A man who has been in prison for more than 35 years for murder will have his conviction re-examined after DNA evidence emerged.
Peter Sullivan was found guilty of killing Diane Sindall after she left work in Bebington, Merseyside in August 1986 and has been in prison since the following year.
Sullivan, then 29, had spent the day drinking heavily after losing a darts match and went out armed with a crowbar.
That’s when he came across 21-year-old florist and part-time barmaid Ms Sindall as she walked to a petrol station when – according to his conviction – he beat her to death.
Sullivan was dubbed the “beast of Birkenhead” or the “wolfman” because of bite marks found on the victim’s body and was unanimously found guilty.
But in Sullivan’s third attempt to overturn his conviction, the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) has confirmed the case has been referred to the Court of Appeal.
The CCRC said Sullivan applied to the body in March 2021, citing concerns over police interviews, bitemark evidence given at his trial and the murder weapon.
After consulting experts, the commission said DNA information from samples taken at the time of the offence formed a profile that did not match Sullivan.
There may have been breaches of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, the CCRC added, as Sullivan was denied initial legal representation.
Sullivan has also claimed he had not been provided with an appropriate adult during interviews.
He previously applied to the body in 2008, raising questions about DNA evidence, but forensic experts said further testing was unlikely to reveal a DNA profile.
Read more: Man freed after nearly 50 years in prison Letby consultant ‘should have had more courage’
In 2019, he applied to the High Court for permission to appeal against his conviction over bite mark evidence, but this was rejected in 2021.
TV host Jeremy Kyle is expected to give evidence at an inquest into the death of Steve Dymond, who died shortly after failing a lie detector test on his show in May 2019.
The presenter was previously made an interested person to the inquest by the coroner because “he may have caused or contributed” to Mr Dymond’s death.
Image: Steve Dymond
The digger driver from Portsmouth died of a morphine overdose and heart problem seven days after appearing on the show. He was found dead in his bedroom at his home.
He had taken a lie detector test for the show after being accused of cheating on his ex-fiancee Jane Callaghan, from Gosport.
The court was told Mr Dymond had considered jumping out of the taxi on his way home from filming and felt “life was not worth living”.
Claire Overman, representing Mr Dymond’s brother, Leslie Dymond, and son, Carl Woolley, told a preliminary hearing at Winchester that Leslie Dymond said that his brother had told him that the audience had “booed and hissed” at him.
He had also been “followed off stage by Mr Kyle and two cameramen, one right next to him when he sat off stage” and had the results of the lie detector test “pushed right in his face”.
Video evidence from the programme, which never aired, showed Kyle calling Mr Dymond a “serial liar,” but Ms Overman said claims he had also called him a “traitor and a failure” were not backed up by footage.
Ms Overman added that Mr Dymond had told his brother that he was “incredibly stressed”, in tears and on the “point of collapsing”.
She said his brother also said Mr Dymond had told him that he was “completely broken” and was “consumed by what happened on the show” and had talked about considering “jumping out of the taxi on the way home”.
Ms Overman continued that Mr Dymond’s brother had also described him as appearing “brainwashed,” and that he believed himself to be “worthless” and unable to “go on living”.
Image: Steve Dymond’s funeral at Kingston Cemetery in Portsmouth. Pic. PA
Neil Sheldon KC, representing Mr Kyle, said that it was a “misleading and inaccurate account” based on hearsay and that footage from the show showed the reality of what happened.
Hampshire coroner Jason Pegg said that Leslie Dymond had been ruled as medically unfit to attend the full inquest, but that a written statement will be submitted as evidence and judged on its reliability.
The inquest will primarily look at the circumstances of Mr Dymond’s life between 14 March, 2019, and 9 May, 2019, taking in his involvement with the ITV show but also his personal relationships, including the break down of his relationship with Jane Callaghan.
Mr Pegg said: “This inquest must focus on the death of Steve Dymond, other matters or other systemic issues that may or may not have existed at the time in relation to other production companies or programmes on TV.
