Nicola Bulley and the debacle of Lancashire police’s investigation
The storm that has engulfed Lancashire Police – after the force revealed that missing mum Nicola Bulley had ‘issues with alcohol’ – has been a long time brewing. Since February 29 2012 to be precise. The Leveson Inquiry into press wrongdoing was in full flow when, on that leap year day 11 years ago, the Met Police made a public admission: they had indeed loaned an old police horse to Rebekah Brooks. This was perfectly normal, they argued. The horse needed somewhere to live and the News UK chief paid for its upkeep. But the episode came to symbolise what the press’s many critics had long insisted was a too-cosy relationship between
