***'Kos dig' starts 26 Sep 2016*** (was: Kerry Needham 'prepared for worst' by investigators)

http://www.itv.com/news/calendar/2016-09-18/grandfather-of-ben-needham-hard-to-believe-missing-toddler-died-in-accident/?


[size=40]Grandfather of Ben Needham: hard to believe missing toddler died in accident[/size]

The grandfather of Ben Needham has told ITV Calendar that he finds it hard to believe Konstantinos Barkas could have killed Ben in an accident with his digger, and not said anything at the time to the family.
Eddie Needham spoke with Calendar Producer Mark Witty, after revelations about Ben's possible fate were revealed in the press, and in an exclusive ITV television interview with Ben's mother Kerry.
Eddie described Barkas as a "gentle giant" and was struggling with the premise that he did not reveal any connection to Ben's death when Barkas himself knew he had terminal cancer. He died 18 months ago without, it's reported, any "deathbed" revelation.

• MORE: Ben Needham - the 25-year mystery of what happened to the missing toddler
  
  

Eddie also checked Barkas's vehicle on the day of Ben's disappearance - it was a tractor with a bucket-style digger on the front and the driver position was high up - giving a clear view ahead while driving.
Eddie said the family was trying to remain strong and face the future as best as they can in the circumstances.


There seems to be a contradiction 

The detail of this case is in many ways similar to that of Madeleine McCann, for a start, there is little to go on apart from the word of a close knit family union and the UK press.

My first impression about this case was the unlikely event of a 21 month old child being allowed to wander about in and outside the farmhouse without the supervision of an adult.  The location of the farmhouse indicates to me very rough terrain which would make walking/tottering very hazardous for one so young - the dangers are limitless.

It was summer and the Needhams were said to have been visiting Ben's grandparents, yet the mother went of to 'work' leaving Ben with the grandparents?  Again remembering the child's age, there was some delay between the adults realising Ben had disappeared and calling the police, they searched thinking he'd wandered off or the teenager had taken him for a ride on his moped.  Would such a young child venture far on rough ground without tumbling every step and bawling it's eyes out - would even a teenager take such a young child away without telling the grandparent/s?

Then follows tales of abduction/child trafficking;  police ineptitude;  private detectives;  sightings across the globe;  gypsy camps;  age progression imagery;  human remains detection dogs and none other than South Yorkshire police!  Oh and of course the obligatory mention of Madeleine McCann at every opportunity.

This case is anything but straightforward.

Post moved to here - Mod

'Kos dig' begins today
  April28th Today at 6:23 am


Excavations will begin on Monday at farmland on the Greek island of Kos in the hunt for missing Sheffield toddler Ben Needham.
Ben was 21 months old when he disappeared on 24 July 1991 during a family holiday.
New information revealed 10 days ago suggested he could have been crushed to death by a digger.
South Yorkshire Police said the dig was expected to take 10 to 12 days with "unusual items" undergoing testing.
A spokesman added that a decision on whether to start work on a second site would be made after work had finished at the first.
The Needham family has been informed of the latest developments.

Builder claim

The new investigation was triggered by a friend of builder Konstantinos Barkas.
It was claimed Mr Barkas may have accidentally killed Ben while clearing land with an excavator close to where the toddler was playing on the day he vanished.
Mr Barkas reportedly died of stomach cancer last year, months before detectives from South Yorkshire Police arrived on the island for a renewed investigation.
His widow Varvara strongly dismissed any suggestions her late husband had killed Ben.
The boy's mother and grandparents were renovating a farmhouse in the village of Iraklise when he vanished.
His family and supporters have led a campaign to find him, while his mother and police officers have appeared on Greek television to appeal for information.
Earlier this year, South Yorkshire Police secured funding form the Home Office to send 10 officers to Kos to carry out further investigations.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-37467430


REPLY:  BBC Radio 4 reported this morning that Ben had been 'run over' and then buried by the driver of the digger.

Whatever has been suggested by the so-called 'friend' of builder Konstantinos Barkas, the account he gives is uncomfortably close to the hypothesis long held by  the Greek Police.

