Nicola Bulley: Man arrested for shooting footage inside police cordon on day body found in River Wyre

A man has been arrested over footage shot from inside a police cordon on the day Nicola Bulley’s body was found.

Lancashire Constabulary said the 34-year-old man from Kiddeminster, Worcestershire, was arrested on Wednesday morning (8 March).

He was arrested on suspicion of malicious communications offences and perverting the course of justice in connection with the investigation to find Ms Bulley, the force said.

The arrest relates to footage taken from inside a police cordon on 19 February, when Ms Bulley’s body was found in the River Wyre in Lancashire after an intensive three-week search operation. The force said that the footage was then posted online.

The man was arrested with assistance from West Mercia Police and has since been released on bail with conditions.

Lancashire Constabulary said in a statement: “Our priority is, and has always been, to support Nicola’s family and the wider community in St Michael’s. We hope this arrest provides reassurance that we take concerns seriously and will act on them.”

The arrest comes following reports of several apparent content creators descending on the village where Ms Bulley went missing.

Experts have claimed social media algorithms that reward and encourage controversial content fuelled the waves of online interest in Ms Bulley’s case.

They say it creates a cycle where content creators are constantly looking for new and often controversial ways to keep users watching, which they argue helped spark the waves of conspiracy theory and amateur detective videos that appeared online around the case.

Former Twitter vice president, Bruce Daisley, said: “The burden for the family must be overwhelming. In previous eras we might have witnessed rival newspapers competing for scoops on a daily basis. Now it’s a far more overwhelming tsunami of social media sleuths posting TikToks to be catapulted to algorithm fame.”

TikTok has said it was deploying additional resources to reduce the potential spread of conspiratorial content about unfolding events – including either removing it or making it ineligible for recommendation to the platform’s For You page.

During the investigation, Detective Superintendent Rebecca Smith said social media users had been “playing their own private detectives” near the scene.

She said: “Some of it’s been quite shocking and really hurtful to the family. Obviously, we can’t disregard anything and we’ve reviewed everything that’s come in, but of course it has distracted us significantly.”

Questions remain about the case of Ms Bulley, with both the police and media also facing criticism after her body was discovered more than three weeks after the 45-year-old disappeared on 27 January.

Lancashire Constabulary had received widespread criticism for releasing some aspects of Ms Bulley’s private life into the public domain, while her family had questioned the role of the press during the investigation and accused the media of “misquoting and vilifying” Ms Bulley’s partner, relatives and friends.