Nicola Bulley: Police searching for missing dog walker appeal for ‘key’ witness

Published

2 years ago

February 4, 2023

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Police searching for Nicola Bulley have appealed for a “key” witness who they believe was in the area on the morning of the mother-of-two’s disappearance.

The witness is a woman seen pushing a pram on the morning of Friday 27 January, when Ms Bulley went missing.

Officers believe Ms Bulley fell into the River Wyre while she was walking her dog.

However her family and friends have claimed there is “no evidence whatsoever” behind the police’s theory.

The woman was seen walking along Garstang Road / Blackpool Lane in the village of St Michael’s on Wyre, from the direction of Allotment Lane towards the Grapes pub, at around 8.22am.

She is again seen walking on Allotment Lane towards Garstang Road just under 20 minutes later at 8.41am.

A spokesperson for Lancashire Police, which is conducting the search, said: “It is believed that the female in question may have walked along the river path during these times and so detectives want to speak to her and urge her to get in touch.”

Anyone who was driving or cycling down Blackpool Lane / Garstang Lane on 27 January between 9am and 10am and has dashcam footage is also asked to contact police.

The force spokesperson added that it was crucial to gather as much footage as possible from the area on that morning to “review every piece meticulously” and establish whether Nicola can be seen.

“We know from the footage we are currently reviewing, that this is a busy road, particularly at that time in the morning,” they added.

“There will be many people who were in that area at the time who may not think they can help, however we would urge you not to make that decision yourself and to come forward so we can have as much material as possible to assist the investigation.”

Crucial 10-minute window

Ms Bulley, 45, was last seen walking her dog on a footpath by the River Wyre in St Michael’s on Friday morning.

Police are focusing their investigation on a crucial 10-minute window when the mortgage advisor’s movements are unaccounted for between 9.10am and 9.20am.

A timeline pieced together by the force found she logged into a work conference call on Microsoft Teams at 9.01am.

Nine minutes later a witness who knows Ms Bulley said they saw her on the upper field walking her dog, Willow, which was off her lead.

This is the last confirmed sighting of her.

At 9.20am, police believe her phone was left on a bench by the river.

At 9.30am, the work conference call ended but she stayed connected – before her phone was found three minutes later on the bench by another dog walker.

We will ‘never lose hope’

Ms Bulley’s partner, Paul Ansell, vowed to “never lose hope” on Friday, a week after she “vanished into thin air”.

He said he was focused on supporting their daughters, aged six and nine, but added: “I don’t know how I am coping.

“I don’t want to think about that.”

Friends and family told Sky News correspondent Katerina Vittozzi it was “too soon for condolences”, and say they are not ready to accept the police’s theory that Ms Bulley fell into the river.

They have now set up a community search hub at the village tennis club where people are invited to take a map of the local area and try and help.

‘It’s too soon for condolences’ say Nicola Bulley’s friends and family

This is a small Lancashire town in a desperate search, where no one wants to give up looking.

Nicola Bulley’s friends say it’s too soon for condolences, that the police’s theory, that Nicola fell into the river, is not one they can, as yet, accept.

Ms Bulley’s friend, Heather Gibbons, told Sky News: “As far as we are aware, there is no evidence that she is in that water.”

She praised the police for the “incredible” amount of resources devoted to the river, but added: “This is not adding up and it’s not adding up on a huge, huge scale, which makes you think, ‘well then, there has to still be hope’, because we’re missing something, something is not making sense.”

Now Ms Bulley’s friends and family have established a community search hub in the village tennis club, where people can come, take a map of the local area and try and help.

Lal Kilpatrick, a search volunteer who has known the missing mother-of-two for 20 years, said she wanted to help during what she described as a “distressing time for the family”.

Meanwhile strangers are also offering their support, including Lee Ward, who has never met Ms Bulley or her family but felt compelled to help.

“I saw it on the news, it eats you up inside thinking what they are going through,” Mr Ward told Sky News.

For Nicola Bulley’s friends and family, there are still far more questions than answers right now.

The police investigation has been extensive, it has covered 15km of rivers all the way down to the sea but it’s still here, the fields where Nicola was last seen, and where her phone and dog were found, that continues to draw people, all with the same question – what happened that morning?

Specialists and divers from HM Coastguard, mountain rescue and Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service have been deployed to assist the search, in addition to sniffer dogs, drones and police helicopters.

