Lancashire Police have “completely destroyed” Nicola Bulley’s reputation by revealing her struggles with alcohol, a former detective has claimed. Martyn Underhill said he had never “seen such a level of detail” released in a missing persons case and has been left wondering why officers were releasing it now. Mr Underhill, who was a detective involved in the Sarah Payne case, said he was “confused” by Lancashire Police’s strategy.
Speaking to Kay Burley on Sky News, he said: “You can understand why some people are saying it’s victim blaming to protect their own reputation.
“I can’t see how it progresses the case any further forward now we’re three weeks in, to be frank.”
Ms Bulley has been missing since January 27 after vanishing when walking her dog by the River Wyre in Lancashire.
But police have found no trace of the missing mum-of-two and during a press conference on Wednesday, revealed they had classified Ms Bulley as “high risk” owing to “a number of specific vulnerabilities”.
Lancashire Police had initially refused to elaborate on what those vulnerabilities were, but later released a statement to explain this in more detail.
This read: “Nicola had in the past suffered with some significant issues with alcohol which were brought on by her ongoing struggles with the menopause and that these struggles had resurfaced over recent months.”
“This caused some real challenges for Paul and the family,” it added in a reference to Ms Bulley’s partner, Paul Ansell.
Detectives also revealed they had been at Ms Bulley’s house the week before she disappeared to check her welfare – and Mr Underhill said this would have suggested a further line of enquiry.
He told Sky News: “Particularly since they say it was a police car with police and health professionals, the subtext of that is that this was a mental health car.
“Clearly this wasn’t a domestic abuse scenario or a drunken person scenario – it was a mental health incident which Nicola was suffering.”
He added: “That is crucial, really, I’m amazed it hasn’t been released before and, of course, on 3 February in their press conference they actually said there were ‘no significant issues involving Nicola’s health’.
“I can understand in some ways why they didn’t release it then as it would completely destroy her reputation. It’s a big move to take but if you aren’t going to take it at the start of the investigation, why do it now?”
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