Mum vows to fight for safer bins

The mother of tragic airman Corrie McKeague has told how she will fight for locks on industrial bins – in a bid to ensure no other family suffers the same loss.

McKeague, of Dunfermline, was 23 when he vanished in the early hours of September 24, 2016, after a night out with friends in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. Despite extensive searches his body has never been found.

An inquest in March recorded a narrative conclusion that he was in a bin when it was collected by a bin lorry, in which he would have died.

Nicola Urquhart, a police officer, vowed on the sixth anniversary of her son’s disappearance to campaign for locks on industrial bins to prevent anyone climbing into them. She said they should also have airholes and be openable from the inside.

“I’d like to see that across all industrial bins. That is something that I will absolutely pursue,” she said. “We are not looking to reinvent the wheel here. These are very minor things that they would be able to do to prevent this ever happening again.”