Corrie McKeague inquest jury begins deliberations over how missing Suffolk airman died

Jurors asked to decide how missing RAF gunner Corrie McKeague is likely to have died have begun their deliberations.

The airman, of Dunfermline, Fife, was 23 when he disappeared in the early hours of 24 September 2016 on a night out in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.

He was last seen on CCTV at 3.25am, entering a service area behind a Greggs shop.

Police believe he climbed into a bin which was then tipped into a waste lorry.

Suffolk’s senior coroner Nigel Parsley summed up evidence in the case, heard by the jury over the last two weeks, on Monday.

That has included evidence from Mr McKeague's parents, RAF colleagues and police, who outlined the four theories officers had considered as part of their investigation.

They included the airman dying as a "result of criminality", and that he remains alive but held against his will.

The inquest also heard from the refuse collector driving the lorry that collected a bin which police now believe Mr McKeague had been asleep in.

A Home Office pathologist told jurors that, had the RAF gunner been crushed inside the bin lorry, he would have lost consciousness "within a few minutes".

The senior coroner urged the 10 jurors to reach a unanimous conclusion if they could.