'You can't hide': Nicola Bulley's partner shares vile messages sent to him by amateur 'sleuths' after disappearance

By Flaminia Luck

The partner of Nicola Bulley has shared some of the messages sent to him by strangers following her disappearance.

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In a new documentary, Paul Ansell said the family believed the first wave of interest in the case was a positive thing and hoped it would keep the pressure on Lancashire Police to keep searching for her.

However, his hopes changed following a wave of amateur social media "sleuths" with the family receiving toxic online abuse and a barrage of accusatory messages.

Some of these texts included messages such as: "We know what you did" and "You can't hide Paul" and "You b******".

The mum-of-two vanished in January 2023 while walking her dog in St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire, shortly after dropping her daughters at school.

Her body was found in a river less than a month later. An inquest found the 45-year-old accidentally drowned.

'Literally silenced'

Despite the inquest ruling, Mr Ansell said he recieved messages from strangers but did not feel like he could respond.

"If you reply to that, they'll just screenshot your reply and that'll end up on social media.

"You are literally silenced."

In the documentary, he said "anything like that is a double-edged sword.".

"That's the problem. You're poking a monster."

Back in February 2023, following the discovery of Nicola's body, Mr Ansell said in a message sent to a Sky News journalist: "No words right now, just agony."

The hunt for Bulley was one of the most substantial missing person searches in England for years, involving underwater search teams, drones, mounted police, drones and a police helicopter.

The frenzy of speculation saw 6,500 international articles written about the hunt in the space of one day, and TikTok videos with the hashtag of her name had 270 million views.

Lancashire Police press office logged more than 500 media calls and 75,000 inbound social media comments on the case in about one month.

As the search continued, so-called "amateur detectives" began travelling to Lancashire to investigate for themselves.

As their fascination with the case exploded, police became more concerned they could interfere with the case.

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Caller condemns police for releasing Nicola Bulley's health details

A review into Lancashire Police also found that disclosure of personal information about Ms Bulley's health struggles was "avoidable and unnecessary".

The family said in the documentary they were not happy about her struggles being revealed to the public, with Paul saying Nicola would have been “mortified”

The force came under fire for how it made public details of her medical situation available amid the social media frenzy.

Shelagh Fogarty's monologue on Nicola Bulley

However, later a review found that in policing terms the missing persons investigation was well handled, but that the force had lost control of the public narrative at an early stage.

Senior officers were accused of "insufficient focus" and errors of judgment, with the report questioning the culture of the force.

In the documentary, the police added they were "inundated with false information, accusations and rumours" relating to the case and accused people on TikTok of "playing private detectives" in the area.

The Search For Nicola Bulley airs October 3 on BBC One and iPlayer.