The mother of Ben Needham, who vanished as a toddler almost 35 years ago, said she broke down in tears after a UK police force told her it would no longer actively investigate her son’s disappearance.
Ben, from Sheffield, was 21 months old when he went missing on the Greek island of Kos in July 1991, when he was staying in a farmhouse with his grandparents.
His mother Kerry Needham was working at a hotel on the island at the time of his disappearance and has been searching for answers ever since.
A number of initial inquiries failed to locate Ben and he was believed to be kidnapped. In 2012, South Yorkshire Police (SYP) were granted £700,000 by the Home Office to reopen the investigation after the family complained that the matter had never been properly investigated.
They excavated the land on Kos where Ben is believed to have gone missing, but no trace of DNA evidence was found.
Ms Needham says she has been told by South Yorkshire Police’s major crimes unit that it is now the responsibility of the Greek police to undertake any future inquiries, The Mirror reports.
Ms Needham said the news was broken to her during a video call by her family liaison officer, during which she said she was “heartbroken and sobbing”.
“This is devastating news”, she told The Mirror. “The case will now fall solely to the Greek authorities. If this happens, 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.”
SYP on Monday told The Independent that Greek authorities “have full primacy over the investigation” but it continues “to allocate resource to Ben’s case, in the form of a Family Liaison Officer and a detective acting as a single point of contact”.
However, Ms Needham described the development as a “devastating step backwards” as she believes there are “still avenues to explore.”
She added: “South Yorkshire are the only ones I can rely on to make sure that information goes to the right place. It will stop me from getting to the truth. I may as well give up looking now, if South Yorkshire Police are not there to make sure all leads are followed up.
“I do everything in my power. If my police are taken away from me what am I going to do with that information? All of my blood sweat and tears would have been for nothing. I feel abandoned.”
Detectives from SYP returned to Kos for a three-week search in 2016. No trace of Ben has ever been found despite the numerous investigations by both British and Greek police.
About being told the disappearance will no longer be investigated, she told The Mirror: “I was horrified and in total shock and didn’t know what to say.
"I sat there with my hand over my mouth shaking my head and saying ‘this is so wrong’. It was sheer and utter shock. Then it was devastation, I ranted, I cried. I just couldn't hold myself together, I was shaking. I just cried and cried and cried; ‘this can’t happen; why is this happening to me?’
Ms Needham is now asking people to contact SYP and Sir Keir Starmer to ask for the case to remain actively investigated.
She said: "No parent should ever have to stop searching for their child and I never will."
A SYP spokesperson told The Independent: “We continue to allocate resource to Ben’s case, in the form of a Family Liaison Officer and a detective acting as a single point of contact for potential lines of enquiry. This bolsters our ability to ensure any information received is appropriately routed into the authorities that are charged to investigate.
“The Greek authorities have full primacy over the investigation due to the fact Ben went missing on Kos. Our role here in South Yorkshire is to act as a conduit between the UK, Greece and any other law enforcement agencies in a bid to secure answers.
“We have written to Kerry Needham to explain this position and offered a meeting to address any concern.
