Nicola Bulley inquest latest: Mother 'could have drowned in seconds' (original) (raw)

6:22PM

That's it for today

We are now ending live updates. Thank you for following our coverage of the first day of the inquest into the death of Nicola Bulley.

Here are the most important things to know from the afternoon’s proceedings.

- Ms Bulley’s partner told woman she was “struggling” when phone and dog were discovered by a bench

- Witnesses saw “man in black” at allotment near the scene of Ms Bulley’s disappearance

- Underwater expert says it was “almost impossible” to swim against current

For the latest news on the inquest visit the Telegraph website.

5:21PM

Moment tragedy struck narrowed to four minutes

The point at which tragedy struck Nicola Bulley has potentially been narrowed down to just a four-minute window, using sports watch and mobile data.

Her FitBit Versa 4 device data showed her heart rate peaked at 9.22am, twelve minutes after she was last seen, her inquest has been told.

Lancashire Police digital forensic specialist DC Keith Greenhalgh revealed extensive minute-by-minute data from the 45-year-old’s sports watch that she was wearing when he went missing.

It showed that she walked 4,548 steps between 8am and 9.30am on the morning of January 27, covering a distance of more than 3.5km, which is recorded in fifteen-minute intervals.

“This suddenly stops after 9.30am - there are no more steps and no more distance covered,” DC Greenhalgh told the inquest.

In the final fifteen minutes before 9.30am she covered just 200m of distance, however -- compared to 1.1km in the same segment exactly an hour earlier, between 8.15am and 8.30am.

Meanwhile, there was “no activity on her phone after 9.18am” but her heart rate peaked on her FitBit at 9.22am, the police analysis found.

Narrowing the moment disaster potentially struck to four minutes, Dr James Adeley, senior coroner for Lancashire, said: “The coroner is therefore left with a degree of ambiguity between 9.18am and 9.30am. The entry to the water is likely to be after 9.18am and before 9.30am, but very likely before 9.22am.”

5:19PM

Sister's spa day WhatsApp message

Nicola Bulley received a WhatsApp message from her sister trying to organise a spa day just 18 minutes before she was last seen, her inquest has been told.

The 45-year-old mother of two received a message from Louise Cunningham at 8.52am “regarding a spa day” while walking Willow by the River Wyre, Supt Rebecca Smith of Lancashire Police told the court, before she sent a message to her boss at Exclusive Mortgages “regarding a client” one minute later, at 8.53am.

At 8.59am, Ms Bulley sent a Facebook message to a friend “regarding a playdate” while handset data showed she was still in the fields next to the River Wyre.

But at 9.10am the last sighting was made with her, by witness Claire Chesham.

By “9.18am was the last human interaction on Nicky’s phone - at the same time she receives a WhatsApp message from Louise (a friend) - about a difference in price for the spa day that Louise was going to cover,” Supt Smith told the inquest.

5:01PM

Partner's desperate calls

The desperate calls from Nicola Bulley’s partner just after she went missing have been revealed in her inquest.

Superintendent Rebecca Smith of Lancashire Police - who fronted the force’s highly-charged press conference during the three-week campaign to find her - displayed a PowerPoint slide showing call logs when Mr Ansell was told by dog walkers that Ms Bulley’s dog Willow had been found but his partner was missing.

It shows Mr Ansell tried to call her five times in just eight minutes between 10.40am and 10.48am on January 27 - before sending one last WhatsApp message to her at 10.48.

At 11am exactly, he rang 999 for the first time in a call that lasted nine minutes and ten seconds as he met with local dog walkers and walked to the bench to search for Ms Bulley.

4:46PM

No suspicious discoveries

Supt Rebecca Smith, who manages the complex crime unit at Lancashire Police, was asked by the coroner about whether they noticed anything suspicious in their investigation.

Asked if any footage from CCTV covering three of the four exits from the river path was suspicious or caused any concern, she said “none whatsoever”.

Supt Smith also said there was nobody of note who caused concern or was acting unusually and no intelligence that suggested third-party involvement in the case.

She confirmed that Ring Doorbell footage showed Ms Bulley leaving her house at 8.26am and was asked by the coroner Dr James Adeley: “Did you review it in relation to Paul Ansell, what time did Paul Ansell leave?”

Supt Smith replied: “10.56am.” This was after the alarm was raised by members of the public, local witnesses said in their evidence.

4:41PM

Items found with body

Nicola Bulley was found from the River Wyre still in her dog walking clothes but police also found two other items on her, the inquest has been told.

