BEN SEARCH CRISIS
Farmer protests over dig
BEN Needham’s family were dealt a fresh blow when a landowner demanded police stop searching for his body.
Forensic teams have been digging at a plot on the Greek island of Kos.
A tip-off suggested a worker had accidentally killed the British tot near the farmhouse where he was staying when he went missing in 1991. But farmer Stefanos Troumouchis ordered officers to stop the dig after a 1,500-yearold burial site was discovered on his land.
He was worried he wouldn’t be able to work the land if archaeologists said it needed to be preserved.
Det Insp Jon Cousins of South Yorkshire Police said: “He raised with me concerns about the discovery of what appear to be ancient tombs.”
However, the landowner’s concerns about the dig were eventually resolved and the operation was restarted.
Det Insp Jon Cousins said: “My priority is to ensure that disruption to our operation remains at an absolute minimum.”
Ben, of Sheffield, disappeared aged 21 months after playing near the property where his family were staying.
Last month a 19-strong team of British detectives launched a last-ditch search when fresh evidence emerged.
The toddler’s devastated sister Leighanna, born three years after her brother went missing, yesterday told of her fears that Ben will never be found.
Appearing on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, she said: “We’re a family that has lived in hope and what do you do when that hope’s all gone – how do you continue?”
She added: “I’ve given all my life to the search for Ben. My entire life has been on hold.
“How do you continue when there’s nothing left?
“My one wish and my one dream would be to find Ben for my mum.”
Ben’s mother Kerry, 43, previously told how she was scared she would “die of a heart attack” if police found her son’s remains. There have been theories over the years that Ben had been snatched by a paedophile ring or abducted by gypsies.
However, officers were told by a friend of Konstantinos “Dino” Barkas that the digger driver accidentally killed him while clearing land. Mr Barkas died of cancer last year.