Selfie-takers ‘wanted validation from being at Nicola Bulley disappearance site’

The bench where Nicola Bulley’s phone was found, on the banks of the River Wyre, in St Michael’s on Wyre, Lancashire (Danny Lawson/PA)

People taking selfies at the site where Nicola Bulley went missing could have been seeking a sense of “personal validation” or might have been hoping to make money from online clicks, an expert has suggested.

In the weeks after the mother-of-two’s disappearance, a family friend said members of the public had arrived from far and wide, some bringing children and taking selfies, making the area feel like a “tourist spot”.