A team of detectives have been working to analyse telephone communication, house to house enquiries, CCTV, dashcam footage and other digital enquiries, Lancashire Police said.

‘It’s a very, very odd one’

Forensics search and rescue expert Peter Faulding told Sky News he has been left “mystified” by the “strange” circumstances of Ms Bulley’s disappearance.

Mr Faulding, who has worked on hundreds of cases, said the tidal nature of the River Wye has presented difficulties for police during the search operation.

But he added: “I mean, the phone being found, a bench; normally, if someone would trip, they would have their phone in their hand.

“You know, the dog being dry; going after dogs, this is why a lot of people drown. They jump after their dogs.

“But the dog was found dry, so it clearly didn’t go in the river, and that’s what gets my suspicion about this case is it’s a very, very odd one.”

Ms Bulley is described as 5ft 3in tall, with light brown shoulder-length hair, which was tied in a ponytail when she disappeared.

She speaks with an Essex accent and was last seen wearing an ankle-length black quilted gilet, with a black long-sleeved waist-length Vector coat underneath.

She was also wearing tight black jeans, long green walking socks tucked into her jeans and ankle-length green wellington boots from Next.

The mum-of-two was also wearing a necklace and a pale blue Fitbit.

Ms Bulley’s family are being supported by specially trained police officers who are keeping them fully updated.

UK

‘I think you’re looking for us’: Video shows moment Sara Sharif’s family detained on plane

Published

27 mins ago

November 1, 2024

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'I think you're looking for us': Video shows moment Sara Sharif's family detained on plane

Footage of the moment 10-year-old Sara Sharif’s alleged killers were detained after police boarded their plane back to the UK has been played in court.

As they are approached by officers, Sara‘s stepmother Beinash Batool is heard saying: “I think you’re looking for us.”

Batool, 30, Sara’s father Urfan Sharif, 42, and uncle Faisal Malik, 29, are accused of carrying out a campaign of abuse against her culminating in her death at her family home in Surrey on 8 August last year.

The defendants, along with five of Sara’s siblings, aged between one and 13, flew to Pakistan the following day.

Sara’s body was found by police in a bunkbed on 10 August after Sharif called police from Pakistan to say he had beaten her “too much” for being “naughty”.

A murder investigation was launched involving agencies including Interpol and the National Crime Agency to locate the defendants.

They returned to the UK on a flight from Dubai to Gatwick Airport on 13 September.

The clips of officers’ body-worn video shown to the jury on Friday captured the moment police boarded the plane and detained the defendants at 7.42pm, seven minutes after touchdown.

After Batool addresses the officers, Sharif, who had been sitting next to her, is asked to follow them.

The three were then taken off the plane and arrested.

A post-mortem examination established Sara had sustained extensive and significant injuries over a sustained period prior to her death.

The jury heard on Friday how concerns were raised by Sara’s school about bruising on her body in June 2022 and March 2023.

Several items seized from Sara’s home were also reviewed by the court, including a leather belt which had full DNA samples at both ends for Sara, Sharif, and Malik.

A cricket bat was also found to have Sara’s DNA profile on it, along with the DNA samples of Sharif and Malik.

Neither item had a DNA trace of Batool.

The court also reviewed the defendants’ bank accounts – both joint and separate.

All three defendants have pleaded not guilty to murder and causing or allowing the death of a child.

The trial continues.

UK

Girl, 13, ‘critical’ after being found stabbed next to A63 in Hessle – as six teenagers arrested

Published

27 mins ago

November 1, 2024

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Girl, 13, 'critical' after being found stabbed next to A63 in Hessle - as six teenagers arrested

Six teenagers have been arrested after a 13-year-old girl was found with multiple stab wounds on a roadside near Hull.

Police said she was found around 6.50am on the A63 in Hessle with “life-threatening injuries” including “lacerations to her neck, abdomen, chest and back”.

Four boys and two girls – aged between 14 and 17 – were quickly arrested in a nearby wooded area and are being questioned on suspicion of attempted murder.

Members of the public came to the girl’s aid before emergency services arrived, Humberside Police said.

Detective Superintendent Simon Vickers said they “believe the attackers knew the victim” and the circumstances are still being investigated.

“The girl remains in hospital in critical condition and her family are being supported by officers at this difficult time,” he added.

The boys arrested are aged 14, 15, 16 and 17, and the girls 14 and 15.

Cordons are in place around a wooded area off Ferriby High Road while investigations continue.