Lancashire Police superintendent Rebecca Smith told the hearing on that “her FitBit watch and her set of Mercedes car keys” were found with her body -- with her car still in the same car park bordering the river path where she left it.

She dialled into a work-related Microsoft Teams call at 9.01am and remained logged into it after it finished at 9.30am, until her phone was found by a member of the public.

Asked by the coroner whether Ms Bulley was using headphones on the conference call, Supt Smith said “not on that day no”.

She said that “none of the others heard anything” on the call, as it was muted.

4:03PM

Criticism of police search won't form large part of inquest

Lancashire Constabulary’s three-week search for the missing mother Nicola Bulley drew intense criticism and heated public debate, but it will not form any large part of the inquest.

Dr James Adeley, senior coroner for Lancashire, explained that the inquest was “a fact finding inquiry and not a wide ranging or public inquiry - it is to explore the evidence relating to four questions: who has died, where someone died, when someone died and how has someone died”.

Stressing that it was “not a trial” and there is “no apportioning of guilt”, with a separate police review of the search ongoing, he added: “At the centre of this inquest are two children who have lost a mother, a father, a sister and parents who have lost a daughter.”

The search has still been raised anecdotally during some evidence sessions on the first day of the inquest, however, with PC Matthew Thackray, a Lancashire Police diver who was among the first on scene on Jan 27, stressing that when his team began diving at 4pm that day the tidal conditions were different to the morning.

“At the time (Ms Bulley) went missing it was low tide and when we arrived it was high tide, which would have pushed things back up and started ebbing away as we started diving,” he said, adding that “the fire brigade were here before we arrived”.

Ms Bulley’s body was found more than a mile downstream from where she is thought to have entered the water.

4:01PM

Clothing 'may have helped her float'

Dr Lorna Dennison Wilkins, a national police search advisor who works across multiple forces, said Ms Bulley’s clothing may have initially helped her float, before hindering any attempts to survive.

She told the inquest: “She might have had some buoyancy in her clothing - but after that her body would have become negatively buoyant so would have sunk under the surface, in my assessment.”

She said that drownings in rivers such as the remote River Wyre in Lancashire are “sadly a very common occurrence” because the water current and depth fluctuates so greatly.

She said that the “fastest water speed is on the outside of the bend where we have an undercut” and that the bends of the river, even if shallower, create “a corkscrew motion” that, along with narrow sections, can produce “stronger forces”.

3:45PM

Witness - 'I heard a scream'

Another eyewitness has told how she heard a “surprised” scream in the vicinity of the path leading to the River Wyre on the morning Ms Bulley disappeared.

Veronica Claesen told the inquest: “I heard a scream, a very short scream and my initial thought was this was someone having a little bit of fun in the graveyard, and I got in my car and drove off.”

She added that “it was an element of surprise - the sort of scream, the surprise, was an inhaled scream not an exhaled scream”.

Ms Claesen said she did not speak to Ms Bulley on January 27 but saw her, describing her as “nothing unusual - she didn’t look distressed she looked vacant - but that wasn’t unusual. There was no sadness and no happiness.”

3:29PM

Witness - Ms Bulley's partner 'told me she was struggling'

Nicola Bulley’s partner said “she’s struggling” after finding out her phone and dog were discovered by a bench, an inquest has heard.

Susan Jones, a retired careworker, told the court that at around 10am on January 27 she received a call from Penny Fletcher, who had discovered Willow and the phone.

She then bumped into Anne-Marie, Ms Fletcher’s daughter-in-law, who recognised a photograph of Ms Bulley and her family on the phone lock screen.

She then rang the local school, before speaking to Ms Bulley’s partner, Paul Ansell.

Ms Jones told the inquest: “Anne-Marie spoke on the phone and said that he (Mr Ansell) said ‘she’s struggling’.”

3:17PM

Witness - 'I saw giddy spaniel near steep drop'

A woman has described the moment she discovered Nicola Bulley’s phone and dog Willow.

Penny Fletcher, who runs a nearby campsite, told the inquest: “I saw a springer spaniel loose, it was near the bench and going right towards the river where it drops down very steeply.

“I wouldn’t say it was acting chaotic at all, it was a bit giddy, yes.”

Ms Fletcher found the phone, as well as a dog harness, and tied Willow to the bench.

She later found out it was Ms Bulley’s dog and heard that she had gone missing.

3:00PM

Witness - Ms Bulley 'not obviously happy but not sad'

A mother who bumped into Nicola Bulley on the morning of her disappearance said there was “nothing of concern”.

