Ever since that fateful day her little boy vanished, Kerry Needham has campaigned tirelessly for police to continue investigating Ben’s disappearance, in hope that he is still alive.
However police now fear Ben could have been killed whilst on the Greek island of Kos, where his grandparents were renovating a farmhouse.
Detectives told Kerry to “prepare for the worst” as they announced they would be starting a second search for the little boy’s body in coming weeks.
In 2012, land near the farmhouse in the village of Iraklis was excavated, but no trace of the child was found.
A new witness has claimed JCB driver Konstantinos Barkas, known as Dino, who was working in the area, may have been responsible for Ben’s death.
Barkas reportedly died last year from stomach cancer before the South Yorkshire Police arrived in Kos for a renewed investigation.
According to the Daily Mirror, the witness said the death was accidental.
Kerry told the paper: “What they had to tell me was the last thing they would have ever wanted to. They think my Ben could be dead and buried.
“They are no longer looking for a missing person. How do I cope with that?
"My mother’s instinct has always told me he was alive. What if I’ve been wrong all this time?”
The mystery witness came forward earlier in the year after seeing an appeal on Greek TV.
Dino had been working nearby on a new property, and the witness described seeing him the day after Ben’s disappearance as “sweating and shaking”.
He had just returned from the police station where officers told him the tot was missing and the witness asked whether there could have been an accident.
Dino apparently replied: “I just don’t know, but it’s possible.”
According to the report, police are now looking into whether the digger drive knew for sure he had killed Ben, but didn’t want to admit it.
And they also fear there could have been conspiracy of silence among his friends to protect Dino.
The Mirror also reports that they believe they have found Dino’s digger he was driving on the day Ben vanished.
Police are now investigating as to whether it is the one that could have been involved in the tragic disappearance.
We will bring you more on this story as it happens.
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