Police said they would have an increased presence in the area over the weekend and have asked anyone with information or video to get in touch, or contact Crimestoppers anonymously.

UK

Ex-soldier Daniel Khalife tells court it was a ‘foolish idea’ to have someone with his ‘skillset’ in prison

Published

3 hours ago

November 1, 2024

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Ex-soldier Daniel Khalife tells court it was a 'foolish idea' to have someone with his 'skillset' in prison

A former soldier has told a jury his escape from Wandsworth prison to avoid being held with sex offenders and terrorists showed his “skillset”.

Daniel Khalife, 23, who was being held accused of passing secrets to Iran said he was “never a real spy” but planned a fake defection to the state following his arrest after watching American television show Homeland.

He said he wanted to be moved to a high-security unit because he was getting unwanted attention from the sex offenders on the vulnerable prisoners wing and feared a move to Belmarsh prison because, as a British soldier, terrorists wanted to kill him.

Khalife said he first wanted to “make a show” of escaping, acting suspiciously and covering himself in soot from a food delivery lorry on 21 August last year, while he was working in the prison kitchen.

He was spotted and reported to security but was “pretty shocked” when nothing happened so decided to take the “full measure,” he told the jury.

Talking about his escape for the first time at his Woolwich Crown Court trial, Khalife told how he fashioned a makeshift sling from kitchen trousers and carabiners used by inmates to keep their possessions safe from rats.

He attached it to the Bidfood lorry on 1 September last year, to see if it would be spotted by officers at Wandsworth or other prisons on the delivery route.

“I put the two carabiners and the makeshift rope underneath the lorry,” he said.

“When I had made the decision to actually leave the prison I was going to do it properly so I tested the security not just in Wandsworth

“Strangely, over the coming days, I could see it but it wasn’t spotted in Wandsworth or any other prison.”

Then on the morning of 6 September, Khalife said he concealed himself underneath the lorry, resting his back on the sling as the lorry was searched.

“They did normal checks around with torches but they didn’t find me. After that, a governor came to the tunnel and said, ‘Have you searched the vehicle?’

“I was facing upwards. There was action around the lorry.”

He said that when the vehicle stopped he “came out underneath the lorry and stayed in the prone position” until the lorry moved off.

Khalife, who joined the Army aged 16 and took up a post with the Royal Signals, based in Beacons barracks, Staffordshire, said he made no attempt to leave the country and had no intention to “run away” from the charges he was facing.

He was arrested three days later on the footpath of the Grand Union Canal in Northolt, west London, after a nationwide manhunt.

Asked why he had not handed himself in after his escape, Khalife said: “I was finally demonstrating what a foolish idea it was to have someone of my skillset in prison. What use was that to anyone?”

“I accept that I left the prison and didn’t have any permission to do so,” he said. “I accept absolutely that I shouldn’t have done what I did.”

Inspired by Homeland

The court has heard Khalife initiated contact with Iranian intelligence officers after he was told he could not pass developed vetting because his mother was born in Iran.

Khalife told MI5 he wanted to be a “double agent” and he said in court he thought he would be “congratulated” but described his arrest as like a “punch in the face”.

Wearing a blue checked shirt and chinos, he said police were “blinded at the prospect of a successful prosecution” but he did not think being in prison would be in “the public interest”.

“I didn’t do anything that harmed our national security. I wanted to put myself in a position where I could help my country,” he said.

“I believed I could continue my work actually located in the state – the state being Iran.”

Khalife said he took inspiration from watching Homeland, starring Claire Danes and Damian Lewis, in which Americans and terrorists go undercover, on Netflix.

“I had seen one of the characters in the programme had actually falsely defected to a particular country and utilised that position to further the national security interests of that character’s country,” he said.

“The country in question, Iran, thought it was real. She did it to further the interests of her own country.”

Khalife told jurors he is a “patriot”, adding: “I do love my country. All I wanted to do was help. I never wanted to do any harm, I never did do any harm.”

He added: “It is tragic it has come to this and I would do anything to go back to my career.”

Khalife, from Kingston, southwest London, denies a charge of committing an act prejudicial to the safety or interests of the state under the Official Secrets Act between 1 May 2019 and 6 January 2022.

He has also pleaded not guilty to a charge under the Terrorism Act of eliciting information about Armed Forces personnel on 2 August 2021, perpetrating a bomb hoax on or before 2 January 2023 and escaping from prison on 6 September last year.

The trial continues.