Missing Ben ‘is now Andreas and lives in Greece with an older man called Nikos’
POLICE searching for Ben Needham, who disappeared on holiday 25 years ago as a toddler, are desperate to trace a mystery caller who insists he is still alive. The anonymous man said Ben’s name had been changed to ‘Andreas’ following his abduction and that he had been living with a man called Nikos.
The tip-off was made to a helpline two years after Ben, from Sheffield, disappeared from the Greek holiday island of Kos on July 24, 1991.
As they launched a fresh campaign to find him yesterday, South Yorkshire detectives revealed the caller’s claims had since been corroborated by a second source.
Ben was 21 months old when he disappeared and there have been 300 reported sightings since. He would now be 26.
But in 1993 a man using the pseudonym Andonis phoned a 24-hour hotline set up for Ben’s case.
He said Ben, renamed Andreas, was living with a middle-aged Greek called Nikos in southeast Katerini, in Greek Macedonia.
He also provided a description of the house where they were living. Caroline Mylon, a trustee of the National Missing Persons Helpline, conducted her own investigation following the tip- off. She said at the time that she met ‘locals who spoke of knowing Andreas and a man named Nikos’.
She found a house in Katerini matching the description provided by the informant, but it was occu- pied by a family with no sign of the missing boy.
However she added that when she asked locals about Nikos ‘they reacted as though they probably knew who I was talking about’.
Miss Mylon said she thought Nikos was a rich man, whom people were afraid to identify because they were in his debt.
The lead is now being looked at again by British police.
Ben’s mum Kerry Needham, 44, is not on the island but has left England to be nearby in case of a breakthrough. She told ITV news: ‘It’s fabulous that detectives have revealed this information, it’s a very strong lead and I have all the faith in the police to take this further. The case is heading in the right direction’. Speaking at a Press conference yesterday at the farm- house site where Ben was last seen, Detective Inspector Jon Cousins said the force was responding to ‘specific intelligence’ on Ben.
He said the ‘Nikos’ caller was integral to finding him.
Detective Inspector Cousins confirmed ‘there is some corroboration in relation to those names’ and a single call from a separate source ‘acknowledged Nikos as being involved with Ben’.
He added: ‘I would like people to ask themselves: could you be Ben? As a child, did you have blond hair and blue eyes? Do you have doubts over who your parents are, or perhaps you look physically different to your parents?’
There is a £9,800 reward for anyone who provides information which leads to Ben’s discovery.