HIDDEN case files that could shed new light on what happened to missing Ben Needham may finally be released.
Mum Kerry Needham has moved a step forward in retrieving the forgotten cache of documents, which she believes includes key information dating back to her son’s disappearance nearly 35 years ago.
Ben Needham was 21 months old when he disappeared in Kos in 1991 Credit: PA:Press Association
Ben’s mum Kerry Needham is convinced her son is still alive Credit: Peter Byrne
She says it’s likely her “last chance” to understand what happened to the toddler – who she fears was abducted by child traffickers and then illegally adopted.
Ben was just 21-months-old when he in July 1991 after moving out there with his mum to start a new life – joining Kerry’s parents and brother, who already lived there.
Kerry, 53, from , claimed South Yorkshire Police – which has been co-ordinating the case from the UK since the beginning – told her last month it was .
And despite the force since appearing to U-turn – allegedly telling the desperate mum during a meeting on Wednesday there had been a “miscommunication” and nothing was changing – Kerry has begun discussions with a Greece-based private firm.
She has explained how the company emailed her out of the blue in the midst of the uncertainty around the case’s future – assuring her it could get hold of elusive case files held by Kos cops she’s been trying to get since 2016.
Speaking to The Sun this week, Kerry said: “They’ve said that shouldn’t be a problem.
“They can then start from the beginning, look through the case files of everything that’s been done by the Greek .
“They can study it from day one – which has never been done.”
Kerry with her parents, Eddie and Christine, soon after Ben disappeared Credit: Rex Features
South Yorkshire Police excavate a site in Kos in September 2016 Credit: PA
Ben was playing outside a farmhouse being renovated by his grandparents when he disappeared Credit: SWNS:South West News Service
The digger belonging to Dino Barkas, which some believe accidentally killed Ben Credit: Doug Seeburg – The Sun
She said the two South Yorkshire Police superintendents she met at the force headquarters assured her copies of “everything they have” have also been sent to their counterparts in .
However, she remains confused as to why the UK cops can’t simply handover whatever they have to her.
Kerry said: “I’ve been asking since 2016 – I’ve asked every SIO (senior investigating officer) that Ben’s case has had if I can have access to them files and I’ve been denied.
“I don’t understand why.”
Kerry said: “I’m not sure if it’s because it remains an open case. I think if the case was closed, then I could then get them. But maybe there’s still certain protocol.
“I’ve never been given a specific reason and I don’t know if it’s simply stalling tactics.”
She continued: “I’ve never asked the Greek police for them – I suppose they’d be in Greek anyway, so I couldn’t read them, and they’d need to be translated which the private investigators can help with.”
She understands, in particular, the files would include statements made by a number of key witnesses, as well as notes and lines of enquiry taken by local detectives in the immediate aftermath of Ben disappearing.
An age progression facial depiction of Ben as an adult Credit: Daily Mirror
Kerry with mum Christine in 2012 during one of the major searches Credit: Lee Thompson – The Sun
There would also likely be reports from the lengthy excavation undertaken on the island in 2016 after a tip-off relating to a digger driver who had allegedly claimed he’d accidentally killed Ben near his grandparents’ farmhouse.
However, the tipster, who said he spoke to the driver before his death, then retracted his claims. Meanwhile, the subsequent dig carried out by UK police failed to provide any evidence indicating Ben had been killed.
Kerry said: “I want to see what the operation did during the excavation – who they spoke to, I want to know exactly what the witness said.”
She said for years she’s been told by various support officers “I should have them (the case files) – I need to look at them”, adding: “I’ve been asking since 2016 and still haven’t had my hands on them.”
Kerry said multiple witnesses from throughout the case need to be spoken to again to clear up “inconsistencies”, including one who she understands lives in the US.
As well as certain officers involved in Kos from the early 90s – who she claims UK police have since been blocked from speaking to by Greek authorities.
“These people are getting old, they’re in their 70s,” she explained.
“If something happens to them, whatever they know, is going to die with them.
Timeline of the Ben Needham missing person case
Here we take a look at the search for missing Ben:
- July 24 1991: Ben Needham vanishes while playing near the grounds of a farmhouse in the Iraklis region of Kos, which his family are renovating. His mother, Kerry Needham, and grandparents raise the alarm with local police and conduct a full search of the area.
- July 26 1991: Eyewitness reports claim a boy matching Ben’s description was found at the local airport on the day he disappeared. That boy has never been traced.
- September 1991: The Needham family return to England but vow to continue the search.
- June 2003: issue an image of what Ben might look like at age 12-14 years old.
- 2004: An anonymous businessman offers a reward of £500,000 for information leading to Ben’s safe return.
- October 2010: Another public appeal is made by Ben’s mother in the run-up to what would be his 21st birthday.
