A TikTok ghoul has admitted he covertly filmed as Nicola Bulley's body was retrieved from the river as he claims he has made an “anonymous donation” to the mother-of-two’s family to make amends for his actions.
Curtis Arnold, 34, was unmasked as a hairdresser from the Midlands after sharing the grim footage of officers using a body bag by the water's edge on several social media channels.
Many condemned the eight-minute clip with Mr Arnold meanwhile now claiming he donated to the family's fundraising appeal after releasing it was "a little bit sensitive".
In a video shared with his followers on Sunday, Mr Arnold claims he gave "five times" the amount of money the video made him, but did not specify the figure.
On his 'Curtis Media' channels on TikTok, YouTube and Facebook, Mr Arnold claims to offer "media and journalism done differently".
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 was 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].”
He also claimed his personal address was shared on Facebook while adding: "Safe to say I’ve learned my lesson maybe perhaps on a video like that.”
Mr Arnold then addressed Nicola'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.”
Arnold's TikTok account 'Nicola Bulley Case', which had over 13,000 followers and 100,000 'likes', has since been removed.
Experts say that social media algorithms encourage and reward controversial content like Arnold's.
There have been 400 million views on TikTok alone of videos with the hashtag 'NicolaBulley'.
They include over half a million views of 26-year-old 'psychic' Lucy Hesford-Buckingham, from Wales, sharing her vision on the case before Nicola's body was found.
In her video, she claimed that she sensed intuitively from an 'overwhelming smell of lemon bleach' that Nicola was still alive but being held captive and in 'severe danger'.
So many self-styled sleuths descended on St Michael's on Wyre that, at one point, police had to issue a 48-hour dispersal order to clear the village of outsiders.
TikTok has previously insisted that it removes content and accounts that engage in bullying and harassment or otherwise violates its policies.
