Today marks the 24th anniversary of Ben Needham’s disappearance. Ben was a toddler when he went missing from his grandparents’ house in Greece.
His mother, Kerry, has never stopped looking for him and earlier this year a team investigating Ben’s case was given a Home Office grant of £700,000 to keep looking at new leads.
And now officers have confirmed they have been speaking with a prisoner in Greece who claims he knows where Ben is.
Following an appeal on Greek television in 1996, a prisoner called in and said he knew where Ben was. He said: “My name is Andonis Betzios. I am in prison in Larissa, and I would like to say the whole truth about little Ben. He is in my hands, I mean he is in my cousins hands who lives in Germany but now at the moment he is in Greece, in Patra.”
Then, in May this year South Yorkshire Police made another appeal on Greek television. While following leads, the authorities decided to quiz Betzios again over his claims and now, Detective Inspector Jon Cousins has said his comments could be crucial in their search for Ben.
“[Betzios] has been involved in the investigation for about 20 years,” he said. He has been significant to the direction of the investigation.
“He still remains a significant person in relation to what we are doing. He did give us a perspective which is fresh and new and that's what we have got to look at and try to extract from all of this the truth as to what he does know and whether we can take it forward.”