Missing Ben’s mother fears huge cover-up after police find blood

HUMAN blood has reportedly been found on a toy car and sandal believed to have belonged to toddler Ben Needham, who disappeared on Kos 26 years ago.

His mother, Kerry Needham, claimed the discovery was evidence of a coverup in the disappearance of her son, who was staying at his grandparents’ farmhouse on the Greek island.

She fears the 21-month-old from Sheffield was killed and his body moved before British police began searching the site last year.

South Yorkshire Police formally ended a search on the island last October, saying it believed that Ben, inset, died as a result of an accident involving a digger on July 24, 1991.

However, despite extensive

searches of two sites, his body was not found. Ms Needham, 43, begged for anyone with information about what happened to her little boy to come forward. “This confirms everything the police have suspected. It makes it all a little too real. We believe what they believe,” she told the Daily Mirror.

“It shows more of a conspiracy because they didn’t find Ben’s body. “That proves it to me without doubt they obviously moved him and buried him and for whatever reason dug him up. “There’s no other explanation. It’s all been a massive cover-up.” The sandal was reportedly found in 2012 at the site where Konstantinos “Dino” Barkas was operating a digger, while the car was discovered last year at another spot.

Quizzed by police at the time, Mr Barkas told them he would “chop his arms off” if he had killed Ben.

But a witness claimed that Mr Barkas confided in him that he may have had an accident involving the toddler. Mr Barkas is believed to have died from stomach cancer in 2015.

The sandal and car will now be tested by forensic experts to establish if there are any traces of Ben’s DNA.

Professor Lorna Dawson, of the James Hutton institute in Aberdeen, has been working with South Yorkshire Police.

She told the Daily Mirror a specialist police dog used in the hunt for bodies had reacted to the sandal, and biologists were trying to extract DNA from both items to compare with Ben’s profile.