Nicola Bulley diver Peter Faulding responds to ‘unfair’ new documentary

Specialist diver Peter Faulding has said he was presented "unfairly" in a BBC documentary about her disappearance.

Leicester, Leicestershire, UK. 27th February 2024. Police divers are joined by Peter Faulding from Specialist Group International as the search continues for Xielo Maruziva, a 2 year old boy that fell into flood water in the Grand Union Canal in Aylestone Meadows, Leicester on Sunday February 18th and hasn’t been seen since.  ALEX HANNAM PHOTOGRAPHY  alex@alexhannamphotography.co.uk
Peter Faulding's involvement in the Nicola Bulley case led to friction with police. (Alamy)

An expert diver who played a controversial role in the search for Nicola Bulley has hit back at comments about his involvement made by police in a BBC documentary looking at her disappearance.

In a statement released on Friday morning, Peter Faulding insisted he had been presented "unfairly" in the programme and wanted to "set the record straight".

Bulley, 45, vanished on 27 January, 2023, after dropping her daughters off at school and then taking her dog for a walk along the River Wyre in St Michael’s on Wyre, Lancashire. The mortgage adviser's phone was found by a park bench, along with the family dog, Willow, with police suspecting she had fallen into the river.

Faulding, a confined space rescue and forensic search specialist, had been interviewed by the media about his expertise, prompting the family to contact his private firm for help. "I was focusing more on the fact that he'd said he'd be able to prove that she wasn't in the water," Bulley's husband Paul Ansell told the BBC's The Search for Nicola Bulley.

Friends of missing woman Nicola Bulley hold missing person appeal posters along the main road in the village in St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire. Ms Bulley, 45, was last seen two weeks ago on the morning of Friday January 27, when she was spotted walking her dog on a footpath by the nearby River Wyre. Picture date: Friday February 10, 2023. (Photo by Owen Humphreys/PA Images via Getty Images)
Friends of Nicola Bulley hold missing person appeal posters in St Michael's on Wyre. (Getty Images)

"Peter was so confident, I was on tenterhooks the whole time. Peter was there because he was adamant that if she was there, he would have found her," Bulley's sister, Louise Cunningham says.

Ansell told the programe: First day ended and he hadn't find anything, which was exactly what we had hoped for. The next day, the same again.

Sky News journalist Inzamam Rashid is shown telling the programme: "He gave it the big 'I am' and days went by and he hadn't found her."

After spending days searching up and down the river Wyre, Faulding was convinced Bulley was not in the water, suspecting a third-party was involved. In the end, this theory was proved incorrect, as Bulley was found in the river three weeks later.

Here, Yahoo News takes a look at Faulding's career and what he said during the hunt for Nicola Bulley.

On his website, Peter Faulding describes himself as a "world-leading confined space rescue and forensic search specialist".

From the age of five, he says he explored disused mines and caves with his father, John – leading to him becoming highly skilled in tunnelling and shoring techniques.

He went on to train specialist rescue teams at the London Fire Brigade and United Kingdom's search and rescue teams in the 1990s, and was tasked to search for and safely remove environmental protesters from manmade tunnels under the proposed Newbury Bypass in 1996.

A year later, he removed anti-roads protester, "Swampy" from a network of tunnels under the proposed A30 Honiton Bypass route.

Leicester, Leicestershire, UK. 27th February 2024. Police divers are joined by Peter Faulding from Specialist Group International as the search continues for Xielo Maruziva, a 2 year old boy that fell into flood water in the Grand Union Canal in Aylestone Meadows, Leicester on Sunday February 18th and hasn’t been seen since.  ALEX HANNAM PHOTOGRAPHY  alex@alexhannamphotography.co.uk
Police divers are joined by Peter Faulding from Specialist Group International in the search for missing Xielo Maruziva in February 2024. (Alamy)

Faulding who lives with his family live on a farm in West Sussex, went on to found, rescue and "protest removal" service Specialist Group International, and has worked as a key adviser to the Home Office's Policing of Environmental Protest working group.

According to his website, Faulding pioneered the use of side scan sonar for forensic missing persons searches underwater, and has been brought in to help with a number of cold cases and "no body" murder investigations.

