Man Arrested In Corrie Search 'Will Face No Further Action'

A 26-year-old man arrested on suspicion of attempting to pervert the course of justice as part of the search for missing RAF man Corrie McKeague has been told he will face no further action.

The 26-year-old was arrested on Wednesday March 1 and interviewed about information provided to the investigation before being bailed. However, after more work by detectives, he has now been told he will face no further action.

Police had discovered that the initial weight of a bin lorry supplied to the investigation, that was in the area at the time of Corrie's disappearance, was incorrect. It was far higher than originally thought.

This led to the arrest as police moved to secure any potential evidence.

However, following further work and the interviewing of a second man under caution, detectives now believe there was no attempt to hide information.

The airman's mother, Nicola Urquhart, said:

"With the weight of the bin that was lifted the night Corrie went missing has been incorrect and the true weight is over 100kg. This can really devastatingly only mean one thing. I can only pray that Corrie is found quickly and that we are able to get answers as to how this could have happened."

Detective Superintendent Katie Elliott said:

"Through the persistence of officers and their detailed work we recently identified that the data provided was incorrect.

"We now know the weight of the waste collection from the 'horseshoe' on the night Corrie went missing was over 100kg, when the original information we were given indicated that this was 11kg, and this makes our search of the landfill the next logical step to try to find Corrie."

"The investigation has identified that the company who provided the data usually charge per collection, not per weight of load collected, and it appears that it was genuinely believed by the company that the data provided was correct.

"There was no intention to mislead the investigation, however our discovery, through persisting with this through our enquiries and evidence gathering, now puts a new emphasis on the search."

"Corrie’s family have been made aware of this new information and we continue to liaise with them as we move forward.

"Our extensive work around CCTV to see if Corrie could have left the Brentgovel Street area and the vast number of other enquiries we have been making have been crucial to getting us to this point.

"We have had to be methodical and systematic in our approach to ensure we were not ruling out the line of enquiry that may give us the answers.

"The search of the landfill is a huge undertaking, and still may not provide the answer as to what happened, but now, with new information uncovered by the officers working on the case, this is the priority."

"We would like to thank all of those organisations who have been assisting with the investigation. Their assistance and co-operation throughout has allowed us to conduct the enquiries we needed to do and we are grateful that they have been supportive of our work."

Any information relating to Corrie’s disappearance should be passed to the incident room on 01473 782019. Alternatively, you can call 101 and ask to speak to the team.