Nicola Bulley: No evidence mother-of-two was harmed before she drowned – as expert tells inquest one breath of water may have been fatal
There is no evidence Nicola Bulley was harmed before she drowned in the River Wyre, a Home Office pathologist has said.
Dr Alison Armour, giving evidence at an inquest at County Hall in Preston on Monday, said watery fluid and fragments of dirt found inside Ms Bulley’s body were “typical features we see in cases of drowning”.
She added that Ms Bulley was alive when she fell into the water and had not been drinking before her death.
Meanwhile, an expert said the temperature of the River Wyre was around 3C-5C and it would have taken “one or two breaths” in of water to kill Ms Bulley.
“We estimate the temperature would have been around 3 to 5C (in the River Wyre), so there would be a particularly powerful cold-shock response,” Professor Michael Tipton said.
“For somebody of Nicola’s size, it would have taken one or two breaths in of water to be a lethal dose.”
The inquest heard there would have been a “fairly rapid incapacitation” and an estimated “20 to 30 seconds” before she lost consciousness.
Another cold water expert, Dr Patrick Morgan, said Ms Bulley may have only been able to hold her breath for “one or two seconds at best” in the river.
The 45-year-old mortgage adviser from Inskip vanished while she was walking her dog after she had dropped her two daughters off at school in St Michael’s on Wyre, Lancashire, on the morning of 27 January.
She was immediately deemed a “high risk” missing person and her disappearance sparked an intensive search operation – including private underwater search specialists – before her body was eventually found more than three weeks later in the River Wyre.
There was some bruising to Ms Bulley’s body but these did not contribute to her death, the inquest was told.
Dr James Adeley, senior coroner for Lancashire, asked Dr Armour: “Is there any evidence of third-party involvement playing any part in her death?”
Ms Armour replied: “No, there was not.”
Police officers during the search
She said there was no bleeding in the brain or natural diseases, only normal therapeutic levels of medication in her body and the low level of alcohol was consistent with this being the result of the natural process of decomposition of her body.
Ms Bulley’s partner Paul Ansell, her sister Louise Cunningham and parents, Ernest and Dot Bulley, were in court for the proceedings.
Dr Adeley said extra security has been put in place by police and the county council due to the social media interest in the case – and warned those in attendance not to disrupt proceedings following “unusual online commentary” about Ms Bulley’s death.
The coroner added: “At the centre of this inquest are two children who have lost their mother, a partner, and parents who have lost a daughter.”
He warned if anyone had the “slightest idea” to disrupt the hearing they would be dealt with “immediately”.
Police officers outside County Hall in Preston, Lancashire, on the first day of the inquest
A video of police underwater search specialist PC Matthew Thackray, in St Michael’s on Wyre, was shown to the court, in which he said he believed Ms Bulley fell into the river before floating downstream.
“There is a large vertical slope from the bench and into the water. On the day there was a steady flow downstream,” he said.
The river was “almost freezing”, he said, adding: “If she fell in the muscles would probably seize making it difficult to swim properly.”
He estimated she would have floated at a “metre a second” downstream.
Ribbons left on a bench near where Ms Bulley was last seen
Both police and media faced criticism after her body was found in the river around a mile downstream from the bench, on 19 February.
Amid speculation over Ms Bulley’s disappearance, Lancashire Police revealed she had struggled with alcohol and perimenopause, prompting widespread criticism over the decision to disclose her personal information.
Last month, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) announced it would not take any enforcement action against the force over its disclosure of her personal information.
Meanwhile, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) cleared the Lancashire force of any wrongdoing but said it had identified two “areas of learning” over an officer’s contact with Ms Bulley prior to her disappearance.
The inquest is expected to last two days.
Changes to how death certificates are issued in England and Wales have made the grieving process more “stressful”, according to bereaved families.
Anne Short died on New Year’s Eve, only a few months after she was diagnosed with cancer.
Her son Elliot, 30, from Newport, South Wales, says the grieving process was made harder after having to wait eight weeks to hold her funeral.
“Quite frankly, it’s ridiculous, when you’re already going through all this pain and suffering as a family,” he told Sky News.
“You can’t move on, you can’t do anything, you can’t arrange anything, you can’t feel that they’re at peace, you can’t put yourself at peace, because of a process that’s been put in that nobody seems to know anything about at the moment.”
That process has been introduced by the government to address “concerns” about how causes of death were previously scrutinised, following high-profile criminal cases such as those of Harold Shipman and Lucy Letby.
Up until last September, causes of death could be signed off by a GP, but now they have to be independently scrutinised by a medical examiner, before a death certificate can be issued.
Anne Short
‘I felt helpless’
Mr Short said he was ringing “twice a day” for a progress update, but that it was “going through too many sets of hands”.
Until the death certificate was issued, Ms Short’s body could not be released into the care of the funeral director.
“The main stress for me was knowing that she was up there [at the hospital] and I couldn’t move her, so I felt helpless, powerless,” he said.
“I felt like I’d let her down in a lot of ways. I know now, looking back, that there’s nothing that we could have done, but at the time it was adding a lot of stress. I just wanted her out of there.”
Elliot Short had to wait eight weeks to hold his mother’s funeral
‘Something has to be done’
Mr Short fears there’s a risk the new process might defeat its purpose.
“There’s other people that I know that have lost since, where it’s been in a care home or something like that, where they haven’t been happy with the care they’ve had, but they haven’t raised that because you’re in this bubble of grief and you just want to get it done,” he said.