Namely that after lunch the day he disappeared, Ben's uncle Stephen, aged only 19, took 21-month-old Ben for a ride on his motor-bike and had an accident, during which Ben was fatally injured. It was put to him by the police that he had then covered up the accident by burying his body somewhere on the island.

This hypothesis was supported both by forensic evidence - marks of a crash on Stephen Needham's motor-bike - and circumstantial evidence, namely Stephen being hypnotised and then remembering having an accident and burying Ben. This circumstantial evidence was televised in a documentary programme.

The theory being advanced now by South Yorkshire Police would require the following:

1. Ben to have wandered right away from the security and safety of his uncle and grandparents...
2. ...without any one of the three noticing that he had done so
3. Wandered right off (he was 21 months and no more than a toddler) on to some kind of building site, with all its obstacles and hazards
4. Not been seen by a digger-driver...
5. ...who then 'discovered' that he'd accidentally run over and killed Ben
6. The digger-driver would then have panicked and buried Ben with earth or rubble 
7. He would then have covered up this secret for nearly 25 years...
8. ...and then whispered to his friend as he lay dying on his death bed: "It was me that killed that Ben Needham. I ran over him, killed him by mistake, and then buried him under the rubble"
9. Months after Barkas's death, his friend decides to tell the police about his friend's alleged death-bed confession.

It is such a tall tale that I cannot accept it as the truth about Ben's disappearance

Edit: Just thinking about this further.

Tony Bennett wrote:Post moved to here - Mod

'Kos dig' begins today
  April28th Today at 6:23 am


Excavations will begin on Monday at farmland on the Greek island of Kos in the hunt for missing Sheffield toddler Ben Needham.
Ben was 21 months old when he disappeared on 24 July 1991 during a family holiday.
New information revealed 10 days ago suggested he could have been crushed to death by a digger.
South Yorkshire Police said the dig was expected to take 10 to 12 days with "unusual items" undergoing testing.
A spokesman added that a decision on whether to start work on a second site would be made after work had finished at the first.
The Needham family has been informed of the latest developments.

Builder claim

The new investigation was triggered by a friend of builder Konstantinos Barkas.
It was claimed Mr Barkas may have accidentally killed Ben while clearing land with an excavator close to where the toddler was playing on the day he vanished.
Mr Barkas reportedly died of stomach cancer last year, months before detectives from South Yorkshire Police arrived on the island for a renewed investigation.
His widow Varvara strongly dismissed any suggestions her late husband had killed Ben.
The boy's mother and grandparents were renovating a farmhouse in the village of Iraklise when he vanished.
His family and supporters have led a campaign to find him, while his mother and police officers have appeared on Greek television to appeal for information.
Earlier this year, South Yorkshire Police secured funding form the Home Office to send 10 officers to Kos to carry out further investigations.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-37467430


REPLY:  BBC Radio 4 reported this morning that Ben had been 'run over' and then buried by the driver of the digger.

Whatever has been suggested by the so-called 'friend' of builder Konstantinos Barkas, the account he gives is uncomfortably close to the hypothesis long held by  the Greek Police.

Namely that after lunch the day he disappeared, Ben's uncle Stephen, aged only 19, took 21-month-old Ben for a ride on his motor-bike and had an accident, during which Ben was fatally injured. It was put to him by the police that he had then covered up the accident by burying his body somewhere on the island.

This hypothesis was supported both by forensic evidence - marks of a crash on Stephen Needham's motor-bike - and circumstantial evidence, namely Stephen being hypnotised and then remembering having an accident and burying Ben. This circumstantial evidence was televised in a documentary programme.

The theory being advanced now by South Yorkshire Police would require the following:

1. Ben to have wandered right away from the security and safety of his uncle and grandparents...
2. ...without any one of the three noticing that he had done so
3. Wandered right off (he was 21 months and no more than a toddler) on to some kind of building site, with all its obstacles and hazards
4. Not been seen by a digger-driver...
5. ...who then 'discovered' that he'd accidentally run over and killed Ben
6. The digger-driver would then have panicked and buried Ben with earth or rubble 
7. He would then have covered up this secret for nearly 25 years...
8. ...and then whispered to his friend as he lay dying on his death bed: "It was me that killed that Ben Needham. I ran over him, killed him by mistake, and then buried him under the rubble"
9. Months after Barkas's death, his friend decides to tell the police about his friend's alleged death-bed confession.

