A Never Ending Nightmare

NOTIFICATION TO THE PUBLIC:

There is a website which collects donations on our behalf, using the "Ben Needham" name.
WE DO NOT ACCEPT DONATIONS FROM ANYONE.
This website belongs to an LTD. company and it does not belong to any members of the Needham family and we have absolutely nothing to do with it.
We did not set up this company, or its website.
This website also has Kerry Needham's email address: BenKerryNeedham@yahoo.com which is on Ben's Flyer.
The purpose of this, is to legitimize their company's website.
The rest was easy to copy.
We have asked the owner of the website to get it off the internet.
They have not complied.
We shall take legal action against them and we shall inform the authorities in the UK.
PLEASE DO NOT BE FOOLED. WE DO NOT ACCEPT DONATIONS
You can read all about this ltd. Company which is owned by another Ltd. Company on our Ben Needham Abduction link below
Ben Needham Abduction

Thank You

The NEEDHAM Family

Our family, my dad Eddie then 42, my mum Christine 38, my two younger brothers Stephen 17 and Danny only 11 years old at the time, myself -I was 19- and my little son Ben, originally from SHEFFIELD England, UK, had decided to move to the island of KOS in Greece.
Unfortunately, our then newly adopted country had other plans for us.
On July 24, 1991, our family was destroyed by a mindless act.
Our beloved Ben (3 months short of his 2nd birthday), was abducted, by a criminal.
It was just a normal day for our family.
July 24, 1991
My dad and my brother Stephen had gone to work, they were restoring an old farmhouse in the remote village on the island, called Heracles.
I had also gone to work, at the "Palm Beach" Hotel, situated near the beach, where I worked as a waitress.
Ben was at home with my mum, as she was always looking after him during my long working hours.
Around lunchtime, my mum with Ben and Danny, went to the farmhouse where my dad and Stephen were working, to have their lunch.
Nothing unusual about this, they had done so, many a time.
The table was set indoors, Ben was playing with his toys, just outside the doorway and he kept running in and out of the house, getting water and pouring it over himself. It was a scorher of a day, at 42°C or about 105ºF.
It was about 14:30, when my dad, told Stephen he can have the rest of the day off, because some building material had not arrived, so there was nothing else to do there.
As Stephen was leaving the farmhouse, on his moped/motorbike, Ben was playing quite hapilly. Ben looked up at Stephen, -he wanted to go with him-, but Stephen told him to "Go inside to grandpa".
A few minutes later, -no more than 5 minutes-, my mum had noticed that Ben was quiet, and she went outside to check.
BEN WAS NOT THERE!
My dad went around to the back of the house and my mum walked the driveway, looked down the lane, but could not see Ben anywhere.
My mum then, shouted "Eddie can you see Ben?".
They continued calling his name while walking around the area around the farmhouse, for more than an hour.
NO RESPONSE! NO SIGHT OF BEN!
BEN HAD VANISHED!!!
My parents took a few minutes to gather their thoughts and came to the conclusion that my brother Stephen must have taken Ben with him, for a little ride on the moped.
My mum remarked: "How stupid of Stephen not to tell us"
My mum then decided to walk back home and look for them on her way there, she thought that Stephen and Ben might be home already.
Dad stayed behind to put his tools away and then join my mum at home.
When my mum arrived home, there was no sign of Ben, but she knew that Stephen had been back as he had left the petrol for the generator.
Stephen, had not left a note to say where he would be though.
My mum was really furious with him.
Dad arrived home around 16:30 and there was still no sign of Stephen, so he decided to check in my apartment, as Stephen used to live with me.
Stephen was there, but not Ben!
Stephen said to my dad: "Ben was playing at the farmhouse when I left".
My dad and Stephen, raced back home to tell my mum that Ben had not been with him.
Worried sick, they went straight to the police in the city of Kos, as the time was about 17:30.
The police took my parents back to Heracles to search the area, one more time.
Just as I was finishing work, around 22:00, my mum arrived at the hotel with the police to inform me that my boy had gone missing.
Courtesy of the police, we all went back to the farmhouse, to continue the search. This time a lot of volunteers offered to assist us searching for Ben as well.
A police officer asked myself and my dad, to go back to the police station, to give more details about Ben and to present all our passports, which we did, straight away.
One policeman named Christos Bafounis, asked my dad to meet some police officers at the docks at 03:00, as the ferry to Athens would be there and they could check the vehicles and the passengers boarding.
While we were looking for Ben in Heracles, my father went to the docks.
The policemen never came to check on anything or anyone.
The Greek police either utterly incompetent or corrupt, then and now.
The justice system, worse than the police.
Over the years, we have filled countless memos and reports, to most of the police ministers, the justice ministers and the Supreme court in Athens.