Kay Kiernan, a receptionist, told the inquest she spoke to Ms Bulley about her dog Willow while dropping off her children at school at just after 8.30am.

She said: “She was not happy, but who is on a Friday-morning school run? She wasn’t sad, just how I normally knew her.”

Ms Kiernan went on: “There was nothing of concern.”

2:58PM

Ms Bulley 'looked absolutely idyllic' on morning she vanished

Another eyewitness, Claire Chesham, said Ms Bulley “looked absolutely idyllic” with her dog Willow on the morning she went missing.

Having dropped her children at school at the same time as Ms Bulley in St Michael’s on Wyre, she told the inquest she then walked her dog at the same time as Ms Bulley.

Ms Chesham said: “It looked absolutely idyllic - I thought that’s what I want to get like with my dog because she was walking just along and Willow was walking up and down the banks near the riverside, having a lovely run and playing around the field.”

But she added she then saw that “Willow was barking in the vegetation in the undergrowth a little bit further behind her” on what was a “very quiet morning”.

Asked by the coroner if she knew why Willow was barking, Ms Chesham said she did not and that she also “definitely did not see any evidence of [Nicola] having a ball with Willow”.

2:58PM

'He looked like he could be waiting for a lift'

Mr Fife said he passed several other people on the morning walking near the river, but the “man in black” stood out.

He told the inquest: “The man in black was stood at the end of allotment lane, he looked like he could be waiting for a lift.”

Mr Fife added that after he had completed his walk around the nearby fields, “as I got to the end of Allotment Lane, the man in black was still there. I thought this was strange as i had not seen him before this day and he had been there for some time. I said hi and he said hi and I carried on.”

He said he “then got home and drove past where the man in black had been and he had gone” later that morning, and he informed police on Monday about his sighting.

Mr Fife said: “The man in black - all in black, looked like black jeans, black hoodie and beanie hat - he had a round face but wouldn’t describe him as fat, more stocky - about 6ft 1 and 45-years-old.”

2:57PM

Witness saw 'man in black' at nearby allotment

The inquest is now hearing from nine members of the public who were some of the last people to see Nicola Bulley on the day she went missing.

One of them, Richard Fife, has claimed he saw a “strange” person who he described as “a man in black” on the nearby Allotment Lane in St Michael’s on Wyre on the morning she went missing.

Mr Fife told the inquest that he saw Ms Bulley in the distance walking near the river, just before she was last sighted.

“I believe i saw her between 0910 and 0920, I saw she had her phone out in front of her looking at the screen which i’ve seen her do previously when she was out walking. I could not hear or see if she was talking as she was far away.”

2:27PM

Search expert - 'Almost impossible to swim against current'

The inquest has resumed after lunch with the fifth witness, police search expert Lorna Dennison Wilkins, now giving evidence, Ewan Somerville reports.

She quotes a statistic from the national water drowning prevention strategy which found that 44 per cent of those who die drowning do not intend to enter the water -- with many of the remaining 56 per cent being swimming accidents.

Coroner Dr James Adeley said he understood Ms Bulley “was a holiday swimmer - breaststroke above the water type”.

Ms Wilkins agreed that with this level of swimming it would be “almost impossible to swim against the current, you would have to go with the current and try and find a place of safety if you could” if Ms Bulley had accidentally fallen in.

She added: “It would be really hard to make a logical decision, in my opinion.”

2:23PM

Inquest resumes

The inquest has resumed after lunch.

1:22PM

Morning main points

Now the inquest has broken for lunch, let’s recap the main findings from the morning proceedings.

• Home Office pathologist said Ms Bulley drowned with no evidence of an assault or third party involvement
• Police diver told the coroner the River Wyre was “flowing much faster” at the time Ms Bulley disappeared
• Experts on drowning say a powerful cold water shock meant she may have lost consciousness in seconds
• Coroner warns social media sleuths they could be jailed if inquest is disrupted

We will continue to post live updates this afternoon.

1:06PM

Inquest breaks for lunch

The inquest has just broken for lunch.

Proceedings will resume at 2pm.

1:03PM

Ex-HM Coastguard medic - ‘Ms Bulley may have drowned one second after shock’

Nicola Bulley may have drowned from cold water shock in just one or two seconds, another drowning expert has told her inquest, reports Ewan Somerville.

Dr Patrick Morgan, the former medical director at HM Coastguard and an anaesthetic consultant in Bristol’s Major Trauma Centre, said that the estimate of “20 to 30 seconds” before the 45-year-old mother lost consciousness in the 3.6C River Wyre was “optimistic”.

