Important to review Nicola Bulley case, says PCC

A police boss said it was important to review a force's handling of the Nicola Bulley case to understand how the narrative got so "out of control".

The disappearance of the mother-of-two sparked a major search operation but it also attracted dozens of amateur social media sleuths to travel to the area.

Lancashire's Police and Crime Commissioner Andrew Snowden has ordered a review of the police investigation.

He said he hoped "lessons can be learned" from the "tragic case".

Ms Bulley, 45, disappeared while walking her dog by the river in St Michael's on Wyre after dropping off her daughters, aged six and nine, at school.

A major search operation got under way but it was 23 days before her body was found in the river one mile away from where she was last seen.

"We are bringing in the College of Policing to look at [the case] and provide that assurance for the public about how, on a case where the police theory around what had happened had been proven to be correct all the way along, did the narrative go so national and international and get out of control?

"How did the police lose control of that narrative around what was actually happening on the ground?"

"It was lost that we were searching for a missing mother, missing partner, missing sister," Mr Snowden told BBC Radio Lancashire.

"That got lost in the narrative in what became almost like a social media pile-on in parts around who could be the next best detective to come up with all these different increasing theories.

"A lot of them had absolutely no base in any reason or fact."

The investigation into Ms Bulley's disappearance attracted widespread speculation as well as criticism of the police response.

Lancashire Police came under fire after revealing Ms Bulley's struggles with alcohol and perimenopause three weeks after she vanished.

But Mr Snowden said the vast majority of people that he had spoken to "think the police did a good job against all the difficult circumstances".

"I don't feel that this has brought a collapse in confidence of policing," he said.

"At the end of the day, the police were right all the way along.

"It was the narrative that was lost not the actual police investigation."

The review by the College of Policing will focus on the investigation and search, communication and public engagement, and the releasing of personal information.

"It's important that we do a review and learn lessons not just for Lancashire but for national policing as well," he said.

"How do the police maintain control of the narrative when everybody wants to fill air time and column inches in particularly what became a sensationalised story?"

A separate investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct is also under way into a police visit to Ms Bulley's home weeks before her disappearance.

Why not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to [email protected]