'Nicola Bulley's reputation 'destroyed' by police'

[MyrtIe]

Article here

The points made about victim blaming and the police disclosing this information to cover themselves are spot on imo.

The usual gutter press are having a field day with this today.

What exactly was the point of it? What's it achieved, apart from compounding the heartache of her loved ones?

YABU - the police were right to divulge this sensitive information as it was relevant to the investigation

YANBU - there was absolutely no need to do so

I posted something very similar late yesterday evening and took a bit of a backlash about it, but my opinion remains the same, the publication of the information will forever to associated with NB.

It may be relevant to the investigation but it should have remained private. The police comms teams, Lancs or not, should be very capable of imparting information to indicate there are concerns but without giving full details.

To those saying posts on MN and social media have forced the police to provide this information I think are wrong. The world today has many outlets which encourage discussion about any matter 24x7. Prior to 24 hour news channels and social media, letters would have been sent to newspapers to be published, giving their opinion on information reported. Sadly it is what it is, a part of life.

However, police forces should not feel the need to join in - they are professional bodies and if, as I said above, they cannot give a statement without giving out such personal information then they should say nothing. News channels and social media does not drive the narrative, no matter how many people think it does.

I walk my dog in many places where I am unlikely to meet anyone else, but I also walk them in busier places, should I ever go missing for whatever reason, irrespective of whether the information I have suffered whilst peri menopausal is relevant to the hypothetical situation, that information can be given to any professional body assisting in the searches, but under no circumstances should it be divulged to the media and general public.

Finally, having had a look at some of the newspapers and news programs, it does seem as though the general consensus is Lancs police should not have given out the information, hopefully this may curtail NB forever being labelled as a woman with problems.

when the family talk about people online speculating, ugly mumsnet threads like this are what they are talking about. Op starting a thread with a poll - can you not see you are creating a space for the obsessed to gather and cause more pain and disgust?

The Police were not "forced" to do any such thing. It was their choice (and IMO a very bad one), They messed up by choosing to say anything at all, then compounded it by at first issuing a vaguely worded statement that only encouraged speculation and then wrapped it all up with a statement that many will hear as "She's a menopausal drunk who fell into the river". If you have an online bin fire, don't pour petrol on it.

That poster and her minions on their 10, yes 10, threads tried to hand my arse to me when I called them out. As far as I'm concerned each and every one of them are responsible for the release of this information and shame on mnhq for letting them stand.
I do actually think MNHQ should now look at their policies of discussing missing people, let's face it, they've censored others.

This is a thread about the police divulging personal, irrelevant information.

It is not and was never intended as a thread for speculation. I have not speculated on the case and made my thoughts on those who do very clear.

It is not 'ugly' to challenge sexism, or the way in which the police conduct themselves.

"it’s the constant misinformation that’s caused this utter shitstorm."
Yup. The police cocked up right from the off and can't possibly get it back on track.

Oh please, can you not see that it just opens up a space for people to speculate. I won’t engage further. I’ve made my protest.

So, keep quiet about sexism and police conduct just in case some posters attempt to derail a thread?

I hope she is found well, I really do, but when she is found and this proves not to be the case, there will presumably be no way to ascertain whether she had a moment of utter darkness, or whether she fell in accidentally. And I suspect the majority of people will presume the former and she'll never have a chance to correct them. It feels like she had to have an immaculate life from childhood onward for anyone to now presume she didn't choose that path.

What a terrible legacy for her children, to not be ever able to think that mummy fell, and also the massive implications this has for future missing persons, the flippant 'oh they had... issues ' .
I hope this is not going to be the benchmark for missing people in future.

Public authorities always have to wrestle with the ethical conflict between protecting the rights of an individual and public interests and safety.

Sometimes it is clear that an individual could be dangerous to themselves and others and it is necessary to explain why and sometimes that why is because they are suffering MH issues. They could be carrying an infectious disease, remember the early days of covid when we people where publicly tracked.

By yesterday there had been multiple acts of public disorder resulting in arrests. People have been threatened and property targeted. Evidential leads were being “created” and misinformation spread. Public resources are being wasted, people are at risk and any hope of a fair trial (should it be needed) becoming ever more remote.

That is all I know and I don’t think I can condemn the police. I can condemn the mob on here and elsewhere demanding why, distorting information and claiming that is helping.

Middle aged women go through menopause. Many people in the UK have droning problems due to our societal heavy drinking culture.

I’d love to know why people care so much about this case in particular. Around 200,000 people in the U.K. are reported missing every year, many of them never come back.

Utterly deplorable.

Achieved fuck all to boot.

The police should have just kept with what they already said, that they had information to lead them to believe Nicola had gone in the river but were looking at all possibilities. End of story.

They should just have ignored the grief vultures. Let them crack on with their obsessive, sicko stuff. Most people are normal and don’t act like the weirdo who started 10 threads on here and her pals. Those threads and those weird people on them and the weirdos on tiktok etc are being talked about negatively on other sites and IRL. The police should have just carried on with their investigation. It’s worrying they let these weirdos affect their investigation and bizarre they they did.

I hope the police are held to account for giving into these freaks and their speculation as this should never happen again.

The family have just released a statement saying that Nicola stopping her HRT has caused the current ‘crisis’

news.sky.com/story/nicola-bulleys-family-hit-out-at-appalling-speculation-over-disappearance-12812469

Well you obviously know best

keep quiet about sexism

What's sexist?

Fuck knows. Imagine being the topic of this hideous online scrutiny.

I feel desperately sorry for her family, but this is a very flawed statement.

I agree.

Uhm this statement from family appears to say caused Nikki to stop taking the HRT thinking that may have helped her but only ended up causing this crisis

WHAT? Are they actually saying they know what has "caused this crisis?" It appears to be a fairly significant thing this sentence is saying then? Or have I misunderstood their statement?

I find this statement bizarre considering the family were pushing the abduction theory. This appears to support the police’s suppositions.

Next time we hear of a missing person in the news I sincerely hope the police and media afford the same attention to each and every one

"As a family, we were aware that Lancashire Police, last night, released a statement with some personal details.

"Although we know that Nikki would not have wanted this, there are people out there threatening to sell stories about her. This is appalling and needs to stop."

twitter.com/lancspolice/status/1626218917453504512?s=46&t=ov0W9941CqR6im0mp674UQ

So the poor family are trying to fend off friends/acquaintances/ransoms selling stories to the media. I have nothing but sympathy for them.

I assumed the papers had got hold of the information and it was decided it was better to release the information officially.