It is such a tall tale that I cannot accept it as the truth about Ben's disappearance

Sorry Tony, but toddlers CAN toddle off. At 10 months old, already toddling, I had wandered off, up the road and around the corner into the next road before my panic stricken parents found me. They did not even know that I was able to do this, and during a house move and all the confusion, they thought I was safely in the garden. I, needless to say, wasn't even aware that what I was doing was of any consequence, and don't recall the incident except from being told about it.

Needless to say, I do remember being the unhappy victim of playpen imprisonment, and the boredom of the small enclosed space, but did eventually learn how to get over the side and out.

21 months is a time when toddlers are well able to get out of sight in a jiffy.

One short sharp shock is usually enough though for parents to re-assess family situations. Just terribly sad if it's an experience where it actually did go wrong. My own parents sort of laughed each time they reminded me of this story, but it was a laugh loaded with the feeling of shock at the time, and they clearly didn't find it very funny at all.

I have no doubts that Ben at 21 months could have been curious and fascinated by all the adventures, diggers, etc. going on in the area at the time.

I also now live in a part of Europe where the local people would always 'keep word for each other' in preference to taking the consequences which the local police and law courts might distribute. Given the choice, they would not select to put the needs of a 'foreigner' moving into their area and doing a house up for themselves, however friendly or nice they might be, before one of their own.

Regarding Ben's uncle, finding a convenient spade to dig a hole and bury his brother, let us remember he was on his moped. Unless he had a spade and his nephew on the bike at the same time, any precious equipment like a spade lying around, conveniently near an 'accident' would not have been lying around for long. Either the actual owner or a fortunate passer by would have made off with it. The ground on Kos is also very rocky, not easy to dig and any shallow hole would easily have been exposed by the police at the site of the alleged accident. Sniffer dogs, in fact any dogs, would also have had no trouble turning the ground up.

Let's wait and see if the digs do bring out any signs. On the one hand, I hope they find nothing, so Kerry may still hope, but on the other, if they do, at least she may have some peace from knowing, and knowing also, that it would have been 'excitement and joy' that had been in his mind.

bobbin wrote:
Sorry Tony, but toddlers CAN toddle off. At 10 months old, already toddling, I had wandered off, up the road and around the corner into the next road before my panic stricken parents found me. They did not even know that I was able to do this, and during a house move and all the confusion, they thought I was safely in the garden. I, needless to say, wasn't even aware that what I was doing was of any consequence, and don't recall the incident except from being told about it.

Needless to say, I do remember being the unhappy victim of playpen imprisonment, and the boredom of the small enclosed space, but did eventually learn how to get over the side and out.

21 months is a time when toddlers are well able to get out of sight in a jiffy.

One short sharp shock is usually enough though for parents to re-assess family situations. Just terribly sad if it's an experience where it actually did go wrong. My own parents sort of laughed each time they reminded me of this story, but it was a laugh loaded with the feeling of shock at the time, and they clearly didn't find it very funny at all.

I have no doubts that Ben at 21 months could have been curious and fascinated by all the adventures, diggers, etc. going on in the area at the time.

I also now live in a part of Europe where the local people would always 'keep word for each other' in preference to taking the consequences which the local police and law courts might distribute. Given the choice, they would not select to put the needs of a 'foreigner' moving into their area and doing a house up for themselves, however friendly or nice they might be, before one of their own.

Regarding Ben's uncle, finding a convenient spade to dig a hole and bury his brother, let us remember he was on his moped. Unless he had a spade and his nephew on the bike at the same time, any precious equipment like a spade lying around, conveniently near an 'accident' would not have been lying around for long. Either the actual owner or a fortunate passer by would have made off with it. The ground on Kos is also very rocky, not easy to dig and any shallow hole would easily have been exposed by the police at the site of the alleged accident. Sniffer dogs, in fact any dogs, would also have had no trouble turning the ground up.

Let's wait and see if the digs do bring out any signs. On the one hand, I hope they find nothing, so Kerry may still hope, but on the other, if they do, at least she may have some peace from knowing, and knowing also, that it would have been 'excitement and joy' that had been in his mind.