Faulding, a qualified commercial diver, helicopter and fixed-wing pilot, has also trained police search advisers and the military personnel and served for six years in the 10th Volunteer Battalion, Parachute Regiment.

In the BBC programme, police said Faulding's involvement in the Bulley case caused friction with Lancashire Police as he challenged the force's assumption that the mother-of-two had fallen into the river.

"Peter Faulding was outside of the police investigation. He was providing contradictory opinion. Who do they believe? And who do they want to believe?", senior investigating officer Detective Superintendent Becky Smith told the documentary.

Bulley's sister, Louise Cunningham, described how "confident" Peter was, adding: "I was on tenterhooks the whole time. Peter was there because he was adamant that if she was there he would have found her."

Nicola Bulley's partner Paul Ansell pictured in 'The Search for Nicola Bulley', went to Peter Faulding's dive firm for help during the search for his partner. (BBC)
Nicola Bulley's partner Paul Ansell pictured in 'The Search for Nicola Bulley', went to Peter Faulding's dive firm for help during the search for his partner. (BBC)

After three days of searching up and down the river with no results, Faulding confidently told the media he suspected third-party involvement.

"I said that if Nicola is here, I'd find her, if Nicola was in that river, I would have found her, I can guarantee you that, and she's not there," he told reporters.

Listening back to the speech with a slight smile on her face, Det Supt Smith tells the programme: "That was a very bold statement to make, because she was in the river. They didn't want to think that had happened to Nikki, so he's telling them what they want to hear."

On 19 February, more than three weeks after she'd been reported missing, Bulley's body was found in the river.

In November 2023, a report into investigators' handling of the case, led by the College of Policing, found Faulding had "caused challenges" to the police's search and to "public confidence".

"The review team considers that some of his actions created a more challenging environment for the investigation team," it says.

"His public statements often contradicted the investigative and operational approach, leading to confusion for the public and reducing the family's trust in the investigation and search operation."

With police concerned about the negative attention they'd receive by limiting options to find Bulley, the force conceded and allowed Specialist Group International to help, contacting Faulding, who offered his services free of charge.

After the report's release, College of Policing chief executive Chief Constable Andy Marsh, said: "His interactions with the media weren't coordinated with constabulary media releases and it certainly led to complications and challenges for the force."

Faulding claimed in a YouTube video that he in fact did find Bulley in the river six minutes into his search, but was ignored by police. In a social media post in December, he said he'd found the body using a 1800 KHz side scan sonar but that the "police dive team told me the target was nothing".

"Sonar targets are not created by nothing, they later changed their statement to say it was a branch. The images are clear but the supporting sonar data is irrefutable and undeniable. Please see my interview in pursuit of the truth."

On 4 October, Faulding released a statement saying it "portrayed my team unfairly and I want to set the record straight".

He said: "SGI was called upon to assist with the search for Nicola by her partner Paul. We did so free of charge as we had the relevant equipment and expertise and simply wanted to help a family in distress, after many days of Nicola not being found.

"My statement that ‘if Nicola was there, I would have found her’ comes from nearly 3 decades of experience. Since 1999, I have pioneered the use of side scan sonar for forensic and underwater search in the UK. I make no apologies for being confident in my and my team’s skills.

"I stand by my previous statement outlining our version of events that I located the body of Nicola Bulley at 10.34 on 7th February within 6 minutes.

"Unfortunately, it is now time to defend myself and my team’s unblemished reputation and stand up for the truth. We have always carried out our role with honesty and integrity and it was never our intention to cause any conflict with the police or the family."

Despite his clashes with police, Faulding was brought in to help with the case of missing two-year-old Xielo Maruziva, who fell into the River Soar in Aylestone, Leicestershire in February 2024.

Faulding claimed Xielo’s family had got in touch to request his help, but that his offer of support was ignored by police, the Independent reported.

However, the paper says that after “further conversations with search specialists and Xielo’s family," Specialist Group International was allowed to join the search effort.

Maruziva was eventually found by four workmen at a bridge near Pebble Beach in Aylestone Meadows nature reserve nearly four months after he'd fallen into the river.

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