Man arrested over missing RAF gunner is part-time cop
THE man held in connection with the hunt for Scots airman Corrie McKeague is a special constable, it emerged yesterday.
Haydn Stephens, 26, is understood to have been arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice before being released on bail on Wednesday.
He is a traffic dispatcher for the waste firm Biffa, which is being investigated by officers searching for Mr McKeague – who is originally from Dunfermline, Fife – and assigns drivers to vehicles and collection routes. A bin lorry operated by the firm collected rubbish from the part of Bury St Edmunds where Mr McKeague was last seen following a night out with friends.
CCTV captured the 23-year-old walking into an area known as The Horseshoe early on September 24. He has not been seen since.
Waste was collected from there just hours later and the bin lorry’s route appeared to match the movements of his phone, although, forensic tests found no trace of him in the vehicle.
Police are preparing to search a huge landfill site 30 miles away in Milton, Cambridegshire, where the lorry dumped its load. After his release, Stephens is thought to have returned to his home in Bury St Edmunds, where he lives with his fiancée and family. A man at the property told The Sun: ‘He’s innocent as far as we know. We all want this out of the way as quickly as possible.’
His fiancee’s stepfather added: ‘It’s nothing to do with me or my wife or my stepdaughter. He left last night and hasn’t been back.’
Stephens also works part time as a special constable for Suffolk Police, where he won an award for showing ‘true dedication’.
Speaking about the arrest, Mr McKeague’s mother Nicola Urquhart, 47, said: ‘It may not lead to any information. I’m just trying not to look too much into it, but it’s very hard to do that.’ Writing on his Facebook page, Mr McKeague’s father Martin hinted that more arrests could follow, adding: ‘There are a number of lines of enquiry the police are pursuing so we’ll just wait and see what we find out about this one.’
Suffolk police have refused to comment on the arrest.
Detectives have spoken to a number of people Mr McKeague had contact with, including members of a swingers’ website and other online dating services that he and his pregnant 21-year-old girlfriend, April Oliver, used.
Officers have spent more than £300,000 in their inquiry, even using cadaver dogs trained to sniff out dead bodies. Mr McKeague’s family have also raised more than £50,000 to hire private investigators to find him.