@ bobbin   I understand your point. 10 months is very young to be able to walk, let alone along a road and round a corner.

But I suspect it was a flat, level asphalt pavement where you were unlikely to face many trip hazards.   

By contrast, this is how Kerry Needham (I have her book, 'Ben') describes their farmhouse and adjoining houses:

QUOTE

"This wasn't even a road. It led past a handful of houses at the bottom, a building site where a villa was being constructed from scratch, then an odd-looking villa raised above road level and finally the loose-chipped driveway leading to to Michaelis's property at the top...The  farmhouse was set back about twenty yards from the lane...It was an exaggeration to call the building a farmhouse because it was so rundown, but that it what it used to be and hopefully would be again. It was a single-storey building that looked out on mountains in one direction and fields and woods in the other. Everything needed repairing or replacing. There were no doors, just frames, which had left it at the mercy of the weather and any passing animals for years. The overgrown garden had to be hacked back even to access the place...It was a massive project, guaranteed to keep Dad and Stephen busy for the best part of a year... (p. 82).

It would be hard for Ben to toddle very far, given those surroundings... 

50 Shades of Raymond Hewlett .

As regards the case of Madeleine McCann, the consensus think the UK press have grossly misrepresented evidence - yet of a sudden they are believable as regards the case of Ben Needham's disappearance?

Clarence Mitchell is not the only spin-doctor roaming planet earth.

WHEN does a 'suspected' 25 year 'conspiracy of silence' (Kerry Needham) BECOME a 9 year, ongoing, 'pact of silence' (McCan'ts AND 'friends')?

https://spidercatweb.wordpress.com/2016/09/17/ben-needham-police-fear-toddler-was-crushed-by-a-digger/

"...detectives fear there may have been a conspiracy of silence among his friends to protect him."

Ben Needham’s mother has revealed her fears there may have been a ‘conspiracy of silence’ protecting the man suspected of killing her son.  Kerry Needham said key witnesses may not have come forward about Konstantinos Barkas – who was a prime suspect in…

Ref: http://whotalking.com/google-plus/Kerry+Needham

However, while KN 'suspects' a 'conspiracy of silence' the McCan'ts, and their 'friends', have SAID 'we HAVE a pact of silence', (DP: 'I know a few things, relevent and pertinent, to the material truth, about a child's 'disappearance'....but i'm not going to tell you!) so detectives at OG need have no fear of 'discovering' a 'conspiracy of silence' later...........they already KNOW there IS 'one'!

All, imo, obviously.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@36.8797882,27.3186513,15z

Can't seem to copy & paste the google maps image, but if you open the above map link, pretty much in the centre is a road marked 'Makris'. If you follow the road down past a turning on the left, the house is about half way along on the right, before you get to the next left turning.

You can zoom in to satellite and then street view to see the terrain.



https://www.thesun.co.uk/archives/news/1170256/ben-needham-abducted-and-taken-away-on-black-speedboat-to-man-called-nikos-in-new-claims-by-detectives-as-they-hunt-for-missing-tot/

ITV 'reporter' in (on?) Kos just 'stated'...........'the police have SPECIFIC 'intelligence and information' to be 'digging/searching' these particular 'locations'

Did ex DCI A Redwood have SPECIFIC 'intelligence and information' when he 'dug at' the location on the 'snail' mound in PDL.?

Or was his FANFARED (helicopter, dogs, GPR, 'experts') 'digging' ONLY all 'for the SHOW'?

ITV update @ 13.42.
 
The green tent & digger we have seen in the photo shows in this video and is in the field/garden right in front of the Needham property.
 
http://www.itv.com/news/calendar/update/2016-09-26/ben-needham-latest-update-from-kos/
 
 

If this hasn't already been meticulously searched many times before......................??????

How odd. Why not at Barkas property? 
Thoughts with Kerry & family at this time.

As far as we have been led to believe, the 'specific intelligence' at this time comes from bloke who says:

"My friend was in his deathbed. He whispered to me that he had bulldozed Ben Needham to death by mistake and then buried him somewhere to hide what he'd done. Soon afterwards, he died. And here am I, telling you what really happened..."