“The inquest will focus on the processes in place with regards to his selection, his attendance for filming and the after-care in filming, the other systemic issues are not.”
Rachel Spearing, who has been appointed as counsel to the inquest, said that the coroner had ruled that the case would not be “a roving inquiry into practices of reality television”.
Ms Spearing said: “The scope will review the deceased’s interaction with his GP and his acceptance and participation in the Jeremy Kyle Show.
“We will be reviewing Mr Dymond’s participation in the show as far as it is relevant to his mental state including the lie detector and the after-care provided and that involves the role of the production company and ITV.”
She added that Mr Dymond’s history of mental health issues would also be examined.
Image: Jeremy Kyle. Pic: Channel 4/ITV/Shutterstock
In addition, the inquest has been given access to footage from the 2022 Channel 4 documentary into Mr Dymond’s death, Jeremy Kyle Show: Death on Daytime.
Following Mr Dymond’s death, and the death of other high-profile TV contestants including former ITV Love Island contestants Sophie Gradon and Mike Thalassitis, media watchdog Ofcom brought out new rules to protect the welfare of people on TV and radio.
The new standards have been applied to all programmes using participants from the general public made after 5 April 2021.
Following Mr Dymond’s death, ITV bosses permanently cancelled The Jeremy Kyle Show. It had run for 17 series and had previously been the channel’s most popular daytime offering.
The full inquest will take place from Tuesday 3 September to Monday 9 September at Winchester Coroner’s Court.
Sky News has contacted Jeremy Kyle for comment.
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK
When the pro-Palestinian marchers came round the corner of the Strand in London, drums beating and megaphones blaring, they saw a row of Israeli flags.
The boos were loud and there were plenty of obscene gestures.
Both sides chanted “shame on you” at each other, with the police standing between them.
The pro-Palestinian protesters shouted “From the River to the Sea”, along with the other chants.
Those who defend the slogan say it is a simple call for freedom.
But it is understood by others to invoke the destruction of Israel – and now it was aimed at those bearing the blue Star of David only feet away.
Image: Pro-Palestinian protesters in Trafalgar Square carried placards. Pic: PA
During the many months of protest in London since the start of the conflict in Gaza, never have the two sides – so ideologically far apart – been so physically close.
It wasn’t violent, except for a minor scuffle, but it wasn’t very pretty either.
It seethed with mutual animosity.
‘It’s really quite scary’
The pro-Israeli counter-protesters were few in number – fewer than a hundred, vastly outnumbered by the thousands marching past them.
That disparity is why they said they were there.
“It’s really quite scary that there are so many people the police need to protect us because there’s a real threat,” a woman draped in an Israeli flag who gave her name as Davina told Sky News.
She said a pro-Palestinian protester had made a throat-slashing gesture (Sky News could not verify that claim). “That’s terrifying,” she said. “I think all these guys will be terrified to go home wearing these flags.”
“We just want to have our voices heard and our hostages to be freed.”
Read more: Truce talks to resume – reports
Image: Pro-Palestinian marchers turned out in numbers. Pic: PA
Image: The march and protests were largely peaceful. Pic: PA
There was little – well, zero – sympathy for that point of view on the other side.
As I spoke to the pro-Palestinian protesters later, I pointed out that the pro-Israeli camp had the right to peaceful protest too.
Another person interrupted: “No, they don’t, because there’s a genocide – they’re murderers.”
“Anyone who is complicit, anyone who is silent is complicit, that’s correct,” another protester interjected.
Nearly 33,000 Palestinians have now been killed in Gaza since the start of the conflict, according to the Hamas-run health ministry there, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants – although the majority of those killed have been women and children, the ministry says.
Some 1,200 people, mostly Israelis, were killed when Hamas rampaged into southern Israel on 7 October and kidnapped some 250 others.
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London: Protesters call for ceasefire in Gaza
Can the police continue to cope?
In London, separating that strength of feeling, keeping the peace, are the police.
Before the march began, the Metropolitan Police had said that more than £30m had been spent policing the protests.
