TODDLER Ben Needham was playing at his grandparents' farmhouse on the Greek island of Kos when he disappeared, never to be seen since.

As Ben's heartbroken mum has come forward once more to ask for closure, here's the latest on the unresolved case.

Who is Ben Needham and how did he disappear?

On July 24, 1991, little Ben was being looked after by his grandparents while mum Kerry went to work at a local hotel when he disappeared.

At first, the family began to search nearby for the tot, assuming that he had wandered off, but could find no sign of him.

Eventually the search was widened, but to no avail. To this day no one knows if Ben is alive or dead.

Cops believe he was accidentally hit by a digger driven by Konstantinos Barkas but there has been no sign of his body.

His bloodied sandal and toy car were discovered after police carried out a huge excavation of the site in 2016, but no further information emerged.

What happened in the search for Ben Needham in Kos?

Ben's mum, Kerry Needham, still believes her son is alive and has made another emotional plea ahead of the 30th anniversary of Ben's disappearance this year.

She said: "I still have that hope that South Yorkshire Police are wrong. And while there is no evidence to show me, I have to believe he is still alive.

"There's not a single thread of evidence to say otherwise."

She called on anyone with knowledge of her missing son to come forward, in wake of three witnesses sharing shocking new information on the case.

They claimed to have seen a Boy matching Ben's description hundreds of miles away on a beach in Korfu, as Kerry told The Mirror how she is "scared to get her hopes up".

Greek cops are now probing the new claims almost three decades after his disappearance.

This is the 30-year search for missing Ben:

• July 24 1991: Ben Needham vanishes while playing near the grounds of a farmhouse in the Iraklis region of Kos, which his family are renovating. His mother, Kerry Needham, and grandparents raise the alarm with local police and conduct a full search of the area.
• July 26 1991: Eyewitness reports claim a boy matching Ben's description was found at the local airport on the day he disappeared. That boy has never been traced.
• September 1991: The Needham family return to England due to illness but vow to continue the search.
• June 2003: The Metropolitan Police issue an image of what Ben might look like at age 12-14 years old.
• 2004: An anonymous businessman offers a reward of £500,000 for information leading to Ben's safe return.
• October 2010: Another public appeal is made by Ben's mother in the run-up to what would be his 21st birthday.
• May 2011: The BBC airs a programme called Missing 2011, which includes a piece on Ben's story and the campaign to find him.
• September 2011: Greek police on Kos officially re-open the case and grant the family a face-to-face meeting with the island's prosecutor.
• October 2012: South Yorkshire Police in Kos begin digging up mounds around the property where Ben went missing to look for his remains.
• December 2013: Ben's mother accuses then-Prime Minister David Cameron of not giving her case the same backing as he gave the parents of Madeline McCann. It comes as a dossier is produced containing reports from eight witnesses, none of who know each other, who all saw a boy possibly matching Ben's description with the same Greek family.
• December 2014: Lawyers representing Ben's family say they may take legal action to try to force the Government to make a decision about funding a new police investigation.
• January 2015: The Home Office agrees to fund a team of British detectives to help search for the toddler.
• March/April 2015: Three generations of Ben Needham's family travel to Greece to follow up a "strong" lead that a man living there believes he may be the missing Brit due to having no photographs of himself under the age of two and no knowledge of where he was born. The man is later ruled out.
• May 2015: Ben's family make a fresh appeal on Greek television for information regarding the disappearance.
• May 2016: The Sun reveals how members of the police operation went on an eight-hour booze-up in Kos during the latest stage of the investigation.
• September 2016: Ben's family are told to "prepare for the worst" by detectives leading the investigation, amid the belief the 21-month-old was crushed to death by a digger – the driver of which died in 2015. It comes as police arrive in Kos to begin excavation work in the belief the boy's remains may be buried near the farmhouse.
• October 15, 2016:  On the penultimate day of a three week search at two locations – Site 1, near the farmhouse, and Site 2, a landfill site – an item which is believed to have belonged to Ben is discovered.
• October 16, 2016: After digging up more than 800 tonnes of soil, the excavation work comes to an end with any items of interest sent back to the UK for forensic analysis.
• October 17, 2016: South Yorkshire Police DI Jon Cousins announces the discovery of an item that backs up their theory Ben died following an accident near the farmhouse on the day he disappeared.
• July 24, 2017: It emerges blood was found on a sandal and toy car belonging to Ben. The sandal was found in 2012 at the site where Konstantinos “Dino” Barkas was operating a digger, while the car was discovered in 2016 at another spot. Ben's mum makes another heartbreaking appeal for information.
• November 28, 2018: Forensic experts say the toy car found in the Kos dig does not belong to Ben.
• July 25, 2019: Ben's mum, Kerry Needham, calls on the person with a "secret" about her missing toddler to come forward, saying it was "never too late to do the right thing".
• July 2021: Police probe the claims of three witnesses that a blond boy found on a beach wearing a white t-shirt, "crying desperately" and speaking English 587 miles away in Corfu could've been the youngster.

What would Ben Needham look like now?

Police released an image in 2013 of what they believe Ben would look like as an adult.

The artist impression showed a man with sandy blonde hair and blue eyes.

In 2016, police eliminated 30 people who resembled the image using DNA.

There have been more than 300 sightings of boys matching Ben's description both on the Greek mainland and Greek islands.

Now an "incredible" new age-progression image has been released of Ben that was created by a National Crime Agency-listed forensic artist.

Kerry wants to "blow up the internet" and circulate the shot far and wide in hopes of finding her son, who she last seen when he was just 21-months-old.

Could he still be alive?

Mum Kerry still believes her son is alive and has "hopes that South Yorkshire Police are wrong", as detectives believe he died in an accident near to the farmhouse.

But Kerry says there is "not a shred of evidence" to confirm this and amid the fresh claims from witnesses, she has new hope.

The boy found in Corfu on a beach was found wearing a white t-shirt, was speaking English and also "crying desperately" by a teenage female kitchen-hand, according to claims.

She turned up to work at a local campsite with the boy and was holding his hand.

She took him to her workplace as she thought his family might be staying there – however she allegedly then kept the child "for herself", witnesses claimed.

Two other witnesses confirmed seeing the youngster at the campsite, with one saying it has "haunted" her ever since.

“We need to keep on searching for Ben,” Kerry said.

 

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