I know I’ll be canned over Nicola Bulley search but I did my best, dive expert Peter Faulding insists

A DIVE expert says he knows he'll be "canned" over the Nicola Bulley search, but claims he did his best.

Peter Faulding was speaking after police yesterday confirmed a body had been found less than a mile from where the missing mum vanished.

Nicola, 45, was last seen in St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire, at around 9.15am on January 27.

Yesterday, police raced to the River Wyre after two dog walkers frantically phoned through saying they had found remains.

The cops said as no formal identification had been carried out, they could not say whether the body belonged to the mum-of-two.

Dive expert Peter had previously declared: "If Nicola was in that river, I would have found her. She’s not there."

But, speaking yesterday, he claimed he had only ruled out the section of river near the bench Nicola's phone was found.

Peter said the rest of the river beyond the weir remained an "open book".

He told The Times: "I know I'm going to get canned for this but I don't care.

"The police search teams walked that river every day.

"We were only there for two and a half days using sonar and when we searched that part she was not laying at the bottom of that river."

Peter said the sonar devices he used did not detect objects stuck in the reeds, as the body found yesterday appeared to be.

And, he added, he didn't think the body had been in the reeds long, otherwise sniffer dogs would have found it.

Meanwhile, Peter sent support to Nicola's family.