and post the sick footage online.

In the end his eight-minute video was viewed 59,000 times – earning Arnold almost £1,000 in royalties –before he was forced to delete it.

'My ambition is to be a full-time YouTuber and make a good living from it,' he recently told the Mail.

He was arrested, but never charged, and now makes videos under the name Daniel J Edwards, professing to be a 'citizen journalist' who spends his time filming confrontations with members of the public and security staff at migrant hotels.

A coroner's inquest ultimately ruled that Ms Bulley died after accidentally falling into the river. The cause of death was given as drowning.

Hopes that the documentary will put the case to bed might be premature.

If anything, it may only feed the endless true crime content machine that dined out on the case, and others like it, in the first place.

The disappearance of Jay Slater on Tenerife during the summer only served to fuel conspiracy theories about where he went, devastating his grief-stricken parents as they waited for answers.

Similarly, his disappearance had a tragic outcome as it emerged he had fallen down a steep ravine as he tried to navigate his way home after a night out.

It won't be long until the true crime brigade find another case to disseminate - if they even need a fresh one to start with.

The #nicolabulley hashtag on TikTok has more than 500million views - almost doubled from the peak of the investigation.

One TikToker discussing the Nicola Bulley programme said in a video last week: 'I don't necessarily think her family had anything to do with what happened, but I do think there are so many unanswered questions left in that case.'