Nicola Bulley inquest: Live updates as two-day hearing into mum-of-two's death takes place in Preston

PC Matthew Thackray of Lancashire Police is the next to give evidence as an underwater search specialist. A police diver of eight years experience.

The hearing is being shown an aerial shot and images of the scene to go alongside PC Thackray’s evidence.

One shows the drop from the bench, that was the centre of the search, down into the water.

Taking us through the images, DC Thackray is explaining to Dr Adeley how difficult it is to get out of the water near the bench.

The hearing is now going to be shown video footage of DC Thackray at the scene of where Nicola was last seen in April. Taking a camera from the bench down into the water.

She was found around 1.5miles down the river.

On the day it is beleived Nicola went in water it was just 4 degress celsius, which would have felt more like freezing.

“If feel in accidentally, cold water shock would probably have taken effect,” DC Thackray says in the video being shown to the hearing.

The water looks quite calm in the video, but DC Thackray believes on January 27, the last day Nicola was seen, there was a downstream flow that was about twice as fast.

DC Thackray working on the theory that Nicola fell into the water, seized up and floated down stream.

He estimates she would have floated at a “metre a second” downstream.

In parts of the video, shot in April, DC Thackray is in bits of the River Wyre where it is too deep to stand. He doesn’t need to swim though and is being pushed along by the flow of the water, which he says is at a “gentle walking pace”.

It is believed to have been far faster on January 27. DC Thackray says on that day when they searched the river, you could swim against the current but it required real effort.

Images show police patrolling outside County Hall amid fears or people trying to potentially disrupt proceedings, such was the social media interest in the case.

On the day Nicola Bulley was last seen the deepest part of the water was 4.6metres. She was 154cm tall.

Professor Michael Tipton and Dr Patrick Morgan will now give evidence as experts in drowning and how bodies react when exposed to cold water.

Professor Tipton descrbied as a “world expert” when it comes to cold water immersion.

“There would be a particularly powerful cold shock response,” says Professor Tipton, when discussing the temperature of the water in the River Wyre on January 27.

Considering Nicola’s size, it would have taken one of two breaths in of water to be a lethal dose for drowning. That would be just under two litres of water.

The time which you could hold your breath in this temperature of water is less than 10 seconds, potentially one or two at best, explains Dr Morgan.

You could lose consciousness in just 48 seconds. “Only 20 to 30 seconds of that would be functional consciousness.”

Professor Tipton: “In my opinion, given the nature of the likely entry into the water, I would suspect Nikki had a gasp response under the water, initiating the drowing process. On the balance of probaility there was a fairly rapid incapacitation due to the cold shock.”

After a couple of hours of evidence, the hearing will now break from an hour and resume 1.50pm.

Dr Lorna Dennison-Wilkins is the first witness of the afternoon. She is an expert in body recoveries from water, especially inland waterways. She’s also a police dive advisor and has produced a report from Lancashire Police.

Kay Kiernan is the first of the members of the public to give evidence.

She was dropping her children off at school at the same time as Nicola on January 27 and saw her.

She says Nicola seemed normal, the same as any other day on the school run.

“She was how I would normally know her. Her mannerisms were normal. I had a chat with Nikki about dogs.”

The conversation lasted two to three minutes and was entirely normal.

Kay Kiernan is allowed to leave after her brief evidence. Richard Fife, another member of the public, will now have his evidence read to court.