Ex-detective who exposed Jimmy Saville’s crimes joins hunt for Nicola Bulley

Author of ‘Hunting Killers’ says he will ‘explore all the options’ in missing dogwalker disappearance

A former detective who exposed Jimmy Saville’s history of abuse has joined the search for missing dogwalker Nicola Bulley.

Mother-of-two Ms Bulley has been missing for more than a fortnight after she vanished walking her dog alongside the River Wyre in Lancashire on 27 January. Police are no closer to finding her, despite weeks of searching the river and the area around it.

Now, ex-Surrey Police officer Mark Williams-Thomas has said he will head to the last spot Ms Bulley was sighted to begin his own search.

Nicola Bulley went missing more than two weeks ago (Family handout/PA Wire)

Posting on Twitter, the child protection expert said he will “pull together a quick turn-around report of what exactly is known about the disappearance of #nicolabulley”.

“I will explore all the options, bring you a factual evidence analysis and dismiss some of the inaccuracies.”

Mr Williams-Thomas is known for looking into notorious missing persons cases, including Madeleine McCann’s disappearance which he called “insolvable”.

Writing about the case in his book ‘Hunting Killers’, he said: “The abduction of Madeleine McCann is one I’d put into the unsolvable category. The case hasn’t been solved simply because a crucial CCTV camera was turned off, meaning that whoever took Madeleine was not identifiable at the scene.”

He began investigating the Savile case in 2011, researching and presenting ITV’s documentary ‘the Other Side of Jimmy Saville’ for ITV a year later.

Mark Williams-Thomas helped expose Jimmy Saville’s crimes a decade ago (PA)

He is the latest high-profile crime expert to offer to help with Ms Bulley’s disappearance, after underwater forensic specialist Peter Faulding carried out searches of the river last week.

The police maintain that there is third-party involvement and believe she fell in the river despite a lack of evidence to confirm the theory.

Friends of Ms Bulley have identified a number of CCTV blindspots in the area near the river she was walking by, including a camera close to a mobile home site called Rowanwater, near her last known sighting, isn’t working.

Another is the path near the Wyreside Farm Caravan Park through to the A586, but again it is believed the camera there does not work either.

In its latest update on the search on Friday, police said the search was ongoing and had stretched to nearby Morecambe Bay.

Ms Bulley’s family are desperate for answers (PA)

A spokesperson said in a statement: “Based on all the work we have done up to now our belief remains that Nicola may have fallen into the river for some reason, but we are continuing to investigate all possible leads, and this involves viewing CCTV, Dashcam footage and speaking to people who are providing us with information.

“It remains the case that at the present time there is absolutely nothing in all the extensive enquiries we have made that suggests anything untoward has happened or that there is any third-party involvement in Nicola’s disappearance, but the investigation is ongoing.

“Anyone with information or footage is asked to submit information through the Major Incident Public Portal (MiPP) at Public Portal (mipp.police.uk).”