Ben: The truth at last?
After 25 years, 3,600 hours of digging – and a tantalising new clue in the dirt – police say boy’s death ‘probably an accident’
MISSING toddler Ben Needham was probably killed in an accident on the Greek island of Kos, police said yesterday.
After 25 years of theories, the detective leading the investigation yesterday said it was his ‘professional belief’ that Ben was dead – despite no body being found.
Detective Inspector Jon Cousins, speaking from the island, said his team had unearthed an item that Ben had with him on the day he went missing.
The object, which has not been identified but could be a toy car or a pair of shorts, was found in the spot where digger driver Konstantinos Barkas, who allegedly killed the toddler, was dumping materials at the time Ben disappeared in July 1991.
Mr Barkas, who died last year, had always denied any involvement. But in May, a witness came forward to claim that the driver had mowed the boy down before burying him.
Police have previously noted ‘inconsistencies’ in Mr Barkas’s accounts and officers were never able to trace his JCB.
Yet as police leave the island today, the mystery surrounding Ben continues and his family face the agonising prospect that his body is unlikely to ever be found. Mr Cousins, who has spent three weeks on Kos with
‘Never going to be a happy ending’
a team of 19 officers, said: ‘It is my professional belief that Ben Needham died as a result of an accident near to the farmhouse in Iraklis where he was last seen playing.’
He confirmed that one of the 21-monthold’s possessions had been found at a dumping site some 800 yards from the farmhouse his family had been renovating. Officers were led there by the new witness.
The Needhams, from Sheffield, have previously been shown fragments of toys discovered nearby but have always said they were not the two matchbox cars Ben was crashing together on the final day he spent with his family. Their reaction to the latest finding is said to have been ‘very different’.
Mr Cousins said: ‘I met with [Ben’s mother] Kerry and other members of her family over the weekend. They were shown the item that was recovered.
‘It was an item that Ben was in possession of at the time he disappeared. Kerry was able to confirm this. It was an emotional time for all of us.’
Although police will not reveal what the object is, their investigation has long focused on two toy cars, as well as a pair of shorts hanging in a tree to dry, none of which had been seen since the day Ben vanished. The item was found alongside food packaging with an expiry date of 1991. It will now be taken back to the UK to be analysed in the hope that it might hold traces of DNA.
In total, police and volunteers spent 3,600 hours digging on the island. Yesterday’s conclusion came a day after Kerry Needham, 43, made an emotional visit to the site with her parents Eddie, 68, and Christine, 64. In a statement yesterday, she said: ‘It was never going to be a happy ending and we will have to decide at a later date where we go from here.’
She thanked police for their ‘kindness, compassion and sheer dedication’ and expressed her gratitude to the media.
She previously told the Daily Mirror she wished she could ‘tear up’ the whole of Kos to look for her son. Of Mr Barkas, who allegedly took his secret to the grave, she said: ‘I hope he’s burning in hell.’
Mr Cousins said the investigation would not ‘simply close’ and that any new information would be looked at thoroughly.