Nicola Bulley: First images released of Nicola Bulley on day she disappeared
The first images of Nicola Bulley on the day she vanished have been shared by her family, as a desperate search for the missing dog walker continues.
The 45-year-old was last seen more than a week ago, walking her dog Willow in Lancashire. Police are working on the theory she fell into the River Wyre.
New CCTV pictures, captured by her Ring camera on Friday 27 January, show Ms Bulley loading her car outside her home before driving her two children to school.
She is seen wearing a long dark coat – believed to be black. Her blonde hair is pulled back in a ponytail.
Ms Bulley was last seen walking her dog a short while later on a footpath near the waterways of St Michael’s on Wyre village.
Police previously confirmed the items of clothing she was wearing included an ankle-length black quilted gilet jacket, a black Engelbert Strauss waist-length coat, tight-fitting black jeans, long green walking socks, ankle-length green Next wellies, a necklace, and a pale blue Fitbit.
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Missing dog walker’s movements before she disappeared
Daughters asking ‘when is mummy coming home?’
A community in shock
Nicola Bulley has been missing for more than a week
The crucial 10-minute window
Authorities are focusing on a crucial 10-minute window when the mortgage adviser’s movements are unaccounted for between 9.10am and 9.20am.
At 9.01am she logged into a Microsoft Teams call – but her microphone was muted, and her camera was turned off. She was last seen by an acquaintance walking her dog in the upper field at 9.10am.
Ten minutes later, at 9.20am, her phone was left on a bench by the river. The conference call ended at 9.30am but her phone remained logged into the call.
Just three minutes later, at 9.33am, her phone was found by another dog walker and her dog found running between the bench and a gate to the field.
The dog’s harness was found on the grass between the bench and the river’s edge.
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Retracing Nicola Bulley’s journey
‘Helicopters are looking for mummy’
Nicola’s daughters have been asking where their mother is, a friend has told Sky News.
In a short video shared with Sky News, Nicola’s daughter Sophia can be heart pointing at a search team saying: “Them helicopters, they’re looking for mummy.”
Speaking to Sky correspondent Katerina Vittozzi, Jill Peck said: “It’s hard for them, they’ve got all the same emotions as everybody else and they want to see their mum, and they don’t know where she is.”
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‘Them helicopters, they’re looking for mummy’
A community in shock, people gathered at St Michael’s Church in Lancashire on Sunday to light candles. The church is just a few minutes walk from Ms Bulley dropped off her two children, aged nine and six, on the morning she went missing.
In an attempt to “keep things as normal as possible for the kiddies,” Ms Peck said pre-planned events, like a school disco on Friday night, have gone ahead, with Ms Bulley’s children attending.
“If something was in the diary, it’s been kept in the diary,” Ms Peck said, “they are aware that something is happening but we’re trying to keep it away from the school.”
“They just desperately want her home and that is all they are asking all the time is ‘where is she and is she coming home?'”
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Candles lit for Nicola
Family say ‘no evidence’ she fell into the water
Police are working to the theory that she got into difficulty and fell into the water in that ten-minute window.
But her family and friends have claimed there is “no evidence whatsoever” behind this.
Ms Bulley’s friend, Emma White, told Sky News on Saturday the “police hypothesis is on limited information”.
She said: “When we are talking about a life we can’t base it on a hypothesis – surely we need this factual evidence.
“That’s what the family and all of us are holding on to – that we are sadly no further on than last Friday.”
Ms White has also dismissed the theory that she may have tried to retrieve a tennis ball from the river while playing with her dog Willow.
“Willow loved using a tennis ball very much, but it used to disturb their walk so they haven’t had a tennis ball since last year”.
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Teams scour the river bank for Nicola’s clothes
Dog walker ‘vanished’ into thin air
Police have speculated that Nicola Bulley had an issue with her dog, Willow.
“There was definitely no ball,” she added.
Police have urged the public to look out along the river for the items of clothing that Ms Bulley was last seen wearing.
Birmingham band UB40 say the city’s striking bin workers and their union should “keep fighting” in their dispute over pay.
It comes as the government and the council urged them to accept a “fair and reasonable offer”.
