A TIKTOK ghoul barged into the official press space with a GoPro strapped to his chest on the day Nicola Bulley's physique was discovered.
Regardless of being a barber with no journalism credentials, Curtis Arnold managed to wander by means of the cordoned off part in St Michael's, Lancashire, to nab content material for his social media.
He wore a blue and white Pierre Cardin polo shirt and gray tracksuit bottoms with the digital camera clipped onto his collar.
On the identical day, he duped police and covertly filmed because the mum-of-two was retrieved from the River Wyre - greater than three weeks after she disappeared.
The 34-year-old posted grim footage of officers by the water's edge on TikTok and YouTube.
Arnold's sickening eight-minute clip sparked a wave of condemnation - however its close to million views have earned him virtually £1,000 in royalties.
He additionally shared a video of the ashen-faced couple in shock after discovering 45-year-old Nicola in reeds on February 19.
He beforehand recorded a "potential burial web site" in woodland close to the place Nicola was final seen on January 27 and headlined a string of movies with outrageous smears towards her accomplice Paul Ansell.
Arnold claims to supply "media and journalism performed in a different way" however hides his identification on-line.
He's cautious to not seem on digital camera, and typically makes use of an image of Paul as his profile picture.
However he was unmasked after being tracked right down to his barber store from his digital footprint and channel rebrand.
The powerlifter made 5, six-hour spherical journeys from his Worcestershire house to St Michael's on Wyre within the house of 10 days to accumulate content material for his on-line following.
Arnold's most sickening video from the village opens along with his GoPro, mounted to a harness round his neck, filming a male police officer blocking his path.
He's requested to show again however methods the cop into letting him by means of by claiming that he must return to his parked automobile and saying that he's from Blackpool.
As dozens of officers collect and a police helicopter and drone hover overhead, Arnold asks a feminine colleague on the opposite aspect of the cordon: "What is going on on down there? I've walked down and he would not let me cross."
She additionally directs him to go away the realm however the video then cuts to Arnold filming covertly as officers elevate what seems to be a physique bag.
Many viewers reacted with horror to his footage headlined "Nicola Bulley *breaking* police discovered one thing".
One wrote: "That is disgraceful! Think about if that was the one you love. I hope her household doesn't see this."
One other mentioned: "You want your head filming this. Her kids will see this someday, you vile man."
He'll do something for extra views to earn a living.
Arnold's TikTok account specializing in Nicola's case, which had greater than 13,000 followers and 100,000 likes, has since been eliminated however the video stays elsewhere on-line.
Requested if he was behind the infamous video, he replied "Sure. How did you discover me?"
He admitted that he lied to police and crouched in a subject to movie covertly on his Samsung S21 smartphone.
Arnold recalled: "I held the telephone as excessive above me as I might, resting it on fencing.
"I could not see a factor however I knew my digital camera can be recording no matter was occurring."
Arnold, whose ambition is to "make residing" from YouTube full-time, gleefully revealed the £716.06 in royalties that he created from the platform alone, including: "It's most likely £900 by now but it surely takes some time to return by means of."
He's single and lives in a three-bedroom indifferent home close to the barbers, which he has been operating for the previous two years.
His first viral movies have been of "automobile fishing" - autos coming unstuck trying to drive by means of deep water - at Rufford Ford close to Newark, Nottinghamshire.
Nottinghamshire County Council needed to shut the river in December on the request of police after the TikTok craze turned the small rural lane into one of many world's most infamous roads.
'DISGRACEFUL'
Somebody who is aware of Arnold nicely mentioned: "He'll do something for extra views to earn a living.
"He provides all TikTok-ers a foul fame."
One other of the movies, titled "Nicola Bulley *UNSEEN* ABANDONED HOUSE SEARCH", has been considered virtually 100,000 occasions on YouTube.
It reveals Arnold roaming round a big, supposedly vacant home on the alternative aspect of the river from the bench the place Nicola was final seen and her telephone was discovered.
He has additionally been criticised for a video he uploaded to a different of his channels on February 18 of a "potential burial web site".
He filmed a person digging in a copse and it appeared just like the pair have been working in tandem as a search group.
However Arnold mentioned he had merely stumbled throughout one other novice sleuth, saying: "I by no means met him earlier than. I simply filmed him digging."
Arnold claims that his covert filming triggered dying threats and he apologised to Nicola's household for the potential "misery" he might have brought on.
However he stays undeterred, saying he intends to observe as many breaking information tales as he can to publish about on-line.
POLICE UNDER FIRE
"It provides the general public an opportunity to get nearer to the occasion and within the Nicola case I needed folks to observe my footage and see in the event that they observed that me or the police had missed something," he added.
Specialists say that social media algorithms encourage and reward controversial content material like Arnold's - although TikTok insists that it removes content material and accounts that have interaction in bullying and harassment or in any other case violates its insurance policies.
There have been 400 million views on TikTok alone of movies with the hashtag "NicolaBulley".
They embrace over half 1,000,000 views of 26-year-old "psychic" Lucy Hesford-Buckingham, from Wales, sharing her imaginative and prescient on the case earlier than Nicola's physique was discovered.
In her video, she claimed that she sensed intuitively from an "overwhelming scent of lemon bleach" that Nicola was nonetheless alive however being held captive and in "extreme hazard".
So many sleuths descended on St Michael's on Wyre that, at one level, cops needed to problem a 48-hour dispersal order to clear the village of outsiders.
Lancashire Police has come beneath hearth for its dealing with of the investigation usually.
The pressure now faces three exterior inquiries over the 23-day search for mortgage adviser Nicola.
The Unbiased Workplace for Police Conduct is probing a welfare go to to the household house made by an officer two weeks earlier.
And coaching and coverage physique the Faculty of Policing will look at each the hunt and the choice to launch details about an alcohol problem triggered by the menopause.
The Solar revealed final evening that Lancashire Police was blasted by watchdogs three months earlier than she vanished.
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary discovered the pressure "requires enchancment at investigating crime".
It added that officers didn't “all the time perform thorough and well timed investigations” and that “victims aren’t all the time up to date on progress”.
Nicola was discovered a mile downstream from the place she is assumed to have fallen in.
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