Brit cops spent £21k flying to and from Greece in search for missing Ben Needham
Detectives have said tot “most likely” died in building site accident
BRITISH police have made 46 return flights to Kos this year in a bid to solve the mystery of toddler Ben Needham’s disappearance, The Sun on Sunday can reveal.
In less than 12 months, South Yorkshire police made the 2,223 mile journey to the Greek island almost four dozen times.
Last month detectives announced that Ben “most likely” died as a result of a building site accident at a farmhouse close to the village of Iraklis where his family had been staying.
The breakthrough came after a now deceased digger operator Konstantinos Barkas allegedly confessed that he had mistakenly killed the British boy then hidden his body in building waste.
Despite the astonishing number of economy class flights, which cost a total of £21,141.62, detectives were not able to find Ben.
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But after digging up more than 800 tonnes of soil they did locate a toy car that his family identified as being in his possession when the 21-month old from Sheffield disappeared in July 1991.
Ben was initially believed to have been kidnapped and there were more than 300 reported sightings of him as his mum Kerry Needham, now 43, repeatedly called for information.
But Detective Inspector Jon Cousins was forced to announce last month: “My team and I know that machinery, including a large digger, was used to clear an area of land on 24 July 1991, behind the farmhouse that was being renovated by the Needhams.
“It is my professional belief that Ben Needham died as a result of an accident near to the farmhouse in Iraklis where he was last seen playing.
“The recovery of this item, and its location, further adds to my belief that material was removed from the farmhouse on or shortly after the day that Ben disappeared.”
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