Corrie Mckeague inquest: Detective 'suspicious' of bin weight device reset

Corrie Mckeague went missing after being asked to leave a nightclub in September 2016

A detective said it was "suspicious" a bin weight device was returned to factory settings the day before it was collected by police investigating the disappearance of an RAF airman.

Corrie Mckeague vanished in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, after a night out in September 2016.

Police believe he climbed into a waste bin, but his body has never been found.

Det Con Richard Morgan told an inquest it was "ludicrous" the device was reset.

Mr Mckeague, from Dunfermline in Fife, was last seen on CCTV going into a bin-loading area in Bury St Edmunds in the early hours of 24 September.

The gunner was based at RAF Honington, about 10 miles north of Bury St Edmunds.

Waste firm Biffa initially told police the weight of the bin could not have contained anyone as it was 11kg (1st 10lb), but it was later confirmed the bin weight was actually 116kg (18st 3lb).

Mr Mckeague was last seen on CCTV heading towards a bin loading area behind some shops in Bury St Edmunds town centre

Det Con Morgan told the inquest an electronic device kept in the cab of the bin lorry and used by the driver for bin weights was returned to factory settings the day before it was collected by police, on 1 February 2017.

Lawyer Dr Anton van Dellen, representing Mr Mckeague's father Martin Mckeague, asked the officer: "What view, if any, did you take about how suspicious that action was?"

Det Con Morgan replied: "I thought it was highly suspicious.

"It was quite clear why I wanted it. By wiping it, it put that data beyond use.

"Someone at the Biffa depot did this."

He added that police later learned the data stored on the device would have been of "no evidential value to us".

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The inquest heard the difference in the initial weight given for the bin and the later weight was due to a change Biffa's front-end facing IT system and the correct weight of 116kg (18 stone 3lbs) was recorded in the underlying database.

Det Con Morgan said two staff from the Biffa depot in Bury St Edmunds, who were not named, were interviewed under caution on suspicion of perverting the course of justice, but faced no further action.

Bin lorry driver Martyn Thompson was never a suspect in the investigation, the inquest heard.

Mr Thompson earlier told the inquest he checked the bin and did not see anybody inside it.

The inquest, being heard with a jury, continues.

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