“Something has to be done about that because I think it just drags on the grief and there’s obviously a danger then of it being against the reasons why they’re trying to do it.”
Arrangements after the death of his father less than two years ago was a “much easier process”, according to Mr Short.
“I lost my father as well 15 months before, so we went through the process prior to this coming in and we had the death certificate, he died at home, but we had it within three days,” he added.
Elliot Short
‘State of limbo’
James Tovey is the sixth generation of his family running Tovey Bros, a funeral director in Newport.
He told Sky News that the delays were having a “huge impact” on the business and that the families they serve were being “left in a state of limbo” for weeks after their bereavement.
“I would say that most funerals will take place perhaps two to four weeks after the person’s passed away, whereas now it’s much more like four to six weeks, so it is quite a significant difference,” he said.
“It’s one thing on top of an already distressing time for them and we’re frustrated and upset for [the families] as much as anybody else and it’s just annoying that we can’t do anything about it.”
James Tovey
Mr Tovey said that the reform was “very useful” and he remained supportive of it.
“It’s just the delays. I’m sure they can do something about that over time, but it’s just waiting for that to happen, and I wish that could be addressed sooner rather than later,” he added.
“It does put pressure on other people, it’s not just ourselves, it’s pressure on the hospitals, on crematoria, on the registrar service and everyone else involved in our profession.
“But of course all of us we’re there to serve the families, and we’re just upset for them and wish we could do more to help.”
The organisation representing funeral directors has called for “urgent action”
The National Association of Funeral Directors said some areas of England and Wales are experiencing much shorter delays than others, but has called for “urgent action”.
Rachel Bradburne, its director of external affairs, said the system was “introduced for all the right reasons” but that it was “not working as well as we need it to”.
“Funeral directors are relaying stories of delays, frustration, and bottlenecks on a daily basis, and urgent action is required to review and recalibrate the new system,” she added.
‘Unintended consequences’
Dr Roger Greene is the deputy chief executive of bereavement charity AtALoss.
He told Sky News that the delays were “one of the unintended consequences of what’s a well-intended reform of a system”.
“What has actually happened is that the number of deaths now requiring independent scrutiny has trebled,” he said.
“So in England and Wales in 2023, the last full year of data, there were nearly 200,000 deaths reported to a coroner, whereas there were 600,000 deaths.
“Now, what is the change in the process is that all deaths now need to be reported for independent scrutiny.”
Dr Roger Greene
Dr Greene said there may be ways the system could be “tweaked a little bit”, such as giving medical examiners the ability to issue an interim death certificate.
“We believe that people can process grief well if they’re given the opportunity and they’ve got a proper understanding,” he added.
“But the systems that we have in the country need to be able to work as well with that diversity of faith and culture.”
‘Vital improvements’
Jason Shannon, lead medical examiner for Wales, told Sky News he recognised “the importance of a seamless, accurate and timely death certification process”.
“Medical examiners are one part of the wider death certification process and were introduced to give additional independent safeguards as well as to give bereaved people a voice, which they hadn’t had before,” he added.
“Medical examiners have no role in determining where the body of a family’s relative is cared for and except in a minority of deaths where a coroner needs to be involved, that decision should be one that a family is fully empowered to make in a way that is best for them.”
A Welsh government spokesperson said they “would like to apologise to any families who have experienced delays in receiving death certificates”.
The government said it was working with the lead medical examiner and the NHS in Wales “to understand where the delays are” and how to provide bereaved families with “additional support”.
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A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said it recognised there were “some regional variations in how long it takes to register a death”.
They added that the changes to the death certification process “support vital improvements to patient safety and aim to provide comfort and clarity to the bereaved”.
Social media influencers are fuelling a rise in misogyny and sexism in the UK’s classrooms, according to teachers.
More than 5,800 teachers were polled as part of the survey by the NASUWT teaching union, and nearly three in five (59%) of teachers said they believe social media use has contributed to a deterioration in pupils’ behaviour.
The findings have been published during the union’s annual conference, which is taking place in Liverpool this weekend.
One motion that is set to be debated at the conference calls on the union’s executive to work with teachers “to assess the risk that far-right and populist movements pose to young people”.
Andrew Tate was referenced by a number of teachers who took part in the survey, who said he had negative influence on male pupils.
One teacher said she’d had 10-year-old boys “refuse to speak to [her]…because [she is] a woman”.
Another teacher said “the Andrew Tate phenomena had a huge impact on how [pupils at an all-boys school] interacted with females and males they did not see as ‘masculine'”.
While another respondent to the survey said their school had experienced some incidents of “derogatory language towards female staff…as a direct result of Andrew Tate videos”.
Last month, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer hosted a discussion in Downing Street on how to prevent young boys from being dragged into a “whirlpool of hatred and misogyny”.
The talks were with the creators of Netflix drama Adolescence, which explored so-called incel culture.
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‘An urgent need for action’
Patrick Roach, the union’s general secretary, said “misogyny, racism and other forms of prejudice and hatred…are not a recent phenomenon”.
He said teachers “cannot be left alone to deal with these problems” and that a “multi-agency response” was needed.
“There is an urgent need for concerted action involving schools, colleges and other agencies to safeguard all children and young people from the dangerous influence of far-right populists and extremists,” Mr Roach added.
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A spokesperson for the Department for Education (DfE) said: “Education can be the antidote to hate, and the classroom should be a safe environment for sensitive topics to be discussed and where critical thinking is encouraged.
“That’s why we provide a range of resources to support teachers to navigate these challenging issues, and why our curriculum review will look at the skills children need to thrive in a fast-changing online world.”
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