The Glow Up
Digging into the socials of Nicola Bulley's partner.
Content warning: imagery toward the end of this post is NSFW (not safe for work).
On Sunday, February 19, the day Nicola Bulley's body was found, someone connected to her partner (if not her partner himself), took the time to sell a story to the media about how his Pinterest and other social media accounts had allegedly been "hacked." The body found had not yet been identified as Nicola's, but the partner seemed to believe it was hers, as he released a text statement to Inzaman Rashid at Sky News that day saying he and the family were in "agony."
For the "hacking" story, the "victim" used The Daily Express, which disseminated it to other outlets owned by Reach Media Group, which was the friend circle's preferred confidant during the search. Reach Media Group includes publications like the Mirror, Manchester Evening News, Lancs Live, etc., and these publications all published sympathetic and defensive stories that also tended to help plant rumors, suggestions and confusing details in the weeks leading up to February 19 (and afterward), led by quotes from Nicola's friends (one in particular). These articles were so glowing and treacly toward the partner that it at times felt to me like he had a PR rep working for him (maybe he did).
As an ex-journalist with a retired news editor parent, I found it hilarious, but not surprising, that The Daily Express in particular wrote a non-editorial "news" piece that contained editorial language, specifically calling the alleged hackers "disgraceful online trolls." But such is tabloid life. The article also called the "hackers" "sick" and said they had "traumatized" the owner of the accounts. On the day Nicola was found. If I had to pick a thing to be traumatized about on February 19...
And "traumatized" is a funny word considering that the man's TikTok account followed upwards of 300 underage and 20-something lingerie/bikini models and other scantily-clad influencers, and his Pinterest account had pins of topless or sexily dressed women dating back eight months and earlier. Here are screenshots I took on February 17 of who he followed on TikTok. This is just a small sampling, as in total he followed 449 people:
Just as one example, he followed Olivia Dunne, who is in college and currently 20 years old. He presently follows her in Instagram.
Here are screenshots of his Pinterest taken on February 20:
But how do we know those accounts were really him?, you ask. Well, for one, his Pinterest account linked to his actual blog about personal growth (which has not been updated in years). But mainly we know they were his accounts because Lancashire Police released a statement on February 19 "confirming" that his Pinterest account had been hacked and that the matter was being investigated, and the accounts taken down. Wasn't Lancashire Constabulary a bit busy that day?
We also know they were his accounts because his actual Instagram account, which is live and public now, though it contains no content of his own, follows many of the same women the TikTok account was following. In fact, over the past few months, his Instagram account has continued to add dozens of underage and otherwise very young lingerie/bikini influencers and other content creators (I really don't know what to call them and do not judge any of these women at all; hopefully you get the type of content I'm talking about.) His LinkedIn account has in the past (in 2022) also "liked" a couple of posts by very young, well-endowed women talking about 1) the pros of not wearing bras (with picture illustrating such) and 2) of not drinking alcohol.
Let me be clear, in my opinion there is nothing wrong with having such accounts or liking such content if your partner knew about it and didn't mind. What I have a problem with is 1) Possibly doing this in secret, even though his accounts were all public, 2) The potential for this type of behavior to be a precursor or accompaniment to other dishonest behavior, 3) Not following your own partner back on Instagram while at the same time following underage/20-something influencers, which was the case here, and 4) Saying that you were hacked on the day that the body of, in all likelihood, your partner and the mother of your children is found in a river. Even if you were hacked, why are you taking attention off the unimaginable reality of what just happened to your partner? But by all appearances you weren't hacked, which makes it doubly concerning that you chose to do this.
Unfortunately there's more. I didn't take screenshots, but this man changed his Instagram username from something to the effect of "porl20" after Nicola's body was found and identified, to "paulydances." Yes, that's right. He chose to use a vague play on words of his last name to talk about "dancing" after his partner is found dead in a river and his children are left motherless. In the months since, as I've already said, his public Instagram account (which also follows Nicola's sister, his own sister, his father, et al) has added a bunch of new babes to his following list, as recently as this past weekend. Here is just a sample of the content from people he follows, with their identities (rather crudely, sorry) obscured out of respect for them (Pinterest screenshot is on here as well):
It's hard to isolate this from everything else that's gone on, including rumors (just rumors at this point) from locals that the man was seen drunk and enjoying himself in a pub on the Saturday after Nicola went missing and on other days in late January and early February (these comments were made in multiple Twitter Spaces, and one participant said he was seen "laughing" at the pub in early February).
I don't know what's happening here, but it sure doesn't look like grief. It looks more like a glow up. And as a woman, mother and human, it deeply saddens me.