25TH ANNIVERSARY OF BEN I dream he’s a happy young man and with another family ..but then he rejects me MUM KERRY ON HER TURMOIL
KERRY Needham has a recurring dream in which she finds her son Ben, who has been missing for a quarter of a century. In her dream he is alive and well.
“He’s a happy young man, living with another family,” Kerry explained. “But then he rejects me. I wake up and realise it’s just a dream, so there’s still a chance of a fairytale ending.”
Ben was 21 months old and will have been missing for exactly 25 years today. The police hunt for him is one of Britain’s longest missing person inquiries.
“It has been 25 years of torment,” she said. “That’s when the life we dreamed of turned into a nightmare.
“We didn’t think we would get through 25 days, let alone a quarter of a century.”
Island
Her local South Yorkshire Police launched a new investigation into Ben’s disappearance in April last year, backed by £1million of funding from the Home Office.
They have eliminated 30 people who were suspected to be Ben from their inquiries but have said the investigation is still ongoing.
He vanished into thin air on July 24, 1991, a few months after his mum Kerry took him to start a new life on the Greek island of Kos. He would turn 27 this October.
After his disappearance, Greek police failed to put checks on ferries leaving the island for the mainland and it was not until two days later that officials at the airport were notified.
Despite more than 300 reported sightings since, Ben has never been found.
The decision to leave Britain was a huge one for Kerry.
Tragically, it ended with her world falling apart.
“It could have been a fantastic life,” Kerry, 44, reflected sadly.
Her parents and her two brothers had moved gone to live in Greece the year before after going abroad for the first time and falling in love with picturesque Kos.
Shop worker Christine Needham, 37, and builder Eddie, 39, sold their home and bought a caravan for the 2,340- mile journey with their sons Stephen, 17, and Danny, 11.
They set off at the end of December 1990, sending regular updates home to young mother Kerry.
She loved receiving those letters from her mum, telling her about their beautiful new life.
She would sit in her Sheffield council flat and read about their dreams and an exotic lifestyle.
“Tell Ben I’m going to show him the fishes in the sea when he comes,” gran Christine said in one letter.
One of the first letters to land on Kerry’s doormat in snow- covered Britain, said: “Steve and Dan have been swimming in the sea today.
“It was really warm on the beach, so, you know Steve, he just stripped off and, splash, he took the shampoo with him and had a bath. Great hey!” Christine also wrote saying how many friends they were making and how Kerry’s dad and her brother Steve had found jobs in the building trade.
The family described the gorgeous views across the sea to Turkey from their caravan, which they had parked on a beach.
Christine wrote: “We went out yesterday to a Greek picnic. It was brilliant, nearly all of Kos went.
“Everyone took food, barbecues, balls, skipping ropes.
“Our Ben baby would have loved it – but never mind, he can go next year. Give Ben a massive X,”
A few weeks later Kerry’s brother Danny was enrolled in the local school and Christine wrote telling her daughter: “He’ll be able to speak Greek in about six months.
“We won’t be able to understand him, although he’s teaching me a few things. Yesterday Danny caught an octopus with the fishing rod and him and your dad cooked it and ate it for tea. Sigh!”
The family eventually moved from the beach to a plot of l a nd a nd Christine wrote saying how they had “fixed it up great”.
She went on: “We’ve got a big garden and patio and lots of other land for Danny to play on. He’s built a tree house for him and Ben when he comes. The man who owns it says we can have some chickens and grow things like flowers, plants and veg. It will be great.
“We miss Ben very much and show his photograph to all our friends here and they think he’s lovely.”
Decision
She described the land as “beautiful” with “loads of wild flowers and olive trees everywhere”. She added: “You’ll love it.”
In return, Kerry regularly sent her parents photos of their beloved grandson.
Christine wrote back: “They are gorgeous. He looks so much like Simon (Ben’s father).”
While Kerry was toying with the idea of moving to Kos, her mum warned: “Like your dad says in his letter, think things over very carefully because its a big decision.”
Eventually she could bear the separation from her family no longer and wrote saying she was joining them.
Her mum wrote back, full of joy: “Can’t wait for you to get here. I’m sure you’re going to love it once you get over the big culture difference.
“We’ve got a flat for you if you want it and the English girl who lives here says she will get you a job in a bar. You only work nights, so all day you can go on the beach with me and Ben.”
Kerry said of her decision:“I missed them too much. We are a close family and it was difficult to be without them.
“It seemed they were having a nice life and I was living in a council estate in Sheffield.
“I wanted Ben to have a nice life as well and to have his family around him. My mum missed Ben dreadfully, he was like her own son.
“So in March I packed everything up and joined them. I thought, if they could do it, I could do it. The letters clinched it for me.”
Kerry and Ben set off on a five-hour trip by National Express coach to the airport.
She recalled: “I told Ben, ‘We’re going on an adventure. We’re going to see nanny and we’re going on an aeroplane. It won’t be long now’.
“I was petrified but excited, I’d never been to an airport in my life before – and there I was, 20 years old, flying on my own.”
Her mum had explained: “Are you scared of flying, Kerry? It’s a really funny feeling when you take off and land. We can’t wait to get you here, you’ll love it. Bring only your summer clothes and best winter ones.
“Don’t bring too many as you will be struggling to carry them but at the airport they have trolleys for your luggage. We’ll meet you at Kos airport so you don’t have to struggle for long.”
Shouts
It all went well to begin with and within weeks Kerry had a job share with her mum at the local hotel.
Ben was a big hit with the hotel guests, who made a fuss of him as he sat drawing pictures. “He’d gone from