Police find fabric scraps in search for Ben
POLICE searching for missing toddler Ben Needham have unearthed scraps of fabric close to where he vanished 25 years ago.
Forensics experts from the UK have been drafted in to help with the excavation of an olive grove on the Greek island of Kos, which began this week in light of new evidence.
Yesterday, police said they had found several small pieces of fabric that were being examined, including one that was light in colour, patterned and around six square inches.
Ben, from Sheffield, was wearing a white buttoned T-shirt with a green motif on the day he vanished near a farmhouse his grandparents were renovating. Police started excavating the nearby olive grove after a new witness came forward claiming the toddler was run over by a digger driver and buried. On Monday, officers found dozens of bone fragments which have since been identified as belonging to animals.
Detective Inspector Jon Cousins, who is leading the search, yesterday said the fabric scraps were of ‘slight interest’, adding: ‘They are light coloured. Ben was wearing a white T-shirt.’
Anthropologists and archaeologists from Preston-based Alecto Forensics are helping with the investigation. The firm previously worked to identify bodies after the 9/11 and 7/7 terror attacks, and was also involved in a hunt for Madeleine McCann in Portugal.
Mr Cousins said: ‘We found a vast number of bones...each one was tested immediately and every single one was discounted as being an animal bone. There are some other items of slight interest which were found yesterday, the odd bit of fabric that is being examined.
‘We want to make sure, do they relate to any of the items that Ben may have been wearing?’
As well as a T-shirt, Ben had on brown leather sandals with buckles on the day he vanished. The 21-month-old was not wearing his shorts as he had wet them earlier in the day, and his grandmother had hung them on a tree to dry.
Ben was being looked after by his grandparents, Eddie and Christine Needham, while his mother Kerry, who was 19 at the time, worked at a nearby hotel. He was last seen in July 1991 playing on land near the farmhouse, and his mother always believed he had been abducted.
Earlier this year a new witness came forward to claim a local digger driver called Konstantinos Barkas had killed Ben. Mr Barkas died last year aged 62. His relatives have denied he had anything to do with the case and he was interviewed by police after Ben disappeared.
But the unnamed witness, described by detectives as credible, reportedly saw the driver ‘sweating and shaking’ after returning from the police station. If the account is correct, it will put an end to any hope of finding Ben alive.
The search team from South Yorkshire Police is being funded by £1million from the Home Office.