He told the court: “Breathing in this water at temperature would be seconds, less than 10 seconds (before losing consciousness). The heart rate goes excessively high, the blood pressure surges excessively high. The heart can go into electrical (stasis) where it pumps no blood, and the brain switches off.

“The potential conscious time here quoted are optimistic and should be taken with the caveat that it is potentially shorter. On the occasion that the individual has taken that initial gasp on the surface of the water and then gone below, the duration would be 10 seconds that you could hold your breath and very likely one or two seconds at best.”

12:49PM

Academic - '3C water would invoke powerful shock'

Prof Tipton added: “Cold water shock involves 10C to 15C and here we’re talking of water temp of 3C, so this would have invoked a particularly powerful cold water shock.

“A lethal dose is about two litres of water (inhaled) - a first breath in would have been one to two litres for someone of (Ms Bulley’s) weight, so it would only have taken one or two breaths of someone that weight to drown.”

He said that “you may have as little as 25 secs of consciousness” before consuming more than half of the oxygen in one’s body in this situation as more and more “gasp responses” of water are inhaled.

12:48PM

Academic - '25 seconds to lose consciousness in cold water shock'

Nicola Bulley may have drowned with just one gasp and lost consciousness in 25 seconds, her inquest has heard.

Michael Tipton, professor of human and applied physiology at the University of Portsmouth who is a world expert on drowning, explained how Ms Bulley could have had “particularly powerful cold water shock” if she had fallen in the River Wyre.

He told the Preston inquest that cold water shock involves “a gasp, followed by an uncontrollable breath in, followed by uncontrollable hyperventilation and the heart output is increased which puts blood pressure up and creates uncontrollable breathing”.

He said cold water shock kicks in with water temperatures of 10C to 15C -- but the River Wyre was just 3.6C on January 27 when she is suspected of having fallen in and drowned, the inquest heard.

12:04PM

Police diver - 'River flowing much faster' when Ms Bulley vanished

Mr Thackray said that “there was a definite downstream flow” of about one metre per second on the day Ms Bulley went missing.

Dr James Adeley, Senior Coroner for Lancashire, clarifies that on January 27 when Ms Bulley went missing, “the river was flowing much faster”.

Mr Thackray said that the river by the gate and bench slopes “vertically straight down into the water into around 4m of depth” from the River Wyre’s bank before “sloping gently upwards towards a sandy bank” on the other side.

The police diver said it would take “at least two or three minutes” to get to a point where one could stand up in the river from this point.

But he said it would still be possible for someone to get out of the river if they had fallen in.

12:02PM

Police diver - 'Cold water shock probably took effect'

Mr Thackray, who has been a police diver for eight years, is now showing a video filmed from inside the River Wyre to the inquest, demonstrating how Ms Bulley may have fallen in and been carried downstream.

He said Ms Bulley’s body was found a mile-and-a-half downstream from where she may have entered by the bench and gate.

Mr Thackray told the inquest that “on the day in question (that I was searching), the water temperature was 4C. It was very, very very cold, almost freezing. Cold water shock has probably taken effect.”

He added: “It is my belief that if she has fallen in she was probably floating along.”

Mr Thackray said that the river pushes objects downstream towards the weir at “walking pace”, but “was certainly flowing faster on the day in question”

11:49AM

Police diver called to give evidence

Police diver Matthew Thackray is now giving evidence to the Nicola Bulley inquest.

He is talking the coroner through pictures of the bank of the River Wyre, where Ms Bulley’s body was found in St Michael’s on Wyre on February 19.

Describing the riverbank next to the gate, near to the bench where Ms Bulley’s phone was found still logged onto a Microsoft Teams work call, he said. “objectively, the drop is a cliff edge”.

11:48AM

Pathologist - No signs of fracture or bleeding

Ms Armour added that much of Ms Bulley’s body was covered in mud when she was found, along with bruises to the knee, shin and arm.

The coroner’s officer said the date of death was given as February 19.

Ms Armour said there were no signs of fracture or bleeding and no signs of haemorrhage inside the brain or skull.

Concluding that the cause of death was drowning, she added: ‘It is an active process to swallow water and inhale fluid into the lungs.”

11:41AM

Pathologist - Low levels of alcohol found in Ms Bulley's blood

Home Office pathologist Ms Armour has told the inquest that there was barely any alcohol found in Ms Bulley’s bloodstream at the time of her death.

She said there was a concentration of 19 microgrammes of ethanol found in her blood, below the drink drive limit, but that this was thought to be from natural decay rather than any alcohol being consumed.