Some have questioned whether that can carry on. This was the eleventh march organised by the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign.
One man was arrested on suspicion of a terrorism-related offence during the protest.
“In my experience, this is the most prolonged series of protest events we’ve had for any cause – so at some point, it has to become unsustainable,” Graham Wettone, a policing commentator for Sky News, said.
“It becomes unsustainable for society and for the disruption to society to effectively police every single one because you’re going to have officers having rest days cancelled for months and months.”
The context of the protests has changed too.
When hundreds of thousands marched in November, it wasn’t the British government’s position to call for a ceasefire.
Now – arguably in part thanks to the protests – it is.
Read more: Famine ‘is setting in’ in Gaza, ICJ says Senior Hamas military leader killed, Israel says Steven Spielberg warns of rising antisemitism
No sign deep divisions will heal soon
I spoke with Ben Jamal, the director of the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, as he walked at the head of the march.
I asked whether protests like this – and the policing required to monitor them – were still necessary, when the British government wants the same thing, more or less?
“Unfortunately I wish that were the case,” he told me.
“It is true there’s a shift in the government position, and that is because of popular pressure so that emboldens people to keep marching and protesting.
“But the government position at the moment is to support a temporary pause and the government position at the moment is to continue selling arms to Israel.”
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So the marches will apparently continue – and so will the counter-protests. Their organisers have pledged to attend each demonstration.
Today was visceral confirmation of how deep the divisions really are.
MPs are calling for a new review into the dangers of the drug Primodos, claiming that families who suffered avoidable harm from it have been “sidelined and stonewalled”.
MPs said the suggestion there is no proven link between the hormone pregnancy test and babies being born with malformations is “factually and morally wrong”.
A report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on hormone pregnancy tests claims evidence was “covered up” and it is possible to “piece together a case that could reveal one of the biggest medical frauds of the 20th century”.
Around 1.5 million women in Britain were given hormone pregnancy tests between the 1950s and 1970s.
They were instructed to take the drug by their GPs as a way of finding out if they were pregnant.
But Primodos was withdrawn from the market in the UK in the late 1970s after regulators warned “an association was confirmed” between the drug and birth defects.
However, in 2017 an expert working group found there was insufficient evidence of a causal association.
But MPs now claim this report is flawed. It’s hugely significant because the study was relied upon by the government and manufacturers last year to strike out a claim for compensation by the alleged victims.
The APPG refers to research by Sky News which found aspects of the expert working group’s report were altered between the draft and completion.
It says: “Any risk of undue influence was confirmed by Freedom of Information (FOI) requests obtained by Sky News… that revealed a significant number of changes made to the draft version of the report.
“The APPG examined the FOIs and notes with alarm that there have been hundreds of alterations and some amount to changing the meaning of the report. This raises concerns that the final report seeks to mislead.”
A subsequent review by a team led by Baroness Cumberlege also questioned the changes made between the draft and final copy saying the revisions “created different impressions in the mind of the reader”.
Image: Nicky Gubbins has long campaigned for recognition that Primodos caused her malformations
When Sky News revealed these changes in July 2020 the Medical and Healthcare Products Regulation Agency (MHRA) told us: “It may not be obvious because of the redactions but the expert working group chair and the Commission on Human Medicines endorsed the changes to the report.”
MPs also note that a team of Oxford academics led by Professor Carl Heneghan obtained the raw data used by the expert working group and produced opposite results, finding “there was an association between Primodos and malformations”, and criticising the approach made by the expert working group.
The MPs also say new studies have added strength to claims of a link including a study in Sweden, revealed by Sky News in December.
They are now calling on ministers to commission an “independent review” review.
Read more: How Primodos campaigners are ‘running out of time’ Primodos campaigners lose legal bid for damages Theresa May calls for Primodos campaigners to be ‘treated fairly’
Image: Members of the APPG including its chair Yasmin Qureshi, middle, and vice chair Jacob Rees-Mogg, front left
The new report said MPs have “heard countless stories of sorrow and anger after a lifetime spent needlessly and irreparably damaged both physically and mentally”.
