Police extend stay on Kos to search new site for lost toddler Ben
DETECTIVES searching for Ben Needham, who went missing as a toddler on Kos, have said they are extending their stay on the Greek island.
Officers have begun looking at a second search area close to where Ben, then 21 months old, disappeared from a farmhouse in 1991.
Det Insp Jon Cousins said initial work at this site revealed the deeper ground is compacted material deposited over the last 30 years.
Mr Cousins said the team will remove this layer in the same way they excavated the first site.
“That means I have made a decision that we’re extending our stay here,” Mr Cousins said. “We are going to be doing this to give me the confidence that I’ve done everything I can.
“I am lifting all the earth behind us. We’re going to work through it in similar fashion to what we’ve done up at the farmhouse.”
He said: “The team are a hundred per cent behind this. And every single one of them, including the volunteers, are adamant that they are staying for this period of time. It’s got to be done.
“I’ve got to be able, when I leave Kos, I know myself, when I sit down the family, I can tell them that we’ve done everything we can to find an answer in relation to what happened to Ben.”
He said the team would extend their stay by “at least two or three days”.
Mr Cousins rejected rumours that officers were searching a third site on Kos. He confirmed he had been given information about another area where digger driver Konstantinos Barkas left rubble 25 years ago.
The current operation was prompted by information that Mr Barkas, also known as Dino, was clearing land with an excavator close to where the Sheffield toddler was playing on the day he vanished, and might be responsible for his death.
Mr Barkas reportedly died of stomach cancer last year.
Ben’s mother, Kerry Needham, had been warned to “prepare for the worst”.
Mr Cousins said he had updated her on the search and was encouraged that the family continued to support his team’s work.