I really don't think that's it, somehow

Tony Bennett wrote:As far as we have been led to believe, the 'specific intelligence' at this time comes from bloke who says:

"My friend was in his deathbed. He whispered to me that he had bulldozed Ben Needham to death by mistake and then buried him somewhere to hide what he'd done. Soon afterwards, he died. And here am I, telling you what really happened..."

I really don't think that's it, somehow

Have to agree, think we're being led down a crazed garden path!

Tony Bennett wrote:As far as we have been led to believe, the 'specific intelligence' at this time comes from bloke who says:

"My friend was in his deathbed. He whispered to me that he had bulldozed Ben Needham to death by mistake and then buried him somewhere to hide what he'd done. Soon afterwards, he died. And here am I, telling you what really happened..."

I really don't think that's it, somehow

Ah.

Now, IF only 'blokeyman's' 'deathbed' friend had left him 'a letter', that 'blokeyman' had 'the nerve' NOT 'to burn....................'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1307883/Madeleine-McCann-Deathbed-letter-paedophile-suspect-claims-abduction-clue.html

jeanmonroe wrote:

Ah.

Now, IF only 'blokeyman's' 'deathbed' friend had left him 'a letter', that 'blokeyman' had 'the nerve' NOT 'to burn...'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1307883/Madeleine-McCann-Deathbed-letter-paedophile-suspect-claims-abduction-clue.html

@ jeamonroe   Yes!

And maybe up to 10 million people read those accounts of 'Mystery Man from Germany' and Wayne 'I-burnt-the letter-with-the-killer's-name-in-it Hewlett' - and maybe 9 out of 10 believed that (= 9 million people).

Just as a similar number believed: "It was a dead tractor driver from the Cape Verde Islands',

or (just as flippin' unlikely)...

DCI Redwood: "Tannerman has come forward after 6 years and was wearing uncannily similar clothes".

Those plus the serial liars of the establishment who claimed Brexit would mean an immediate recession, possible collapse of the world economy and make wars more likely.

Our abilities to distinguish truth from fiction are being systematically dulled and eliminated.

But not on CMOMM!

@Tony Bennett don't forget Toscano's 'Frenchman' who later got a whole work of fiction written about him by Shrimpton

I live in the country although far from isolated. With the experience of bringing up two rough & ready young ones I know first hand they do wander off and no terrain will stop them. I had an experience I will never forget when my child went missing. I shouted his name called my neighbours and my neighbours called theirs. We all searched in bushes fields and not myself or neighbours thought he was taken, he just wandered off. No one or myself called a guards (police) we found him sleeping in the touring caravan we had at our house roughly an hour later. I can understand that a child will investigate a digger in a place known or unknown to him (boys will be boys) but what I do not understand is the covering up if it was a accident! Accidents do happen & if it was a genuinely an accident why cover it up wouldn't you scream for help instead of concealing it? If you did something that was genuinely wrong but totally accidental wouldn't a person own it unless you were afraid of authorities discovering something else of a sinister nature that you could not explain as accidental!

Ben Needham police find items of "slight interest" in search for missing toddler during dig
 
07:28, 27 SEP 2016 UPDATED 08:20, 27 SEP 2016
BY ANDY LINES , MARTIN BAGOT
snips:
‘They are particularly searching for fragments of clothing that Ben may have been wearing that day.
DI Cousins "we have found items of slight interest - items of fabric."
He said the property had changed significantly over the years with the addition of walls and new trees.
Ben was wearing a white shirt with a "bluey green pattern." when he went missing.
A small piece of light coloured fabric was found yesterday and has been taken away for analysis.
The finger tip search is looking for buttons of the shirt Ben was wearing at the time.
They are also looking for buckle of brown sandals he was wearing.
 
Police brought in a giant industrial sieve yesterday afternoon.
 
The huge piece of equipment was carefully moved in to place next to the land being searched for the remains of the one-year-old toddler who vanished in 1991.
Huge piles of soil excavated by a giant digger were then placed on top of the sieve.
As it was shaken gently workers then sifted through the soil to look for any clues to lead them to discover what happened to Ben.’
 