It added: “Mothers continue to be burdened by the guilt of having taken the tablets.
“Parents of the affected children, now in their 70s and 80s, are deeply anxious about what will happen to their adult children when they are no longer there for them.”
Yasmin Qureshi, chair of the APPG, said the report calls on the government to “finally do the right thing”.
“The report brings together the crucial parts of the historic research that has exposed the scandal that is at the heart of this campaign. This is the evidence that the government chooses to ignore.
“The report sets out the new scientific evidence which was recently published by a team led by Swedish scientist Professor Danielson.
“It asks, why does the government continue to rely so heavily on the expert working group report, when the findings, and how it came to achieve those findings, are so flawed?”
Image: More than 100 claimants lost a bid to sue Bayer for damages in 2023
Marie Lyon, chairwoman of the Association For Children Damaged by Hormone Pregnancy Tests, said: “I await a positive response to our request for a completely independent review of all evidence.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We remain hugely sympathetic to the families who believe that they or their children have suffered following the use of hormone pregnancy tests.
“It is right that the government is led by the scientific evidence and the government’s position remains that, after reviewing the available evidence, it does not support a causal association between the use of hormone pregnancy tests and adverse outcomes in pregnancy.
“We are not closing the door on those who believe they have been affected and have committed to reviewing any new scientific evidence which may come to light.”
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1:38:34
Watch the Sky News documentary Primodos: A Bitter Pill
The German manufacturer of Primodos, Schering, now owned by Bayer told Sky News: “Since the discontinuation of the legal action in 1982, Bayer maintains that no significant new scientific knowledge has been produced which would call into question the validity of the previous assessment of there being no link between the use of Primodos and the occurrence of such congenital anomalies.
“In 2017, the expert working group of the UK’s Commission on Human Medicines published a detailed report concluding that the available scientific data from a variety of scientific disciplines did not support the existence of a causal relationship between the use of sex hormones in pregnancy and an increased incidence of congenital anomalies in the new-born or of other adverse outcomes such as miscarriage.
“The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use of the European Medicines Agency supported that conclusion.”
Former Post Office boss Paula Vennells will give evidence to the next phase of the inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal.
She served as chief executive from 2012 to 2019, and has faced questions about why hundreds of subpostmasters were wrongly convicted of fraud and false accounting under her watch.
Scrutiny grew after she was depicted in the ITV drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office – and she gave back her CBE after the programme sparked public anger.
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‘How do you feel about ruining people’s lives?’
When she returned her honour, Ms Vennells had said: “I have so far maintained my silence as I considered it inappropriate to comment publicly while the inquiry remains ongoing and before I have provided my oral evidence.
“I now intend to continue to focus on assisting the inquiry and will not make any further public comment until it has concluded.”
Alan Bates, a former subpostmaster who has led the campaign for justice, will also be giving evidence to the inquiry when it resumes in April – as well as Lord Arbuthnot, who fought on behalf of subpostmasters during his time as an MP.
Read more: Who are key figures in scandal? Former sub-postmistress has wrongful conviction quashed Alan Bates to refuse ‘offensive’ compensation offer
More on Post Office Scandal
Image: Alan Bates (centre) speaks outside the High Court in London in March 2019. Pic: PA
Former business secretary Sir Vince Cable and current Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, who previously served as postal affairs minister, will also testify.
The scandal, which was ongoing from 1999 until 2015, represents one of the largest miscarriages of justice in UK legal history and more than 100 subpostmasters have had their convictions quashed by the Court of Appeal.
Many more are yet to be cleared and the government has come under fire for the compensation awarded to victims.
Glitches in the Horizon IT system used by the Post Office meant money looked as if it was missing from many branch accounts when in fact it was not.
The number of people who died from COVID-19 in the UK has been projected onto the walls of Barnard Castle – the evening before Dominic Cummings was set to give evidence to the official inquiry into the virus and how the UK government handled it.
