Nicola Bulley’s friend says police have painted her in ‘unfair light to shift focus off them’

Nicola Bulley’s friend has said police have painted the missing mum-of-two in an unfair light.

Her friend believes police shared private details of her struggles with alcohol connected to menopause as a way ‘to shift the focus away from the lack of progress in the case’. The 45-year-old mortgage advisor was last seen three weeks ago, on January 27th while walking her springer spaniel Willow in the village of St Michael’s on the Wyre in Lancashire.

On Wednesday February 15th, Lancashire Police held a press conference to clear up some of the speculation that had been circulating around the events that lead to Ms Bulley being reported missing and accusations about the force being ‘incompetent’. 

In the meeting, they mentioned that Ms Bulley was immediately considered a ‘high risk’ missing person, with ‘specific vulnerabilities’ given the information that was provided to them by her partner, Paul Ansell. Detective Superintendent Rebecca Smith and Assistant Chief Constable Peter Lawson refused to elaborate when asked by members of the press what the details of Ms Bulley’s ‘vulnerabilities’ may be.

They said that it was the ‘personal’ and ‘private’ information of Ms Bulley and her family. However, a short while after the conference had ended, Lancashire Police released a statement revealing that Ms Bulley had suffered with ‘significant alcohol issues’ in the past and that they had ‘resurfaced in recent months’ due to her suffering with the menopause.

A friend of the family, who has asked to remain anonymous, told the Mirror of their anger and said this doesn’t help the investigation, adding: “I feel angry for Nikki. She’s a beautiful, kind, loving person. One of the best kind of friends you could wish for. This has painted her in an unfair light. I think the police have done this to shift the focus onto this rather than on them and their lack of progress.”

The friend also criticised Lancashire Police’s working hypothesis that Nicola fell into the river, saying: “I think they want people to buy into their theory that she went into the river. I do fear that the focus will be on this now rather than trying to find Nikki.

“We really need to focus on finding out what has happened and where she has gone. Focus needs to be given to the areas not covered by CCTV and following up on those dash cams. I think the Tik Tokers are taking the police away from what they need to be doing and wasting valuable resources.

“However, I doubt it would have made much difference to the information that has been released. The police have released this information to shift the focus off them. This would still be the case without them. Whatever is written will be out there in the public domain. Her daughters will read all of this one day.”

Following the private information revealed by the police, Ms Bulley’s family released a statement directly appealing to the mum to ‘come home’ as her ‘girls want a cuddle’. In it they said: “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.

“Due to the peri menopause Nikki suffered with significant side effects such as brain fog, restless sleep and was taking HRT to help but this was giving her intense headaches which caused Nikki to stop taking the HRT thinking that may have helped her but only ended up causing this crisis.

“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.”