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/breaking-ben-needham-search-police-8921091
 
 
………………………
 
Classy Mirror reporting as always!
 
The ‘big brown thing’ they say is an industrial sieve was there yesterday morning, next to the green tent, so certainly not brought in ‘yesterday afternoon’, not that it really matters.
 
This does however move the search area away from the ‘green tent’, if this is the sieve area, but there are other photos from yesterday showing a fingertip search of the ground surface immediately up against the back wall of the Needham property, which still makes absolutely no sense, as it must have been thoroughly searched before.

Doug D wrote:Ben Needham police find items of "slight interest" in search for missing toddler during dig
 
07:28, 27 SEP 2016 UPDATED 08:20, 27 SEP 2016
BY ANDY LINES , MARTIN BAGOT
snips:
‘They are particularly searching for fragments of clothing that Ben may have been wearing that day.
DI Cousins "we have found items of slight interest - items of fabric."
He said the property had changed significantly over the years with the addition of walls and new trees.
Ben was wearing a white shirt with a "bluey green pattern." when he went missing.
A small piece of light coloured fabric was found yesterday and has been taken away for analysis.
The finger tip search is looking for buttons of the shirt Ben was wearing at the time.
They are also looking for buckle of brown sandals he was wearing.
 
Police brought in a giant industrial sieve yesterday afternoon.
 
The huge piece of equipment was carefully moved in to place next to the land being searched for the remains of the one-year-old toddler who vanished in 1991.
Huge piles of soil excavated by a giant digger were then placed on top of the sieve.
As it was shaken gently workers then sifted through the soil to look for any clues to lead them to discover what happened to Ben.’
 
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/breaking-ben-needham-search-police-8921091
 
 
………………………
 
Classy Mirror reporting as always!
 
The ‘big brown thing’ they say is an industrial sieve was there yesterday morning, next to the green tent, so certainly not brought in ‘yesterday afternoon’, not that it really matters.
 
This does however move the search area away from the ‘green tent’, if this is the sieve area, but there are other photos from yesterday showing a fingertip search of the ground surface immediately up against the back wall of the Needham property, which still makes absolutely no sense, as it must have been thoroughly searched before.

Wouldn't sniffer/cadavour dogs be useful here/ on this search ? Or has too much time lapsed for residues to be detectable.

IF that "slight interest" turns into being "concrete" items belonging to Ben ( I assume there will be DNA testing) where does that leave Kerry and the Needham family? 
It was searched before all those years ago with no outcome? 


If Barkas had accidentally killed Ben with his digger? Are we to believe now that he buried Ben or items of clothing on the Needham property? 

The reportings of this investigation opens up to more questions?
I find the whole "scenario" a brain scratcher! 
IMO


Edit @Bobbin apparently 100's of years according to this;

How old can the skeletal remains be? Hundreds of years, said Cat Warren, a cadaver dog expert from North Carolina who published a book, "What the Dog Knows: The Science and Wonder of Working Dogs."
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2014/07/expert_well-trained_cadaver_dogs_95_percent_accurate_can_smell_remains_15_feet_d.html


http://catwarren.com/the-book/?doing_wp_cron=1474965548.4021248817443847656250

Police investigating the disappearance of toddler Ben Needham 25 years ago have found pieces of light-coloured fabric during a search of an olive grove close to where he went missing.

The items will now be sent off for forensic testing.

Ben, who went missing in July 1991, was wearing a white buttoned T-shirt with a green motif and brown leather sanders with a buckle when he vanished.

He was not wearing any shorts as he had wet them earlier in the day and his grandmother had hung them on a tree to dry.

Detective Inspector Jon Cousins, who is leading the new search, said the pieces of fabric - one of which was six inches square - were of 'slight interest'…

…'They are light coloured. Ben was wearing a white T-shirt. We are also looking for buttons and buckles,' he said…

 

…He said the items had been forensically collected and photographed.

'Those images have been sent back to the UK to be looked at. They are pieces of fabric and clearly we want to make sure, do they relate to any of the items that Ben may have been wearing’…

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3809263/Ben-Needham-police-items-slight-discover-fabric-toddler-s-clothes-dig-body.html?ITO=1490