“We’re fully on their side,” drummer Jimmy Brown told Sky News. “I think they shouldn’t give up, they should still be fighting.
“Working people shouldn’t have to take a reduction in their incomes, which is what we’re talking about here.
“We’re talking about people being paid less and it seems to me with prices going up, heating, buying food, inflation and rents going up then people need a decent wage to have a half decent life… keep going boys!”
Members of the Unite union in Birmingham earlier this month. Pic: PA
Workers joined picket lines again on Thursday, with some fearing they could be up to £600 a month worse off if they accept the terms.
“We have total utter support for the bin men and all trade unions,” said guitarist Robin Campbell.
“The other side is always going to say they’ve made a reasonable offer – the point is they’re the ones who’ve messed up, they’re the ones who’ve gone bankrupt, they’re the ones now trying to reduce the bin men’s wages.”
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Lead singer Matt Doyle told Sky News: “It’s a shame that what we’re seeing is all the images of rats and rubbish building up, that is going to happen inevitably, but we’ve just got to keep fighting through that.”
About 22,000 tonnes of rubbish accumulated on the city’s streets after a major incident was declared last month by Birmingham City Council.
Rubbish has blighted the city’s streets for weeks . Pic: PA
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Bin situation ‘pains me’ – council boss
On a visit to the city, local government minister Jim McMahon said the union and local authority should continue to meet in “good faith” and the government felt there was a deal that could be “marshalled around”.
He paid tribute to the “hundreds of workers” who have worked “around the clock” to clear the rubbish.
Read more:
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“As we stand here today, 85% of that accumulated waste has been cleared and the council have a plan in place now to make sure it doesn’t accumulate going forward,” said Mr McMahon.
Sky News understands talks are not set to resume until next week.
Trans women in British Transport Police custody will now be strip searched by male officers – not female – following Wednesday’s Supreme Court ruling.
The force said it is introducing an “interim position” while it digests the Supreme Court’s decision that the definition of a “woman” under the Equality Act 2010 refers to “a biological woman and biological sex”.
A British Transport Police (BTP) Authority spokesman told Sky News: “Under previous policy, we had advised that someone with a gender recognition certificate (GRC) may be searched in accordance with their acquired sex.
“However, as an interim position while we digest today’s judgment, we have advised our officers that any same sex searches in custody are to be undertaken in accordance with the biological birth sex of the detainee.”
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In September last year, BTP, which is responsible for policing the UK’s railways and similar transport systems, published its “position” on transgender and non-binary officers carrying out strip searches.
It said officers would “only be able to search persons of the same sex on their birth or gender recognition certificate (GRC).
Officers who identified as another gender but who did not have a GRC were not allowed to, but if a trans woman had a certificate, they could strip search a female detainee.
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Gender ruling – How it happened
Strip searches involve the removal of more than a jacket, outer coat, gloves, headwear and footwear.
They “expose buttocks, genitalia and (female) breasts”, the BTP guidance says.
The Sex Matters campaign applied for a judicial review of that guidance with the High Court in December.
It said the policy “puts detainees at risk of sexual harassment and sexual assault”, and said it was a violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects against torture and inhuman or degrading treatment.
Sex Matters said the policy “also puts female officers in a humiliating and dangerous position, as they may be pressured to search trans-identified men”.
Read more: NHS must stop trans people being allowed on single-sex wars
Campaigners celebrated outside the Supreme Court after Wednesday’s ruling. Pic: PA
One of the High Court judges who made Wednesday’s decision, Lord Hodge, said the ruling should not be read as “a triumph of one or more groups in our society at the expense of another”.
Government minister Karin Smyth told Sky News public bodies have been told to look at how equality laws are implemented following the ruling.
She said: “Obviously, public bodies have been asked to look at their own guidance.
“And we will do that very, very carefully.”
But she warned against public bodies making statements “that may alarm people”, telling them to take their time to look at their guidance.
Baroness Kishwer Falkner, chair of the UK’s Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), said the ruling means there is “no confusion” now.
She said the NHS will “have to change” its 2019 policy, which says transgender patients are entitled to be accommodated on single-sex wards matching how they identify.
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