A message saying “231,332 COVID deaths – is that clear enough to read?” on the notorious fortification was organised by campaign group 38 Degrees and COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK.
Mr Cummings, who famously claimed he drove to the castle to test his eyesight while the UK was still under restrictions, is due before Baroness Hallett’s probe later.
Politics Live: WhatsApps by aides of Boris Johnson revealed
It is not certain when he will be called to give evidence, after Monday’s witnesses overran.
Martin Reynolds – now known as party Marty for his role in the partygate affair – spent hours going over how the government responded to the pandemic.
Analysis: Questions are piling up for Boris Johnson and Rishi Suank – and it’s likely to get worse
He was a senior civil servant under Boris Johnson.
While the inquiry cross-examined him, messages came out which showed current Civil Service head Simon Case saying that Mr Johnson was unfit to lead due to his constant changing of direction.
Mr Case also claimed that government “isn’t actually that hard, but this guy is making it impossible“.
He is set to give evidence himself at some point, and is currently on medical leave from his role in Number 10.
Mr Reynolds – who invited Downing Street staff to a “bring your own booze” party – was supposed to only spend part of the Monday morning evidence session before the inquiry, but he ended up being required until after lunch.
As such, former Downing Street communications director Lee Cain was told he would not be heard from on Monday and instead will speak on Tuesday morning.
Image: Dominic Cummings. Pic: AP
Mr Cummings is expected to appear on Tuesday afternoon.
Having worked for Mr Johnson in Downing Street during the pandemic, the preceding election and during the Brexit deadlock, Mr Cummings has since become one of the former prime minister’s harshest critics.
Messages released on Monday show him referring to Mr Johnson as a “trolley” because his tendency to constantly change direction.
Both Mr Cummings and Mr Cain had left Downing Street by the end of 2020, with Mr Cummings claiming that Mr Johnson’s wife had too much power.
Former chancellor George Osborne warned last week that “disgusting and misogynistic” messages from the pandemic were likely to come out this week.
Boris Johnson’s chief adviser during the coronavirus pandemic, Dominic Cummings, has said he will give evidence to the UK COVID-19 Inquiry later this month.
Mr Cummings used his latest Substack post to reveal he had been going through his statement with inquiry lawyers, describing the process as “painful”.
“I finally sent it in on Thursday. I give evidence on 31/10,” he wrote.
Politics live: Sunak making ‘massive gamble’ going to Israel
Mr Cummings was Mr Johnson’s closest aide when the pandemic emerged, and the government was forced to defend him after he drove to County Durham beauty spot Barnard Castle during the first lockdown.
But he left Downing Street in November 2020 following infighting in No 10 and has since become a fierce critic of the former prime minister, suggesting he was indecisive in the response to coronavirus.
In his blog, Mr Cummings said he would eventually do a “post-evidence AMA (ask me anything)” on his and other people’s statements to the inquiry, but he had been asked not to write about it yet.
He also criticised the pace of the inquiry, which began this summer and has so far heard evidence from significant political figures, including former health secretary Matt Hancock and ex-prime minister David Cameron.
Image: Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie
The first part of the inquiry looked at the UK’s resilience and preparedness for a pandemic.
The second part of the public inquiry – which focuses on “core decision making and political governance” – started at the beginning of this month and will also see Mr Johnson give evidence.
The inquiry has already heard how Mr Johnson described long COVID as “b*******” and that his wife, Carrie, had been described as “the real person in charge” by the head of the UK’s civil service.
Scientific advisers have also given evidence, with Professor Stephen Riley telling the inquiry on Tuesday that there could have been fewer deaths if the UK went into the first lockdown two weeks earlier.
Meanwhile, Professor Neil Ferguson – whose COVID modelling was instrumental to the UK going into lockdown – denied stepping “over the line” and telling ministers they needed to shut down.
Read more: Up to 200,000 people to be monitored for COVID this winter to track infection rates COVID vaccine scientists win Nobel Prize in medicine
He said while he is “very much associated with a particular policy… the reality was a lot more complex”.
