EXCLUSIVE: Missing Ben Needham’s mum Kerry told the Mirror: “My dad never ever agreed with the police theory there had been an accident. He believed Ben was abducted”
Ben Needham’s grandfather has tragically died on the eve of the 35th anniversary of his grandson’s disappearance.
Ben’s mum Kerry Needham, 54, who now lives in Turkey, said: “We’re all devastated. About a month ago he said to me; ‘I’m tired, I’ve had enough but I don’t want to go without knowing what’s happened to Ben’.
“He held on as long as he could. It has tormented him for 35 years. Will he rest in peace? I don’t think he will, not until we know what happened.
Kerry added: “My dad never ever agreed with the police theory there had been an accident. He believed Ben was abducted. Once I have the strength back from this, I am now even more determined to fight for the answers that my dad longed for.”
Kerry was told her dad died on Thursday, just hours before the harrowing anniversary of her son’s disappearance from the island of Kos. Ben was 21 months old when he went missing on July 24 1991.
Her mum Christine was babysitting and had taken the toddler to see grandad Eddie, who was renovating a farmhouse on the island at the time. Eddie, 77, a former builder from Sheffield, South Yorkshire, was a grandad-of-four and great-grandad to two, and was married to wife Christine.
He had suffered from cancer recently but had recovered after treatment. The family were left in shock after he took a turn for the worse during a day out with his son Stephen.
Kerry said: “He was a strong, hardworking family man, who could be very funny and sarcastic. He didn’t suffer fools gladly. He was a very good judge of character. He had a really good sense of humour and he was always telling jokes.
“But when it came to Ben he was very very serious. He would take the lead on my behalf, talking to the authorities. He would do anything for his family. He went everywhere looking for Ben. He would sleep on the beach to save money on hotel rooms when his health was okay.
“But he lived with an awful lot of guilt. I tried to convince him that I never blamed him or my mum. I wanted that pain of that guilt to stop but there was nothing I could ever say to him that would stop it, he lived with it every day until he died.”
Talking about how her parents ended up living in Kos, Kerry said: “He loved travelling and seeing different parts of the world. That changed my mindset too. It put it in my blood. I wanted the same adventures as they were having. That’s why I followed them to Kos.”
During his last visit to the island of Kos, Eddie spoke to the Mirror about the immense guilt he lived with for persuading Kerry to join them in Greece with Ben. He broke down sobbing as he approached the farmhouse where Ben was last seen and cried: “I hate this place. I hate this place. I can’t take any more.”
He told us how he would dream of his grandson Ben on Kos, pleading: “Please come and find me, Grandad, I’m here.”
He said: “The biggest thing that’s haunted me is, I used to hear him in my head, ‘I’m here, Grandad. Come and find me, I’m here’. I searched everywhere; the ravine, the brambles, the outbuildings, the well.
“I had to give up searching for Ben for my own sanity. It was sending me mad. I couldn’t think or operate properly.”
Eddie and his wife Christine, fell in love with Kos during their first holiday abroad together in September 1990 and quickly made the decision to sell up in Sheffield and move to their island haven. Shop worker Christine, then 37, and builder Eddie, 39, sold their home and bought a caravan for the 2,340 mile journey with their two youngest, Stephen, then 17 and Danny, 11. The four set off at the end of December 1990 sending regular updates back home to new mum Kerry.
Eddie recalled: “When we got to Kos we had a great life at first, fishing all the time, catching octopus and eels and cooking them. We thought, ‘What a life!'”
After reading letters about their wonderful life overseas, Kerry, living in a council flat in Sheffield, soon decided to join them with their first grandchild, Ben. They had been hoping for a fantastic life together in Greece, but it turned into a nightmare.
On the morning of July 24, 1991, Kerry went to work and Christine and Danny pushed Ben in a pushchair for the half-an-hour trip to visit the farmhouse. It was the tot’s first trip there to see his grandad Eddie and uncle Stephen working, while a digger driver moved rubble from a different property down the lane.
It was only after work had finished for the day that it became apparent Ben was missing. Eddie said: “The last time I saw Ben he was playing just outside. He had a stick and was poking the mud and throwing water over himself. For some reason I thought Danny was outside with him but Danny said he was inside eating.”
Several witnesses claim to have seen a strange car in the lane at the time of Ben’s disappearance. After searching frantically, they called the police and Eddie had the devastating duty to tell Kerry they could not find her son.
He recalled: “I had to stand and watch as police got a JCB and tipped the pile of building dirt from the site next door very slowly. Every bucketful felt as if my guts were falling out.
“They moved the dirt from A to B, and police expected Ben’s body to roll out. Then they moved it back again. There was never a proper investigation or a proper search. It was never treated as a crime scene.
“There was a man from the BBC based in Athens at the time and he said he could try and get heatseeking equipment from the UK to search but the police officer in charge said ‘no’ because he didn’t think Ben was on the island.
“He said the birds would have alerted them as they come in huge numbers even if a small animal is dead. He said the ground was too hard for someone to have buried him.
“I feel so much guilt. I still blame myself,” Eddie said. “If we hadn’t persuaded Kerry to join us with Ben this would never have happened and he would still be with us.”
Kerry added: “I am determined to find the answers so my dad can rest in peace.”