- May 2011: The airs a programme called Missing 2011, which includes a piece on Ben’s story and the campaign to find him.
- September 2011: Greek police on Kos officially re-open the case and grant the family a face-to-face meeting with the island’s prosecutor.
- October 2012: South Yorkshire Police in Kos begin digging up mounds around the property where Ben went missing to look for his remains.
- December 2013: Ben’s mother accuses then-Prime Minister of not giving her case the same backing as he gave the parents of . It comes as a dossier is produced containing reports from eight witnesses, none of who know each other, who all saw a boy possibly matching Ben’s description with the same Greek family.
- December 2014: Lawyers representing Ben’s family say they may take legal action to try to force the Government to make a decision about funding a new police investigation.
- January 2015: The Home Office agrees to fund a team of British detectives to help search for the toddler.
- March/April 2015: Three generations of Ben Needham’s family travel to Greece to follow up a “strong” lead that a man living there believes he may be the missing Brit due to having no photographs of himself under the age of two and no knowledge of where he was born. The man is later ruled out.
- May 2015: Ben’s family make a fresh appeal on Greek television for information regarding the disappearance.
- May 2016: The Sun reveals how members of the police operation went on an eight-hour booze-up in Kos during the latest stage of the investigation.
- September 2016: Ben’s family are told to “prepare for the worst” by detectives leading the investigation, amid the belief the 21-month-old was – the driver of which died in 2015. It comes as in the belief the boy’s remains may be buried near the farmhouse.
- October 15, 2016: On the penultimate day of a three-week search at two locations – Site 1, near the farmhouse, and Site 2, a landfill site – an item which is .
- October 16, 2016: After digging up more than 800 tonnes of soil, the excavation work comes to an end with any items of interest sent back to the UK for forensic analysis.
- October 17, 2016: South Yorkshire Police DI Jon Cousins announces the discovery of an item that backs up their theory Ben died following an accident near the farmhouse on the day he disappeared.
- July 24, 2017: It emerges blood was found on a sandal and toy car belonging to Ben. The sandal was found in 2012 at the site where Konstantinos “Dino” Barkas was operating a digger, . No further information emerged. Ben’s mum makes another heartbreaking appeal for information.
- November 28, 2018: Forensic experts say the toy car found in the Kos dig does not belong to Ben.
- July 25, 2019: , saying it was “never too late to do the right thing”.
- July 2021: that a blonde boy found on a beach wearing a white t-shirt, “crying desperately” and speaking English 587 miles away in Corfu could’ve been the youngster.
“Things need to be actioned now before it’s too late.”
She is hopeful that the private detectives – who estimate they’d need around 20,000 euros to carry out their enquiries, which she is having to raise the funds for herself through – will be able to track down certain people involved in the case and speak to them themselves.
“It’s the one of the only thing that I’ve not ever done,” Kerry continued. “I’ve never had a private detective on Ben’s case.
“I think private detectives sometimes, they don’t have more power than the police, but they haven’t got any of the same protocols.
“They haven’t got any red tape to go through. They can just go to the source. They can just go in there.”
Kerry – who is result of a man who was adopted in the US and believes he could be Ben – is convinced her son was snatched by child traffickers.
In part because there is “no evidence to support” him having been killed in a digger accident or being murdered.
She continued: “There’s nothing to prove it was an abduction.
“But I know by working on Ben’s case for 35 years, there is more chance of it being an abduction because of the amount of illegal adoptions that were happening from into right up to the 1990s – and go back to the 60s.
“Thousands and thousands of children were illegally adopted into America, namely New York, from Greece.”
Kerry said her dad Eddie Needham was told early in the investigation by locals Ben was almost certainly snatched.
They claimed “because he’s blonde and has blue eyes he would fetch a minimum of 50,000 euros”.
She said she is given hope by recent long-term cases which have resulted in abducted children found years later alive, including Christina Marie Plante who vanished in 1994 age 13 and was found this year.
And also Audrey Backenberg, found in May last year, having disappeared age 20 in 1962.
“These things happen,” Kerry said. “I suppose normal people in everyday society don’t want to think that these things happen because it’s horrific, children are getting taken away from their parents.
“It’s incomprehensible that these evil things really happen. But I’ve seen it, I’ve read about it, I’ve studied it.”
Referring to the witnesses in Ben’s case, she added: “If these people die – the secrets, the lies, or whatever dies with them, and I may never, ever find out what’s happened.
“I said to the police this week, this has consumed my whole life.
“I’ve been doing this now since I was 19 years old and I’m not willing to stop and I’m not willing to give up.”
The Sun has approached South Yorkshire Police for comment.
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Eze Chidiebere Paul
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