'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

The police released the information when they had no choice becuase it was about to break. Until then the family didn't want her to be identified as vulnerable. They had enough coverage to have put that out themselves if they thought it would be helpful.

Police knew from the start what had happened but for some reason people prefered to believe she must have been taken.

You cannot be serious.

If the police had done what police generally do when someone vulnerable goes missing and flagged that from the start - there would have been no story to sell. That’s on them. It was their complete mishandling of the media comms of the case that meant the narrative got so out of control.

The information being released with awareness from the family is not the same as the family being happy about it, and even then they could have been much more tactful.

It’s her 100%. Now her precious girls can grieve in peace. Whether she fell or jumped we’ll never know but it’s horrific . I fell bloody sorry for the walkers that found the body would give me nightmares.

@Mirabai I’m presuming and I know presuming that the family asked for that information to specifically not be released initially. It’s not the police it’s the partner whose been somewhat of a pita!! I mean in some respects I can’t blame him as the village is seriously curtain twitchery.

Do you think the police just made up all the stuff re the menopause??? I mean how thick do you have to be if so. It came from the partner. And the partner will have requested they release that info also. The police couldn’t really give a f why she’s was getting tanked up (unless it’s f course there were domestic abuse matters which may have led to the drinking) it matters a jot to them whether it’s the menopause or not. The partner’s told them it presumably and again presumably because he thinks this will lessen the stigma of her being an alcoholic or having a problem with alcohol.

The police should have released her state of mind at the time of the appeal, which is pretty standard for missing people reports. Other than that I don't think they've done anything wrong and we don't know if that was at the behest of the family, who were definitely pushing the idea that her bringing herself to harm was unthinkable

Yes but as per my post above they didn’t. Most likely reason being because the family asked them not to because of the stigma. Like I said it’s a bit of curtain twitcher village.

I think this is exactly it. The family didn't want her to be decribed as vulnerable until it became unavoidable. The family had another picture they wanted to paint , understandably. They had enough exposure themselves that they could easily have said she was vulnerable in one of their statements about her, if that's what they wanted.

It's all very sad, but I do think criticism of the police is unfair. Plenty of others need a good look at themselves though.

@BeatrixPottery Your post is so badly expressed and so ludicrous as to not really merit a response.

Agreed.

The family may be right in that she may have fallen in.

The family wanted it released in the end and worked with the police

Yes the police should have an apology I agree

This is incorrect. The police worked on the basis she was in the river. My assumption until I started reading more ws that actually she had fallen in, given how deep it is at that spot.

But for some reason the 'great' british public knew better and decided she was not in the river. Cue huge criticism of the police. Then people starting to make threats to release information about her that was personal to her, so the family then worked with the police to release that information

There was no need to release the information prior to the threat of her personal business being sold to newspapers.

I think this is why was so much emphasis on menopause. The family's own statement, after the police one, was all about menopause rather than MH/alcohol.

You think the police - who should have released general information that she was vulnerable when she first went missing and then later released far TMI to the distress of her family and the anger for women everywhere - should get an apology? They owe a big apology to her family and to the community.

We all know that the police are absolutely not beyond criticism in many cases, but I genuinely don’t think that applies here.

It seems to me they were just ploughing on, doggedly following up in detail what they must have pretty much known had happened. They were trying to protect the family and Nicola’s privacy, by not releasing information which we can see now would have had precisely no bearing on the outcome. For some reason the case gripped the public’s imagination and everything then got out of hand. If this had remained a pretty much anonymous local case with the police allowed to get on with their job, instead of the public interest turning it into a feeding frenzy, the sad and unfortunate outcome would have remained exactly the same, but with the privacy and dignity of all concerned kept intact.

Of course they didn’t want it released. It was simply that the failures of the police investigation laid them open to people selling selling stories and controlled disclosure by police was preferable to lurid and sensational tabloid stories.

What is incorrect?

You have failed to understand that the normal protocol for police dealing with MPs in the media is to flag state of mind from the get go.Then the public know what they’re dealing with and what to look out for.

If they had done so the case would never have spiralled out of control the way it did.

All this has made a lot of money for certain people. A blonde woman vanishing means lots of media engagement and a lot of revenue.

@Mirabai what because I’m right! The police have to work with what the family wants where humanely possible. The family didn’t want to say she was vulnerable as that would would have raised questions as to why. Again none of this is the police it’s the family, the police will have advised and justified but if the family says no then that has to be final.

*humanly

@RemoteControlDoobry yup, missing white woman syndrome.

Thoughts and prayers for Nicola's family and her two young daughters who must have been under immense pressure waiting for news.

This may just have been a tragic accident and people could show some respect and restraint whilst the family are grieving her loss

I think it was the family who asked them not to release that info at the very start. The family painted an extreme perfect shiny picture of her at the start, and someone quoted literally said she would never take her own life.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/nicola-bulley-missing-family-statement-b2285205.html

Apologies, as this is not a topic I want to pick fights with anybody about - but I couldn't disagree more strongly.

The police were not "forced" & did not "need" to reveal ANYTHING.
They should have stuck to the usual form & kept schtum.

At most, they could have chosen to say something neutral & unpenetrable such as "further background is being investigated" ... the public had NO right to know, & the people who involved themselves in speculation (& ghoulish site visits) should have been either ignored or reprimanded, not pandered to with info that is fuck-all to do with them.

Taking criticism, whether founded or not, is part of being a public servant.
The information the police unnecessarily gave out was no help to Nicola herself, or anyone who knew her. All it has done is tarnish her & hurt her family & friends, & encourage ghouls & trolls to keep speculating.

No because it was a. ungrammatical and b. nonsense.

Families don’t have that much control over the management of a police investigation. The police have a responsibility to the local community and to the whole country as well as the family.

The police released information about Claudia Lawrence the family weren’t happy with, but they had to suck it up.

And she may not have taken her own life, she may simply have fallen in.

That may never be known for sure, assuming it is Nicola Bulley.