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Ben Needham case has hallmarks of cover-up with cops wanting probe closed quickly and sex lies in bid to blacken mum's name
22:47, 30 OCT 2016 UPDATED 12:20, 31 OCT 2016
BY LUCY THORNTON
British police searching for answers to the disappearance of the toddler 25 years ago have tried hard to finally lift the gloom
The Ben Needham case has all the hallmarks of a cover-up, a Mirror probe has found.
The Mirror can reveal Greek police were pressured to close their inquiry quickly and a witness lied that he slept with the boy’s mum, blackening her name.
A key witness account on Kos is missing and a Greek official has dismissed the UK police ’s theory that Ben was run over by a digger.
As the last British tourists leave Kos at the end of the holiday season, a sinister cloud hangs over the island.
British police searching for answers to the disappearance of the toddler 25 years ago have tried hard to finally lift the gloom I’ve felt which shrouds this sunny place in the Aegean Sea.
PABen NeedhamBen Needham
But, after a £1.1million police operation and two extensive digs in renewed searches, they have only a little yellow toy car discovered in scorched earth to show for it.
Andy Stenning / Daily MirrorKerry Needham, mother of missing Ben NeedhamBen Needham's mum Kerry
South Yorkshire Police suspect 21-month-old Ben was crushed accidentally by digger driver Konstantinos “Dino” Barkas and his body hidden elsewhere.
Det Insp Jon Cousins, who led the investigation, 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.”
Mirror colleagues and I have spent months investigating the mystery and found claims of a Greek “cover-up” as wicked lies, vanishing statements and smears against the family were made.
After the renewed investigation and talking to key figures, we can reveal:
A witness has admitted lying to police in 1991 about having sex with Ben’s mother Kerry on the night Ben went missing when, in fact, she was out searching for her son.
A retired Greek official says a “huge” mistake was made when police waited 24 hours before launching a full search.
And a former police officer admits they were “under pressure to close the case”.
Rumours continue on the island, that Ben was taken by gypsies, or the mafia.
Mystery surrounds what happened to a key account from a witness whose home overlooked the house where Ben vanished.
Kerry believes there has been a cover-up over her son’s death and people wanted her to “go away....and forget about Ben”.
In a bid to smear the Needham name, a man who worked with Kerry at a hotel on Kos falsely claimed to have slept with her, while she was out hunting for Ben. He left Kos shortly after making the allegation.
He turned public opinion against the unmarried British mum and many blamed the family as a result. But Kerry has now been told by South Yorkshire Police officers this witness has finally told the truth.
He confessed it was a lie, but claimed he felt bullied into it. It is understood prosecutors on Kos are looking at this admission.
John Alevroyiannis / Daily MirrorBen Needham suspect Kostantinos BarkasSuspect Kostantinos 'Dino' Barkas
They should also perhaps look into claims of one former Greek official involved closely with the investigation.
He told us there had been a “huge mistake” in the investigation because of an unofficial policy of waiting 24 hours before launching a full search for a missing person – even though in this case Ben was just 21 months old.
The man was at first reluctant to talk, saying he feared for his life. Eventually he told us: “I arrived at work at 8am the morning after Ben disappeared. For someone to be called lost, 24 hours have to pass.
“That was a huge mistake. They didn’t go to the port when they should have done.”
But he said his main reason for speaking was to reveal the statement of a mysterious witness, a friend of his, was never taken because bosses ignored his report.
“He told me he’d seen a car with number plates from abroad. It had two people in the car and they were not Greek people.
“The witness said the child was playing outside and someone stepped out of the car and took him. My friend does not lie. I went back but once he knew the child was still missing he didn’t want to speak.
“He said ‘Don’t ask me more, I’m scared.’”
He said the witness, like so many others, has since died. He added: “I’m in danger for what I’m saying.
Daily MirrorA night time exposure of the farm house where Ben went missingThe farm house where Ben went missing
“If the child left Kos, all the police officers sitting on chairs would have a problem.”
He fears police would have been accused of leaving it too late to shut ports and lockdown the airport.
I asked to contact the family of this witness and he agreed, but next day, he said the son did not want to talk to us.
But his sombre mood changed when asked about the British police theory that Ben was killed in an accident.
Slapping his forehead with the palms of his hands, he exclaimed: “It’s crazy, doesn’t make sense”, and wagging a finger he said they wanted “to close the mystery”.
The official said he knew Dino, a construction business owner in Kos.
He was behind the building of many of the island’s hotels and, the Mirror understands, also did domestic building work for various police officers.
Another mystery is what happened to a key witness account from an elderly woman whose home overlooked the farmhouse where Ben vanished.
She said she saw Ben’s uncle Stephen leaving the area alone on his scooter. Minutes later she watched Ben playing behind the building his grandfather was renovating. It is too late for police to take her statement now, as she has died. But others have confirmed to British officers what she saw.
The scene where Ben vanished
Her evidence would have destroyed false rumours that Ben could have died after falling from the back of Stephen’s scooter. It is not known if a statement was ever taken, or if it vanished.
The horrible rumours speculating the family were involved still thrive in Kos.
We met a retired police officer, one of the first to hunt for the missing toddler, who is still full of poison.
He admitted police were under pressure, but denied there was any intimidation of witnesses like the hotel worker who claimed to have slept with Kerry.
“Nobody bullied anyone into giving a statement,” he said. “We only pushed for the truth. Once the mother said the child was missing, we immediately searched. I took the mother’s statement.
“She didn’t look very sad. She was very calm. The police did go to the port that night but not in uniform. We were under pressure to close the case.
“Everyone wanted to find the child. We did our best.”
But Ben’s grandfather Eddie strongly rejects his claims. “That’s a lie,” he told me. “There were no police there just me and my Stephen. I knew all the police.”
Daily MirrorThe farm land where Ben went missingThe farm land where Ben was last seen
With “pressure” mounting on Greek police to close the case and the“mistake” in waiting more than 24 hours, and so much misinformation, I wonder if suspicions of a cover-up are right.
Conspiracy theories saturate the island – Ben was sold to gypsies, there was an accident and it was covered up, or the mafia took him.
But were locals simply scared the tragedy might affect tourism? Back in 2012, when South Yorkshire police first began digging at the farmhouse, the island’s tourism chief Nikos Sofos said: “A lot of mistakes were made in the investigation.
“To the people here it is improbable that Ben was abducted and somehow spirited off the island.”
The British police began digging again in Kos for the first time since 2012 after information from a new witness, a friend of Dino who believed he may be responsible for the death of the toddler.
Mirror FrontsHow the Mirror has pursued little Ben's disappearance
Dino died, aged 62 last year after suffering cirrhosis of the liver. His family deny any claim that he was involved.
I understand Dino told Greek police officers Ben could have been abducted. He said he saw a strange white car in the area that day on July 24, 1991.
Currently Ben’s case is “still open” and in the hands of local prosecutors.
Angry Kerry, 43, said: “It infuriates me. It is just one big cover-up.
“When I spoke with the UK police and got a full update…they know what happened. They haven’t done this digging on a whim. It has been just one big smokescreen. They [the people on Kos] wanted us to go away, disappear and forget about Ben. They had an attitude that we were not worth helping.”
