Phone Not Linked To Missing Corrie

10 January 2017, 17:20 | Updated: 10 January 2017, 17:21

Corrie McKeague 2

The back of a phone found close to where a missing RAF gunner's mobile was last detected has no link to the inquiry, police have said.

Corrie McKeague, 23, from Fife, vanished while on a night-out with friends on September 24 in Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk.

An object thought to be a mobile phone was found by a member of the public on Tuesday in Mildenhall Park - some 14 miles from where Corrie McKeague, 23, from Fife, was last seen.

Officers have now confirmed it was just the back of a mobile phone and there is nothing to say it has any link into the inquiry of Mr McKeague's whereabouts.

On Monday, it was revealed that April Oliver, 21, the girlfriend of Mr McKeague, was expecting a child.

Miss Oliver she discovered she was pregnant in October - just weeks after Mr McKeague's disappearance.

She said: ''I've had to make a massive decision by myself. I was hoping and praying that he'd come back so we could make the decision together.''

The baby is due in late spring/early summer and she told the programme that Mr McKeague did not know about the pregnancy.

The pair had been together for about five months after meeting on a dating site.

Mr McKeague's mother, Nicola Urquhart, who is a police officer from Dunfermline, said: ''It's incredibly difficult to bounce my head from the excitement of a new baby to what we're actually trying to focus on, which is finding Corrie.''

Mr McKeague, a gunner and team medic, based at RAF Honington, was separated from friends while leaving the Flex nightclub on St Andrews Street South.

He was last seen in Bury St Edmunds town centre on CCTV at 3.25am wearing a light pink Ralph Lauren shirt, white jeans and brown suede Timberland boots with light soles.

The last sighting shows him walking from a shop doorway and into a horseshoe-shaped area in Brentgovel Street, with no sign of him emerging.

A spokeswoman for Suffolk Constabulary said: ''Police are continuing searches to try to locate Corrie McKeague.

''As part of this, a small team of officers have been carrying out work in the vicinity Corrie was last seen, in the St John Street area.

''This involves visiting premises, speaking to staff and employees and searching buildings.

''Many of these people will have already been contacted previously as part of the ongoing investigation.

''The decision to carry out the work this week is not based on specific information that Corrie entered any of these buildings, however without finding Corrie leaving the horseshoe area it becomes even more important to ensure that all possibilities are explored.''