Dig for Ben Needham re-starts after being suspended as landowner threatened legal action over discovery of ancient graves on site
THE search for Ben Needham has re-started after the site's landowner threatened legal action over the discovery of an ancient burial site.
Search teams have been scouring the site, in the Greek island of Kos, hoping to find clues about the 21-month-old's disappearance - but this morning the land owner and his lawyer asked teams to stop to the hunt.
The landowner Stefanos Troumouhis is concerned he will not be able to farm the land if it is deemed a site of archaeological interest.
Ben vanished from the island while on holiday with his family when he was 21-months-old.
Police leading the hunt have continued the search and said they will seek "judicial authority" if attempts are made to halt it.
Detective Inspector Jon Cousins said his priority was to ensure "disruption remains at an absolute minimum".
During an appearance on ITV's Good Morning Britain today Ben Needham's sister said her family lived in hope.
Leighanna Needham, 22, was not born when Ben disappeared.
She told the programme: "There’s been times when my mum, my nan and me have been there [Kos], campaigning, asking, begging, people to come forward with information to end this.
"My one dream would be to find Ben for my mum. I felt in a way that I owe it to her. I’m her daughter and she misses her son, she wants her son.
"None of us want to believe that they’re going to find something there, because that’s 25 years of fighting and pain and hurt that could have been ended 25 years ago.
"We’re a family that’s lived in hope and what do you when that hope’s all gone? How do you continue when there’s nothing left?”
Police have been searching for missing tot Ben Needham at a Kos farmhouse
The investigation was briefly stopped on Thursday after search teams discovered 1,500 year old ancient graves at the site, but had been set to continue today.
Officers have painstakingly unearthed a septic tank and experts continue to examine decomposed materials.
Decomposition was found at four sites, with one - found in the cesspit - still remaining of interest.
Tests from other areas revealed the decomposed remains of a dog, a bat and human waste.
DI Cousins said: "There is another area of decomposition that has not been ruled out yet and that is what we are working on.
"The scientists have been unable to determine what it is."
Experts cannot rule out that the decomposed material found in the remaining area is human.
DI Cousins has said he is pleased with the progress of the investigation.
Cops have also been looking for fragments of clothes Ben could have been wearing that day and analysing a picture of a fig tree planted after his disappearance.
Masses of soil has been excavated from where police believe Ben may have been buried.
Experts have been working through the soil by hand, in search for anything that may lead them to what happened to Ben.
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The digger operator Konstantinos Barkas, who has since died of stomach cancer, told a man from Kos Ben died in an accident and he covered the body up.
Ben was born 29 October 1989 in Sheffield and disappeared on 24 July 1991.
He had been on holiday with his family on the Greek Island of Kos, but despite numerous investigations and an array of sightings, no trace of him has ever been found.
The missing lad’s mum, Kerry Needham, now 43, has never stopped looking for her little boy, who would now be 26.
On the day of his disappearance little Ben was being looked after by his grandparents while mum Kerry went to work at a local hotel.
Ben had been coming in and out of the home (a farmhouse that was being renovated by the family) when, at around 2.30pm, it was discovered he was gone.
He was never found and police have now warned Kerry to prepare for the fact her son may have been crushed by a digger.
Ben’s heartbroken mum has told how her life has been on hold since her son went missing.
She spoke to Good Morning Britain about the new claims, saying: “He could have ended this 25 years ago. I could have grieved.
“You never forget your child but at least I would have known where he was. I could have done something with my life.
“Instead I’ve had a life on hold without being able to do anything or focus on anything. I’m living this nightmare – but it could have been ended 25 years ago.
“I could have probably forgiven that person back then. But now, no.”
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