It’s been 25 years since British toddler Ben Needham disappeared on the Greek island of Kos. By now, he should have grown from a little boy into a young man. Instead, since that nightmarish day in 1991 when he seemingly vanished into thin air, his mum has spent every day trying to find him.
Kerry Needham has never given up hope of seeing her son again. But that dream is now fading, following the latest developments.
She has been told that her toddler could have been killed in a digger accident.
After Yorkshire Police broadcast fresh appeals for information on Greek TV, a witness has come forward and revealed his belief that his friend, digger driver Konstantinos Barkas, had accidentally fatally injured the boy with his JCB, as he worked on land near where the Needham family was staying.
Barkas, known as Dino, died of stomach cancer last year.
The man described seeing Dino the day after Ben disappeared. He said the worker was “sweating and shaking” and admitted it was “possible” Ben had been killed in an accident.
Now, police are searching a patch of land near where the disappeared, in the hope of finding his remains. If they are discovered, his distraught mum Kerry Needham admits she is terrified the shock and heartbreak will kill her.
“I’m scared of dying of shock. I’m scared of this purpose in my life…,” she explained to the Daily Mirror. “I’ve always been looking for Ben. My reason for waking up in the morning and dealing with life… after that, then what?”
During the deeply emotional interview, Kerry also revealed she is terrified at the prospect of going back to the place where she lost her boy.
“I will try and keep that time on Kos to a minimum; the island makes me feel physically sick. It’s where mine and my family’s life was torn apart, the happy memories we had with Ben and the disaster,” she admitted. “And I feel so much anger to people on that island because they’ve kept this a secret for 25 years and I don’t know if I could deal with that much anger on the island.”
Speaking of how she’d react to seeing the witness, she added: “I’d want to kill him. If he’d come forward 25 years before…we probably could have forgiven him and we could have moved on and grieved and Ben would have been laid to rest.
“We would have known where he is. Of course I would have been angry but we could have… we could have had a life… I don’t think justice will ever be done.”