The mum of tragic airman Corrie McKeague is fighting for locks to be put on industrial bins – so no other mother suffers the anguish she endured.
Corrie, 23, 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 Corrie, from Dunfermline, was in a bin
when it was collected by a refuse lorry.
On the sixth anniversary of her son’s death, Nicola McKeague, a sergeant with Police Scotland, vowed to campaign for locks to be put on industrial bins to prevent anyone from being able to climb in one when it is closed.
She also called for the bins to have air holes and to be able to be opened from the inside.
Nicola said: “Every bin company has industrial-sized bins that are big enough for a person to get in to. All large firms talk about the risk of people – such as the homeless or drunks – climbing in to the bins and it’s an easy fix.
“These are very minor things they could do to prevent this happening again – simplified locks that can snib, shut and lock when the bin is closed but can still open from the inside.
“That is absolutely something I will pursue. I’ve got the rest of my life to do it.
“I’ll shout as loud as I can to try to prevent this ever happening again. It won’t bring Corrie back but, if it stops one other mother or family having to go through what we have gone through, then it will be worth it.”
Nicola believes cost is preventing change from taking place and described the lack of action as “an utter disregard for human life”.
She added: “What they are looking at is the bottom line – how much it would cost to have to do it. I’m quite sure if it was their child they would make sure it was done.
“I’ve been told Corrie climbed into a bin which was picked up and put into a bin lorry. He then went through a sorting process and was put into another lorry and ended up at a landfill – and nobody has seen him.
“If that can happen to my son, how many others has that happened to? How many missing people who have never been found have ended up in bins? Are they in landfill? They could prevent that if bins are locked.”
Nicola, who now lives in East Lothian, and other members of Corrie’s family including his brothers Makeyan and Darroch and his five-year-old daughter Ellie, who he had never met, remembered him at a memorial last month at RAF Honington, his former base in Suffolk.
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - Sign up to our daily newsletter here.
