Molly Bury, 28, illegally accessed the Police National Computer database to find out intimate details about the missing mum’s case.
Bury also accessed police logs between October 2019 to March 2023 and found information on a baby, hit and run crash, and a stabbing, to share with friends as ‘idle gossip’, Chester Magistrates Court heard.
A friend pestered her for information about Bulley and she said: ‘I will get in s*** if they see me checking.’
When pressed again, Bury said: ‘I have not checked. I cannot keep checking. I will get into trouble.’
Bury was only arrested when somebody heard her mum, Andrea Mercer, saying Bury shared information with her about a rape after ‘she checked her police thing’.
Police found a mobile phone in her home when it was raided which was used to send confidential information.
Gayle McCoubrey, prosecuting, said: ‘On January 28, 2023, the defendant was showing as off sick yet she carried out a search for Nicola Bulley and messages were sent regards that. She sent a number of text messages with regard to that missing person.
‘On January 29, she was sick but has again accessed the police system and viewed deployed patrols. At 10.59 Miss Sanderson asked: ‘Any update on Nicky?’ She replied, ‘I will get in shit if they see me checking.’
‘At 11.01, she accessed the Samsung device and searched again and a further message was sent regarding Nicola Bulley. At 6.33 Miss Sanderson sent a message ‘Any update?’ and Miss Bury replied: ‘I have not checked. I cannot keep checking. I will get into trouble.”
‘In terms of culpability, this conduct takes place over a number of years, there are 32 occasions, so obviously the volume of the charges is an aggravating feature. She is also a serving police officer and she shared that information with multiple members of the public.
‘It is difficult to assess the harm as we do not know what the outcome was from accessing that information. She was spreading gossip or sensitive information. There was no policing purposes for this defendant to access the logs on these occasions.’
On the phone found in her home, a text was found from 2019 sent to a friend called Elliot about a stabbing that she went to.
It said: ‘The lad from stabbing survived. A hit and run just came in. Woman probably going to die. Car drove onto the pavement into this lad and girl.’
In another message from December 2019, in reference to a dead baby, she wrote: ‘Oh my God, it is a one year old child.’
She also shared information with a friend about a man wanted for a stabbing, another about a woman who jumped off a building and another in jail for a drug offence with a friend called Amy Sanderson.
Bury was sentenced to six months in prison suspended for 12 months after a judge ruled she was ‘profoundly immature’ and ‘not corrupt.’
She was also ordered to complete 30 days of rehabilitation activity and pay £154 in costs and surcharge.
Deputy Senior District Judge Tan Ikram told Bury: ‘You made admissions and you were remorseful in the interview.. I think it was real remorse. You described your actions as stupid and that you had been nosey.
‘You did not think you were malicious and I accept that. But you conceded that it crossed boundaries and these undignified and unlawful disclosures demonstrated profound immaturity on your part.
‘There was a complete lack of insight into the need for confidentiality in policing. You seem to find humour and positive pleasure in sharing information. On occasions it is clearly more than curiosity and it is clear that it gives the impression of idle gossip.’
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