South Yorkshire Police told Kerry Needham in May that its major crimes unit would no longer handle the search for her son Ben. The news came by video call from her family liaison officer, the Mirror reported, and the force cited a lack of time and resources.
The force’s statement was short. “We remain ready to support Greek authorities should any new evidence come to light, and we remain committed to supporting Kerry,” it said. “However after 35 years, we must ensure all of the appropriate routes are in place and remain fit for purpose.”
It added that Greek authorities have “full primacy” over the investigation because Ben went missing on Kos. South Yorkshire keeps a family liaison officer and a detective as a single point of contact, and describes its role as a conduit between the UK, Greece and other agencies.
Needham, who lives in Turkey, said the change cancelled two things that had been planned. One was the re-interviewing of witnesses whose statements were inconsistent. The other was a trip to Kos with the senior investigating officer to meet the Greek public prosecutor, with the aim of setting up a joint team. Any relevant information will now go to Interpol and the Greek authorities.
“This is devastating news,” she told the Mirror. “I feel like I may as well give up the search for Ben because the Greek police have only ever wanted this case to go away.” She said the decision was not her investigating officer’s and that she felt sorry for him.
The comparison she made
Needham wrote to Keir Starmer and set her son’s case beside that of Madeleine McCann. The Met Police, which investigates McCann’s disappearance, had just been granted an extra £108,000, taking the cost of its inquiry past £13 million, according to the Examiner. South Yorkshire, over nearly twice the period, has been allocated less than £2 million.
“I do not begrudge any missing child receiving support or resources,” she wrote. “What I cannot accept is the clear inequality in how these cases have been treated.”
What the digs found
Ben was 21 months old when he disappeared from a farmhouse near Iraklis in July 1991. The force’s earlier work was funded in 2012, when the Home Office gave it £700,000 to reopen the case. A second excavation in 2016 followed a witness account that the toddler had been fatally struck in a digger accident. No evidence has ever confirmed it. A yellow toy car found on the final day carried decomposed blood, but it did not match Ben’s DNA.
Needham believes her son was taken from the island.
Her next step
By late June she had told the Daily Mail she would hire a private investigator in Greece. The firm wants €2,000 to begin reviewing the case, and she put the eventual cost near €20,000. She said she has “never had a big fund to help find Ben.”
South Yorkshire told the Mail its resource allocation “has not changed” and that the Greek investigation is open.
Sources
- Ben Needham's mum to hire detective to solve son's disappearance
- South Yorkshire Police end Ben Needham probe as mum Kerry left 'devastated'
