Post by Admin on Jul 6, 2015 3:19:50 GMT
Ben Needham disappeared on 24th July 1991 when he was just 21 months old. From ‘corrupt’ police to the mysterious white car spotted near his home on the day he vanished, here’s everything we know about one of the longest missing child cases in British history.
Kerry welcomed baby Ben Stephen Needham on the 29th October 1989 in Sheffield. She was just 17-years-old, but proved to be a natural mother - and, when she was 18-months-old, she and Ben moved to Kos to be closer to her family.
Police are scouring potential new leads in the case of Ben Needham - including a photo of a man who could provide the key to finding the missing toddler. Ben, from Sheffield, went missing on July 24, 1991, after travelling to the Greek island of Kos with his mother and his grandparents. Now his mum Kerry has made an emotional appeal on a missing people show in Greece, joined by a team of South Yorkshire Police officers who have been granted £700,000 Home Office funding to aid the search.
So far we know:
-At least 30 calls and e-mails have been received after Ben's family appeared on Greek TV
-A man who believes he resembles the missing boy has now been debunked as an 'old lead'
-But police are investigating a photo which was sent in to the TV team
-Crimestoppers have offered a fresh £10,000 reward and have urged people to share the #BenNeedham hashtag
-Ben's gran Christine has made an emotional appeal during a press conference today saying: "We can't ever get our baby back"
2.30pm, 24th July 1991
At about 2.30pm, Stephen (Kerry’s brother) left the farmhouse on his moped. Ben wanted to go with his uncle. A few minutes after Stephen left, Christine (Kerry’s mother) realised that Ben had gone quiet and went outside. He was nowhere to be seen. She and the others began searching for the boisterous little boy, calling his name as they did so. When they couldn't find him, they assumed he must have gone with Stephen; it was the logical explanation.
Joined by Kerry’s family, the police began an intense search for Ben, going to places that Ben could never have got to, covering some 15 acres, through olive groves and pomegranate orchards, riverbeds and long grass. However, on the night Ben went missing, Kerry’s father and brother drove to the port on Kos at 3am. There was a line of trucks and cars waiting to board the ferry - but there were no police checking the vehicles.
Kos police were immediately hostile to Kerry. She told The Guardian: “They banged their hands on the table. They shouted, 'Where is boy? How can you lose a baby? Why do you go to work? You must not love your child.'" Island gossips quickly blamed Kerry for his disappearance, slamming her as an unfit mother for working instead of looking after her child, as a slut for being an unmarried mother.
Some even accused her of not loving her son, and of giving him away or selling him in a bid to be rid of him. The police extensively questioned the Needhams, holding them as prime suspects, and delayed informing airports and docks - or widening their search for the little boy.
Builders working on a property close to the farmhouse where Ben disappeared came forward to police on the 25th July 19991. In their statements, they revealed that they had witnessed a white car parked in the lane around 2.30pm the day Ben vanished. They believed the car to have been a Suzuki Alto or similar model. One of the builders further stated that the car contained 3 occupants - one woman in the rear of the car, and two men in the front.
26th July 1991
It took two days for police to finally inform the airport of Ben's disappearance. A woman who worked in a kiosk within the airport reports remembering seeing a child fitting Ben's description in the airport on the same day he disappeared. This boy has never been traced.
Writing on the official Help Find Ben website, Kerry explained: “The British Embassy was informed and was asked to help. “However no support was offered due to us not being under arrest for any crime and the Embassy's feeling that the local police had better knowledge and so it should be best to leave it to them.”
