Ben Needham: gypsies, a dead witness and a ‘cover-up’
Ben Needham has still not been found. The renewed search for the toddler who vanished on Kos 25 years ago has given us nothing of substance. But the tabloids are at work. If we can’t see the child, we can continue to gawp at his mother.
“‘WHITEWASH’ ON KOS,” says the Sun. “Ben Needham case ‘has all signs of a cover-up’ with sex slurs used to discredit toddler’s mum.”
The story continues:
THE hunt for toddler Ben Needham – who went missing on the Greek island of Kos 25 years ago – has the signs of a cover-up, an investigation found. Greek police were “under pressure” to end their probe quickly, reports The Mirror, and a witness apparently falsely claimed he had slept with Ben’s mum Kerry in an attempt to smear her.
Wow, indeed, that Greek police have spoken out. Good on them. But wait a moment.
…a retired cop, one of the first to join the hunt, admitted: “We were under pressure to close the case. Everyone wanted to find the child. We did our best.”
Unnamed ex-policeman says force was under pressure to end the case of the missing toddler who vanished on holiday to an holiday island? It’s news devoid of detail.
In the Mirror, we read he headline:
Ben Needham case has hallmarks of cover-up with cops wanting probe closed quickly and sex lies in bid to blacken mum’s name
We love a conspiracy, eh, readers? Who knew?
British police searching for answers to the disappearance of the toddler 25 years ago have tried hard to finally lift the gloom
Lucy Thornton writes:
The Ben Needham case has all the hallmarks of a cover-up, a Mirror probe has found. The Mirror can reveal Greek police were pressured to close their inquiry quickly and a witness lied that he slept with the boy’s mum, blackening her name.
A key witness account on Kos is missing and a Greek official has dismissed the UK police’s theory that Ben was run over by a digger.
As the last British tourists leave Kos at the end of the holiday season, a sinister cloud hangs over the island.
After that, Thornton makes it about, well, her.
Mirror colleagues and I have spent months investigating the mystery and found claims of a Greek “cover-up” as wicked lies, vanishing statements and smears against the family were made.
This is the Lucy Thornton who when reporting on the vanishing of Shannon Matthews, wrote: “I’ve shared the despair and relief, says the Mirror’s Lucy Thornton.” Adding: “Meanwhile, I was hugged in the street by people I barely knew less than a month ago. They thanked me. What For? For just doing my job.”
Never mind the missing child, get a load of the reporter.
Mirror colleagues and I have spent months investigating the mystery and found claims of a Greek “cover-up” as wicked lies, vanishing statements and smears against the family were made.
She then adds:
Rumours continue on the island, that Ben was taken by gypsies, or the mafia.
After the wicked- lies and “cover-up”, round-up the usual suspects. Gypsies. Always the gypsies.
Independent on Ben Needham – 1995. ‘Gypsies did it’
In 2000, the BBC reported:
Theories have included Ben having been killed, abducted by gypsies or sold on to a family who could not have a child, but police have never closed the file.
And in 1997, the Sunday Mirror reported:
The search for Ben has become a crusade for Greek private eye Stratos Bakirtzis from Thessalonika, northern Greece. Two years ago he raised the alarm and told police he had found the missing toddler while investigating a gipsy family. However, he claims the child was swapped before police could search the house.
So much for rumours and belief. What of facts, and the Mirror’s investigation?
Kerry believes there has been a cover-up over her son’s death and people wanted her to “go away….and forget about Ben”.
More belief. And facts?
In a bid to smear the Needham name, a man who worked with Kerry at a hotel on Kos falsely claimed to have slept with her, while she was out hunting for Ben. He left Kos shortly after making the allegation. He turned public opinion against the unmarried British mum and many blamed the family as a result. But Kerry has now been told by South Yorkshire Police officers this witness has finally told the truth.
He confessed it was a lie, but claimed he felt bullied into it. It is understood prosecutors on Kos are looking at this admission.
As we are invited to understand what the Mirror has understood, we hear from the unnamed source:
But he said his main reason for speaking was to reveal the statement of a mysterious witness, a friend of his, was never taken because bosses ignored his report. “He told me he’d seen a car with number plates from abroad. It had two people in the car and they were not Greek people. The witness said the child was playing outside and someone stepped out of the car and took him. My friend does not lie. I went back but once he knew the child was still missing he didn’t want to speak.
Can we speak with the witness?
He said the witness, like so many others, has since died.
Such are the facts.
Posted: 1st, November 2016 | In: Reviews, Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