Ms Armour told the inquest: “This level of alcohol is consistent with postmortem microbiology or microbial activity - when an individual dies, bacteria produces alcohol in the body. In my opinion this is consistent with postmortem microbial activity.”

She said that traces of paracetamol and propranolol was also found in Ms Bulley’s blood, which was consistent with medication advisory limits.

Dr James Adeley, Senior Coroner for Lancashire, said this level of alcohol was “very low”.

11:34AM

Home Office pathologist - Ms Bulley 'died from drowning'

A Home Office pathologist has told Nicola Bulley’s inquest that it is her opinion that the 45-year-old died of drowning.

Alison Armour told the inquest on Monday morning: “I give the cause of death in this matter as drowning. I give this because of the water and fluid identified in the stomach and lungs - the lungs showed the typical or classic features we see in the cases of drowning, including crepitancy of the lungs.”

The pathologist described bruises in multiple parts of the body that were found during analysis, but said that these “did not” contribute to her death.

Questioned by Dr James Adeley, Senior Coroner for Lancashire. Ms Armour also said there was no indication of natural disease, no indication Ms Bulley was assaulted and no evidence of any third party involvement.

11:24AM

Pictures: Friends arrive at inquest

Friends of Nicola Bulley have been pictured arriving at the inquest in Preston.

Heather Gibbons and Hannah Swale helped during the police search for the mother-of-two.

Heather Gibbons

Hannah Swale

11:12AM

Police diver and drowning experts to give evidence

The County Hall in Preston was busy with members of the public and media on Monday morning ahead of the two-day inquest into Nicola Bulley’s death, Ewan Somerville reports.

A total of 21 witnesses are due to give evidence at the inquest, sixteen on Monday and five on Tuesday.

Beginning the inquest Dr James Adeley, Senior Coroner for Lancashire, told the court that among the witnesses to be heard on Monday are a police diver who experienced the river conditions on the day Ms Bulley went missing, as well as a Home Office pathologist, experts on drowning and nine members of the public who were present.

A detective from Lancashire Police will also give evidence from Ms Bulley’s mobile phone and fit-bit data, while a superintendent from the force will explain the police search.

Ms Bulley’s clinician and GP - alongside her partner and sister - will also give evidence on Tuesday.

11:09AM

Coroner addresses Ms Bulley's family

Nicola Bulley’s family has been addressed by the coroner ahead of the inquest into her death.

Dr James Adeley, senior coroner for Lancashire, told members of her family, who were in court: “I’m sorry that you are attending this court under these circumstances.”

He was told to refer to Ms Bulley as Nikki during the hearing.

11:07AM

Lancashire Police response questioned

As the days passed and speculation continued online amid Ms Bulley’s disappearance, Lancashire Police revealed Ms Bulley had struggled with alcohol and perimenopause.

This prompted widespread criticism for disclosing her personal information, with Home Secretary Suella Braverman and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak questioned about the police approach and the force facing investigation.

An independent review of Lancashire Police’s handling of the case is currently under way by the College of Policing, ordered by Lancashire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Andrew Snowden.

Part of the review will include inquiries made by the Information Commissioner’s Office over the force’s disclosure of Ms Bulley’s personal information.

11:06AM

Recap: Ms Bulley vanished during dog walk

Ms Bulley, 45, vanished after dropping her daughters, aged six and nine, at school, then taking her usual dog walk along the River Wyre in St Michael’s on Wyre, Lancashire, on January 27.

Her phone, still connected to a work Teams call, was found on a bench overlooking the water.

Ms Bulley, a mortgage adviser originally from near Chelmsford but living in Inskip, was immediately deemed a “high risk” missing person, sparking a huge police search operation, with hundreds of local search volunteers and intense media and public interest.

Private underwater search specialists were also called in by her family amid a conspiratorial social media frenzy fuelling waves of sightseers and content creators visiting the scene.

Both police and media faced criticism after her body was found in the river around a mile farther downstream from the bench, on February 19.

11:04AM

Nicola Bulley inquest opens in Preston

The Telegraph will be providing live updates as the inquest into the death of Nicola Bulley opens in Preston.

Ms Bulley’s family have arrived at County Hall for the hearing and taken their seats in the front row. Her partner, Paul Ansell, is sat alongside her parents Ernest and Dot and her sister Louise Cunningham.

They arrived in the chamber just before 10.40am, ahead of sixteen witnesses giving evidence on Monday, the first day of the two-day hearing.

Mr Ansell and Ms Cunningham are due to give evidence on Tuesday.