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9th February 2023
12:18pm GMT
The Mirror on Thursday reported that police had reportedly stopped a group of men from going to search an abandoned house in the hunt for Nicola.
The group, who are believed to have travelled to Lancashire from the Liverpool area, were apparently issued a dispersal order on Wednesday night.
Lancashire Police on Tuesday warned the public not to "take the law into their own hands" nor direct online abuse at people connected to the investigation.
Lancashire Constabulary said it "will not tolerate" people committing criminal offences by breaking into empty or derelict riverside properties to try to find Nicola.
Speaking from the scene on Wednesday evening, TalkTV's Oliver Whitfield-Miocic revealed police had issued the dispersal order and noted: "All of this despite the police already having searched that area and, only 24 hours ago, the Superintendent in charge of this investigation asking people not to take the law into their own hands."
In a press conference on Tuesday, Superintendent Sally Riley said that police had searched derelict riverside properties with the permission of owners.
"Because there is no criminal element yet identified, and we don't expect there to be in this inquiry, then we're not starting to go into houses because that's not where the inquiry is leading us," she added.
Riley urged the public to avoid "distressing" speculation about what might have happened to Nicola as it is "particularly hurtful to her family, to her children, to her partner Paul, to her parents, her sister and her friends because it is not helpful to them, it is distressing and it is distracting for the police inquiry".
Reid added that it was not "helpful if people, particularly if they have come from outside of the area, take it upon themselves to take the law into their own hands by trying to, for example, break into empty property."
"They may mean well, they may want to help. But they can help in thinking back if they were in the area to what information they may have of relevance to the police and holding the family in their thoughts," she said.
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