INTERVIEW WITH PETER FAULDING
6TH FEBRUARY
Faulding - We've got a specialist bit of kit, high frequency side scan sonar which we've got a very high hit rate. I was the first to bring it into the UK, in 1999, and to have pioneered the use of it over here, so I can find anything with that and if Nicola is here, I'm happy that we will find her, if she is in the river.
Reporter - What's your search plan? Obviously, there's a weir on the way here. Do you search from the bench to the weir first? Do you go from the weir downwards?
Faulding - We've been tasked by Lancashire Police, we're working closely with them, so we're going to be coming down from the weir and we're going down towards the estuary, but it's a fair stretch of river and we'll be looking at the bottom. It is deep in places, shallow in places, so it's not so much of a challenge, it's more of a slower process. Normally we can cover about 10 miles of river a day with a sonar but this is quite a windy river. But it's not that wide, it's not that fast moving, so it should be quite straightforward.
Reporter - Do you worry that if the police theory is correct, as it stands at the moment, she went into the water - Do you worry that her body could have gone into the sea?
Faulding - I think it's a bit of a long stretch to go to the sea. From my experience, normally drowning victims go in and they're normally within 200/300 metres or very near where they went in, so I don't think she would have gone a long way. The river is not in flood, from the first time I've seen it today. If we had storms and there was lots of flood water then I would expect in the high flow for a body to get carried but once a drowning victim goes to the bottom they tend to stay on the bottom for 7 or 8 days and they, sort of, just move slowly along the bottom. That again... if it's flooded, that's different, but it's not.
Reporter - Do you believe that she is in the river? I think you might have cast some doubt on that.
Faulding - Well, I think the police - they're doing the right thing. The clear evidence is - the phone was by the river, the dog harness was by the river, so I think that's their only clue at the moment and we've got to be able to eliminate this river. So we can either confirm or deny what's in here today.
Reporter - In terms of those conversations with police, you say you're working with them closely - How confident do you think the police feel that that's what's happened, that she's gone in the river?
Faulding - I believe.. the police I believe, I think, that she's in here and obviously that's where the evidence is actually pointing us at the moment. The police are doing a great job. It's a big task for Lancashire police to do. This is a particularly long stretch of river to search and we just bring that backup resource to work closely with them, at this instant.
Reporter - We understand that Paul (
Nicola's partner) called you personally. What can you tell us about that conversation you had with him?
Faulding - Well, Paul called me the other day to.. we spoke and he was then speaking to Lancashire Police to bring us in. That afternoon there was bit of miscommunication but they agreed to bring us in, because we do the police diving anyway for the whole of the South East. So we're a well known police operational team and we bring that expertise and we've got a very good working relationship with Lancashire Police at the moment.
Reporter - Was it difficult talking to Paul?
Faulding - Paul is extremely distraught. I've just spoken to him, just now, where we're staying and my thoughts go out to the family and friends. It's a very difficult time. I'm used to dealing with families of drowning victims, it's a horrible thing to be going through, not knowing where your loved one is and that's the.. if anyone puts them in his mind, it's is a horrible thing. You don't know where your mind is.
Reporter - If Nicola isn't found are you confident to say that she isn't in the River?
Faulding - Yes. If we can't find her in the next three or four days in this river, if she's not here, then I'm confident she's not in this stretch of river. I'd be very confident of that.
Reporter - How long are you expecting to be here today?
Faulding - I don't know how long we're going to be here. We'll probably be up here, operationally, probably for the next three or four days working. We'll do what we can for the family and to assist Lancashire Police as well so...
Reporter - And how often do you get requests like you have from Paul?
Faulding - We get a request a fair amount from families when they can't find loved ones.
Reporter - How often do you commit to them like this?
Faulding - It's very difficult operationally sometimes. We help occasionally with requests but it's very very difficult because we're an operational team, but this week we've got a free'ish diary so I could put resources up here and we are not charging. To make it clear we are not charging the police or the family for this operation and the family have actually, kindly accommodated us with some friends. So that's made our life a lot easier to be fair.
Reporter - And do you believe that she is in this water?
Faulding - I do believe she's in here, from the evidence we've got at the moment. I mean, that is what everything is pointing to the river at the moment. And there's no, there doesn't seem to be a third party involved.
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