'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

@Mirabai unless the local community are in danger, they have absolutely no responsibility to the local community. Like I said they will work with the family where humanly possible. In this case they knew what had happened, releasing information against the families wishes would not have helped them find the body. The Claudia Lawrence case is not comparable.

Of course they have responsibility to the local community. Women in the area needed to know if they were in danger or not -that’s what the police are for - women have chosen not to go out alone since NB disappeared.

Of course the police will work with the family, but they didn’t actually know what happened and still don’t - nobody does. The CL case is directly comparable as is any case of a missing woman.

Yes, but what is known is that she had depression, as well as a significant history of alcoholism including a recent relapse over a few months, and a police encounter a week ago. This person fits the profile for suicide risk.

The family painted such a happy shiny perfect picture of her it's clear they didn't want to think of her as vulnerable in any sense.

I think the family may have been in denial, and police do respect family's wishes (unsure what you want - you want the police to have ignored their wishes at the start, but at the same time you condemn the police for ignoring their wishes midway through? Wow).

In this case she may not have taken her own life, and it may not be an alcohol-fuelled accident (though likely police will just say "accident"), but the suicide risk was still relevant to the investigation.

Kettrick I'm honestly intrigued as to why people think the information "tarnished her".

Putting aside the argument of whether the statement and information should or shouldn't have been released.

The information shouldn't have changed anyone's personal views of this mum, a missing woman. Ill or not she was a missing human person. Her personal struggles should not have been a slight on her or who she was. If anything they should have garnered sympathy for her not tarnished her.

I'd be interested to know why people think it did.

Never has it been stated NB had depression. It has been said she had issues with the menopause and alcohol. Just because someone has an alcohol problem doesn’t mean they’re suicidal.

Police very often release info about missing persons and crime victims that families would not be comfortable with - they just have to suck it up.

Because trolls & ghouls are not sympathetic people, & some sections of public opinion are often more concerned with tearing people (esp. women) down than in understanding their lives. You only need glimpse the sidebar of the Daily Fail to know that.

Bread & fucking circuses.

If anything positive comes out of this it’s the awareness on the menopause on women mental health.

And where did you get all this information from, nobody has said the poor woman had depression and unless you've actually met the unfortunate lady don't bloody speculate. Her family will be in hell today but ghouls and vultures must get their oars in at a family's expense

Thanks.

I haven't seen anything where people have used that information against her.

That's just abhorrent.

She was a person. A mum, partner, daughter and friend.

They were adamant from the word go that there was no third party involvement though, which, if there was any remaining faith in the police, should have been the reassurance the public needed.

Your language is unfortunate.

Sorry, I misread, and I'm aware putting out misinformation about the case at this stage is very bad. Just alcoholism, and other menopause-related issues.

I must have inferred it from the welfare check which required both police and health/medical professionals, shortly before her disappearance. I think it would be accurate to say "high risk to life" in general rather than suicide risk.

The police likely respected the family's wishes to portray Nicola as a happy shiny person in the first instance. Later on, during the police's 2nd statement, the focus on menopause may have been family-led as the family's own statement went into great detail about her HRT (and made zero mention of alcoholism, previous welfare check, etc).

I mention this not to have a dig at the family but in response to posters who are still criticising the police at this stage. After all, since the topic is wellbeing and mental health – I think being publicly hung up to dry when you're simply respecting the family's wishes can take a massive toll.

I imagine the family didn’t want public to know the details as I don’t think it would have received anywhere the media atttention that it did.

And yet here you are. Doing just that.

It’s odd, to me, that people are insisting the police always say early doors if someone is vulnerable.

We wouldn’t know if they don’t tell us, unless like in this case someone else threatens to.

If you're a regular reader of MP reports it's a common thing.

They aren't normally that interested in people who might have just taken themselves off somewhere for reasons known only to them. They are interested where someone might be going to come to harm if they aren't found

They also normally tell you if someone is prone to going walkabout

If someone has alcohol misuse issues they are vulnerable to having a medical episode such as alcohol induced seizures or falls that can result in significant injuries. If they go missing near a body of water, somewhere isolated or at a height such as a cliff or tower that risk increases.

Releasing that information early and clearly and grading the person as high risk would help the police with their investigation as it might jog people's memories and maybe help find the missing person more quickly. That information was not released for whatever reason. I think that the muddying of this case with key bits of info missing, people becoming involved who shouldn't have been and people being really married to their own hypotheses has really let this lady down. She is a real person with a real life and real daughters, not a case, not a story, not a game, not an ego stroking opportunity to 'solve' and she was let down. If this was my missing episode that resulted in my death I'd have been so angry at how it was allowed to be sensationalised and get so out of hand.

Op, unless you're on the inside doing the job of the police in this particular investigation and know everything about it, are experienced with dealing with missing people and have been present, engaged with and made informed choices about strategies around it there is no way of knowing or saying that police shouldn't have divulged certain facts. It's just ignorant and meaningless to read the news and assume it's all fact, not sensationalised at all and impartial. The media these days relies solely on creating content that will drive conversation and stir up emotion from the readers. A missing woman in today's political climate is a big talking point as I criticising the police and as such the articles people read and devour as gospel could be completely off but it does the job. The media is not as concerned about finding a missing person as the public are, but time and time again the public play into their hands and in the end the loss of someone's loved one becomes a big game for Internet detectives when it should be something only spoken about in the most sensitive and empathetic of approaches. I pray for her family, her girls will see these conversations and every other comment one day.

The only thing that saddens me is that like so many women she was needlessly struggling with the menopause. Who do we blame? A mil informed GP? The pharmacist who might have been unable to prescribe the correct meds given the national shortage. The NHS which is on its knees after years of under funding. The press who talked up the story and emphasised the alcohol use.

The police were correct she was in the river there are many reasons why she wasn't found.

She is someones mother partner sister daughter friend.
It is heart breakingly sad.

Same. What an absolute media tart.

I read that someone close to the family was going to go to the newspapers with the story, so the family asked the police to issue a statement first?

Well they consented to police releasing details due to the threat of people selling stories.

Mark Williams Thomas commented:

“It shows a naivety from the press office. I spoke to the press office and there was some understanding and some acknowledgement that they got things wrong and they were trying to put things right three weeks down the road with their media strategy.” <>

It’ll be a big learning curve for [Lancashire Police], and other police forces, to understand there are two aspects to a missing person investigation nowadays – and that is the way that it’s conducted behind the scenes, and the way that it’s conducted in front of the scenes.”

I haven't picked a fight with anyone Plonker, & I'm not going to get goaded into one by you. Goodnight.

Such a very very sad case. To people who say it can't be suicide as she was making forward plans, I've had to deal with the aftermath of a suicide and that person was busy booking holidays for months ahead the week before and diarising work assignments. Sometimes these things can it seems be spur of the moment in a disturbed mind. Whether it was suicide or a tragic accident- it's incredibly awful for the family and trolls and ghouls or media digging up stuff is incredibly disrespectful and they all need to be left alone but with professional support if needed. If the police were sure from the start of the scenario- it may be that they were privy to information that isn't public and we have to let them get on with their job- not allow every self serving publicity minded media tart to come along and 'help' -

And that person is the one that should feel shame.

The family and the police should have been allowed to do things the way they felt fit.

Not someone on the edges of things fancying their five minutes of fame.