“I don’t think I stepped over that line to say: ‘We need to do this now’,” he said.
“What I tried to do was, at times – which was stepping outside the scientific advisory role – to try and focus people’s minds on what was going to happen and the consequences of current trends.”
Hundreds of thousands of Britons are taking antidepressants for chronic pain without enough evidence they work, according to a large study.
Researchers looked at drugs commonly prescribed by the NHS including amitriptyline, duloxetine, fluoxetine (Prozac), citalopram, paroxetine (Seroxat) and sertraline.
They concluded only duloxetine had robust evidence for pain relief.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) recommends them as an option where the root cause is unknown, including for some cancer pain, and conditions that can cause neuropathic pain, such as stroke.
It said it had reviewed the study in detail but decided an update to guidelines was currently unnecessary.
The research looked at 176 trials and almost 30,000 patients, and included institutions such as University College London, and the universities of Bath, Bristol and Southampton.
It also raised concerns about a lack of long-term data on the drugs’ safety.
Lead author Professor Tamar Pincus said the findings raised a “global public health concern”, with people prescribed the drugs without “sufficient scientific proof they help, nor an understanding of the long-term impact on health”.
“Our review found no reliable evidence for the long-term efficacy of any antidepressant, and no reliable evidence for their safety for chronic pain at any point,” she said.
“Though we did find that duloxetine provided short-term pain relief for patients we studied, we remain concerned about its possible long-term harm due to the gaps in current evidence.”
Read more from Sky News UK’s first ‘three-parent baby’ born after IVF procedure COVID no longer health emergency, says WHO
Professor Pincus said there were around 15 million low-dose amitriptyline prescriptions in England in 2020 to 2021 – and hundreds of thousands likely taking it for pain – but the drug is “probably not very healthy”.
“The fact that we don’t find evidence whether it works or not is not the same as finding evidence that it doesn’t work,” she added.
“We don’t know – the studies simply are not good enough and, similarly, we don’t know whether it harms or not.”
Patients ‘shouldn’t panic’
The authors are urging people to continue drugs they have been prescribed and to raise any concerns with their GP.
Dr Ryan Patel, from King’s College London, explained that antidepressants are prescribed for pain because “the systems that regulate mood and pain overlap considerably”.
He said the study showed “when clinical trials are designed poorly under the assumption that everyone’s experience of pain is uniform, most antidepressants appear to have limited use for treating chronic pain”.
The chair of the Royal College of GPs said doctors aim to treat chronic pain with a mix of psychological, pharmacological and physical treatments – and to prescribe “the lowest dose of medicines, for the shortest time”.
Professor Kamila Hawthorne said patients “shouldn’t panic” and reiterated they should continue with their medication until they’ve discussed things with their GP.
Nice said its recommendation for antidepressants as a treatment option came after a thorough look at the benefits and harms.
It said evidence showed they can help with “quality of life, pain, sleep and psychological distress, even in the absence of a diagnosis of depression”.
Children as young as eight are being strip-searched by police officers, according to a report which detailed almost 3,000 searches of minors in England and Wales over four years.
The report also found “ethnic disproportionality”, with black children six times more likely to be strip-searched compared to the national population; white children were half as likely to be searched.
Children’s commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, demanded the report which showed 2,847 strip-searches of youngsters between eight and 17 took place between 2018 and mid-2022 across England and Wales.
The research showed 52% of strip-searches took place without an appropriate adult present, which is required by law except in situations of “urgency”.
One per cent of the searches occurred “within public view”, with some taking place in police vehicles and schools, a few even in takeaways and amusement parks. However, location was not recorded in 45% of cases – criticised as “poor quality of record-keeping” by Dame Rachel.
The research follows the “traumatic” strip-search of Child Q, a black schoolgirl on her period wrongly suspected by police of carrying cannabis.
The 15-year-old was searched in the school’s medical room by two female officers without teachers present in 2020.
The ordeal, which Scotland Yard said “should never have happened”, left the girl scarred according to family members, who believe the search was racially motivated.
