No one involved in the Nicola Bulley tragedy comes out of it well.
But no one comes out of it quite as badly as the police who, just when it didn’t seem possible to make people feel any more negatively about them, somehow sank to a stomach-churning new low.
As of course you already know, they released intimate details, in glorious technicolour, of issues Nicola Bulley was allegedly dealing with. Personal information that should never, ever have been made public.
And the motive for this – the only crystal clear and unarguable part of the whole distressing case – was because they were being criticised for the way they were handling the investigation.
Rather than rising above the chatter of social media armchair detectives, secure in their competence, the police instead caved in and sold Nicola out.
Yet another woman in the long, long list failed disgustingly by the police. Let down, attacked, by the very people we’re meant to trust to keep us safe.
Two weeks ago David Carrick was sentenced for his sick, brutal crimes. One week ago, details emerged of how many chances there were to identify Wayne Couzens as a danger before he murdered Sarah Everard.
And now this. A gross invasion of confidentiality. Shaming and blaming the very person they were supposed to be safeguarding. Misogyny pure and simple – never mind the insulting hysterical, hormonal woman trope, would the information that a missing man had been struggling to get it up have ever been announced in the public arena?
That’s a rhetorical question, obviously.
Any challenges Nicola was dealing with – and, let’s not forget, we only have the police’s one-sided word for them, without nuance – were no-one’s business but Nicola’s.
It should have been entirely up to her who, if anyone, she chose to share them with. This was an unforgivable, appalling, grotesque breach of privacy. Even Suella Braverman – hardly the poster child for compassion and empathy – disapproved.
How did the officers working on the case manage to look Nicola’s family in the eye afterwards? And how did the family manage to bear such a betrayal, the police making it so evident they were more concerned about their own public perception than protecting the woman they were supposed to be helping to bring home?
Even if the police eventually apologise for this catastrophic error of judgement, it’s too late.
The damage has been done. The information is out there, forever, on record. They can’t take it back now.
Nicola Bulley deserved better, in so many ways. While the nation holds her family in our hearts and minds, the police should be hanging their heads in shame.
A position they must be well used to at this point.
