A TikToker who filmed police as they pulled Nicola Bulley’s body from the river claims he has made an “anonymous donation” to the mother-of-two’s family to make amends for his actions.
Barber Curtis Arnold shared footage of officers searching the water’s edge and using a body bag near St Michael’s on Wyre after two dog walkers found Ms Bulley’s body on 19 February.
Mr Arnold faced a backlash over the videos and later took them down from his TikTok account – which had over 13,000 followers and had been dedicated to coverage of the case, spun as “media done differently”.
In a video shared on Sunday, Mr Arnold said he had now made a donation to Ms Bulley’s family to make amends, adding: “In hindsight, perhaps it was a little bit sensitive.”
He claimed he had given “five times” the amount of money the video made him, but he did not disclose the amount.
Mr Arnold said: “In hindsight, perhaps it was a little bit sensitive, perhaps it was bad timing to put that video online as an individual journalist for YouTube, rather than mainstream media.
“Perhaps mainstream media can get away with that. I just presumed, they’d taken the video and the viewers on YouTube would want to see what’s happening and perhaps I didn’t take into account the family at that time, I admit that.
“That’s why I’ve taken it off TikTok, I’ve taken it off Facebook and today, I’ve made a donation to the family – five times the amount that that particular video has made me. I won’t give figures away but I’ve made an anonymous donation to Paul [Ansell].”
The 34-year-old also claimed he had been assaulted and had his “personal address posted all over Facebook” after sharing the videos, adding: “Safe to say I’ve learned my lesson maybe perhaps on a video like that.”
Mr Arnold then addressed Ms Bulley’s partner directly, saying: “Paul Ansell, if you’re watching this, I hope it hasn’t offended you too much and I wish you well with moving forward.”
The barber had previously told The Sun he had held his phone high above his head, resting it on fencing, in order to take the video. “I couldn’t see a thing but I knew my camera would be recording whatever was happening,” Mr Arnold remarked.
Mr Arnold was just one of a number of social media sleuths who flocked to the Lancashire village in the days after Ms Bulley vanished.
TikTok said in an earlier statement: “Our thoughts are with Ms Bulley’s family and friends at this difficult time. We have mobilised resources to monitor the evolving conversation about this case.
“We are taking action against violations of our community guidelines, including removing content and accounts, and limiting the reach of some content by making it ineligible for recommendation.”