Read more: Children as young as nine exposed to pornography, report warns Police forces ordered to reveal number of ‘intrusive and traumatic’ child strip-searches after Child Q scandal
The incident prompted Dame Rachel to request the report, which showed more than 600 children underwent “intrusive and traumatising” searches over a two-year period, with black boys disproportionately targeted.
Dame Rachel condemned the findings as “utterly unacceptable” and generally that strip-searching children was an “intrusive and potentially traumatic power” which must be subject to “robust safeguards”.
She recommended 17 reforms to the Home Office regarding child strip-searching policy, which include:
“Urgency” strip-searches to be banished with constant supervision from an appropriate adult instead. She said only in “the most exceptional situations where there is serious risk to the child’s life or welfare” where this should not be the case.
Schools excluded as an appropriate strip-search location, with police stations, medical facilities or at the child’s home address as alternatives.
Officers reporting annually on searches, including records of ethnicity, if an appropriate adult was present, the location and if a safeguarding referral was made.
A spokesperson said the Home Office takes safeguarding children extremely seriously.
“Strip-search is one of the most intrusive powers available to the police,” the spokesperson said. “No one should be subject to strip-search on the basis of race or ethnicity and safeguards exist to prevent this.”
Family and friends of missing woman Nicola Bulley have claimed there is “no evidence whatsoever” behind a police update suggesting the mother-of-two fell into the river.
Officers believe the 45-year-old “sadly” fell into the River Wyre while she was walking her dog last Friday morning but are continuing the search.
It is understood Ms Bulley went missing in just “a 10-minute window” while she was walking her dog, Willow, close to the River Wyre, after dropping off her daughters – aged six and nine – at school.
Search teams from Lancashire Constabulary are continuing to trawl the waterway near St Michael’s.
Ms Bulley’s friend, Emma White, told Sky News that 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.
“We still have no evidence, and that’s why we’re out together in force.
“You don’t base life on a hypothesis.”
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2:03
Retracing Nicola Bulley’s journey
Meanwhile, Ms Bulley’s sister Louise Cunningham shared a Facebook post urging people to carry on the search and to “keep an open mind”.
She said: “Off the back of the latest Police media update, please can I add there is no evidence whatsoever that she has gone into the river, it’s just a theory.
“Everyone needs to keep an open mind as not all cctv and leads have been investigated fully, the police confirmed the case is far from over.”
Ms Bulley’s friend Ms White 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”.
“There was definitely no ball,” she added.
Image: Police have speculated that Nicola Bulley had an issue with her dog, Willow.
Police have urged the public to look out along the river for the items of clothing that Ms Bulley was last seen wearing.
This includes 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.
Image: Specialist search teams from Lancashire Police, beside the bench (top left) where Nicola Bulley’s phone was found
Search teams are also being helped by specialists and divers from HM Coastguard, mountain rescue, and Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service – with sniffer dogs, drones, and police helicopters also being used.
Read more: Police vow to bring missing mum home as they urge search teams to scour river bank for clothes Police believe missing dog walker fell into river as investigation focuses on 10-minute window Nicola Bulley’s friends given new hope after ‘influx of calls’ to police
Image: Police officers on the River Wyre, in St Michael’s on Wyre, Lancashire, as the search continues
Detectives are also analysing CCTV and dashcam videos, and members of the public with footage which could be useful have been urged to come forward.
Speaking at a news conference on Friday, Superintendent Sally Riley said there may have been an “issue with the dog that led her to the water’s edge, she puts her phone down to go and deal with the dog momentarily, and Nicola may have fallen in”.
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Supt Sally Riley said officers believe Nicola Bulley fell into the River Wyre
However, Ms Bulley’s partner Paul Ansell, 44, said he would “never lose hope” of finding her.
“We’re never, ever going to lose hope, of course we’re not, but it is as though she has vanished into thin air. It’s just insane,” he said.
The 44-year-old said his “whole focus is my two girls” and that he was “hoping to goodness” that people would come forward with new information.
