Ben Needham: blood found on toy car and sandal

Signs of blood have been found on a toy car and sandal believed to have belonged to toddler Ben Needham, who disappeared on Kos 26 years ago.

South Yorkshire police said the development “corroborates and strengthens” the theory Ben died in an accident at his grandparents’ farmhouse where he had been staying.

But Ben’s mother, Kerry Needham, said the discovery was evidence of a “massive cover-up” and that her son’s body must have been moved after his death: “It shows more of a conspiracy because they didn’t find Ben’s body,” she told the Daily Mirror.

“That proves it to me without doubt they obviously moved him and buried him and, for whatever reason, dug him up. There’s no other explanation.”

Ben went missing while playing near his grandparents’ farmhouse, in Iraklis, while it was being renovated on 24 July 1991.

Last October, South Yorkshire police formally ended an extensive search of the site, and a second site 750 metres away, saying they believe the toddler may have been crushed by a digger working on the renovation.

Ben’s body has never been found although other items – thought to be a toy car and sandal belonging to the 21-month-old – are being tested for his DNA after being recovered previously.

Scientists said on Monday they had found human blood samples on the items but that further testing was required to link them directly to Ben.

The sandal was reportedly found in 2012 at the site where Konstantinos “Dino” Barkas was operating a digger, while the car was discovered last year at another spot. Barkas is believed to have died from stomach cancer in 2015.

Prof Lorna Dawson, head of the soil forensics group at the James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen, said a team of scientists had discovered the “chemical finger print” of compounds left behind “when there has been decomposition or decay”.

“There’s a strong indication from this chemical profile that this was present on those items as a result of blood decomposition,” she said.

“It’s significant in identifying that there had been a human who had bled in contact with those items. The biologist has to come in now and identify who left that blood on that item by extracting the DNA.”

DI Jon Cousins added: “It’s not evidence, it’s intelligence which supports what we believe, that unfortunately and tragically Ben died as a result of an incident at that farmhouse. It’s my belief that [the findings] corroborate and strengthen that theory.”

Kerry Needham said the discovery suggested there had been a “massive cover-up” of her son’s death and that his body must have been moved before police searched the two sites last October.

She told the Daily Mirror: ”This confirms what the police have been saying all along. My Ben was killed in an accident. But it also suggests that not only did they kill my boy and bury him where the toy car was found, they then moved him before police got to the site last October.

“What kind of human being does that? It just infuriates me. How can they do such a thing? He was definitely wearing those sandals that day. They were the only ones we could keep on his feet.

“And we’re 99.9% sure that car was Ben’s. He was playing with them that day. You can sort of forgive an accident in time but when somebody takes that further and starts picking up a dead child and moving his remains again, it’s monstrous behaviour. God know’s where he is. He could be in the bottom of the Aegean Sea for all I know. It’s really sick.”