THE revelation of missing person Nicola Bulley’s mental health issues by Lancashire Police has angered investigator Mark Williams-Thomas.   

A former police officer, and group investigations editor for Newsquest, Mark Williams-Thomas (True Crime – Newsquest and The Investigator Netflix) has been deeply involved in the investigation and shared his thoughts on the Salisbury Journal Podcast. 

Salisbury Journal: Mark Williams-Thomas.

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Mark said: “This is a very sad case. We still don’t know where she is and over the last 48 hours really, it has moved into a different dimension. There are two aspects to this case – the information and what is played out behind the scenes in the investigation and what is played out in front of the scenes with the media and media strategy.

“We are in a different world now with social media. It opens up completely different aspects and I don’t think Lancashire Police really understood how big the story is or have known how to deal with critical and major crimes or how national media works.”

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But should Lancashire Police have revealed such in-depth details about Nicola Bulley’s mental health issues?

Mark said: “They didn’t need to go into details but could have said she had been suffering from mental health issues and that would have shut everyone up but they didn’t.

“I know our team watched it and straight away, I said we have got to ask what that vulnerability was. Terrible naivety both from the press and from senior investigating officers. To think you could put such a serious thing out into the public domain and not be asked questions.

“Then they had to fight fire really because suddenly had to get to a position where they had to communicate with the family, get them on board when there should have been a very clear strategy right from the very beginning.

“In the end, they released information, which was very personal and didn’t need to be released or it could have been released in a very different way, and it would have worked if they had done it right at the very beginning.”

For more on this from Mark Williams-Thomas and the investigation into Nicola Bulley, go to the Salisbury Journal On Point Podcast.