Not a single authority ever, found any wrong-doers, contrary to the evidence we have presented to them, against a few civilians and officials, time and time again.
They have never answered us.
The Greek people have been good to us, except in Kos and Veria.
Policemen all over the country have been helpful, except in Kos and Veria.
My son Ben, will be 18 years old, in a few days.
I wonder, aren't these officials ashamed of themselves?
On behalf of all my family, I thank the Greek people who have supported us and haven not forgotten Ben.
July 25, 1991
All night, we kept searching and searching to no avail.
We thought, that some person must have seen Ben wondering about, took him to their home and eventually they will take him to a police station.
Early in the morning we went to the police station to see if there was any news.
Their answer was negative and they looked at us with an arrogant attitude and told us we had to be interviewed again including my 11 year old brother Danny.
Their English language skills were minimal. We were taken to the chief's office. The chief was having a conversation with a female local shopkeeper, Xanthippe Agrelli. We used to shop from her dairy shop quite often, -she knew all of us- and we were informed that she will translate for us.
This info, made us uneasy, because her English was not much better than that of the police. This woman has had no official qualifications as a translator whatsoever and we don't know the police criteria of picking her, as there were other people who knew and spoke the language much better.
Nevertheless we were asked strange and insulting questions like:"Did you sell your son?", "Has anyone shown a special interest toward Ben?", "Was I approached by anyone suggesting to sell my son?".
My mum was asked if she had been negligent towards Ben and that she hadn't taken good care of him.
My brother Stephen was told that he had taken Ben on his moped, he had an accident, Ben was killed and he had buried his body at the farmhouse.
They made my dad sit under the sun for hours and hours on end, while they were digging through the farmhouse rubble.
They looked disappointed when they came up with nothing, cause as they kept saying, "no Greek person would steal or hurt a child".
As we found out later, the "no Greek person would steal a child" is a joke and a myth.
The Greeks -private citizens and officials- used to thrive on the "art" of illegal adoptions ever since the 1940's.
July 27, 1991
During our 3rd day of questioning, came the first piece of information.
An airport worker, reported she had seen a child with Ben's discription along with an older boy, asking for chocolate, they had no money and the woman told the boys to go get their mother.
This incident happened on July 24, the day Ben had disappeared.
When we asked the police why didn't the woman come forward sooner, the police replied: "she did not know a child was missing. We just informed the airport of Ben's disappearance".
When we strongly protested, for the 3 day delay, the police chief Dakouras said: "It takes time for us to notify other authorities".
I remember during our visit in Kos in 2003, when Christos Bafounis, responding to a question from Mariana Faithful -our representative in Greece-, as to the identity of the owner of the white car seen parked near the farmhouse, on the day that Ben was abducted, told us that the car belonged to Xanthippe Agrelli.
Speaking in English, he went on to say that this woman had been our friend.
Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Agrelli had never been our friend.
After this conversation at the police station, we went straight to Agrelli's shop and we played back the recording with Bafounis's own words, she became furious, screaming and yelling she told us that in July 1991, she did not have her white car -at the time the Greek government was giving monetary incentives when people turned in their old cars-, as she wanted to buy a new one.
Mariana challenged Agrelli for the documents.
She did not have them.
Mariana challenged her again and Agrelli agreed to come with us to the department of Motor Transport.
Finally, the official documents showed that Agrelli, had applied to the department in October 1991 and her application for the monetary benefit, was approved in November.
Our questions remain unanswered, why did Agrelli lied about her white car?
Nothing has ever been investigated regarding the Agrelli car and why she has lied about it.
What was her car doing there in this heat, on July 24?
Who else was in the car?
Witnesses accounts told the police there were 2 men in the car.
The Greek authorities hushed this incident up, like they have done with every other matter, that we have confronted them with.
Not a single official, has ever said "sorry" to us.
The worst thing though is that they don't give a damn as to what has happened to Ben.
To them, Ben is just another "unresolved incident", a mere statistic... if they have any.
Our whole family has been living an endless nightmarish 16 years.
Since July 24, 1991, there hasn't been a single day, that we have not talked or thought of Ben.
We demand answers from both the Greek and British governments.
They had better put all this new surveillance technology into good use and find our Ben.
Am I asking too much?
We have been told that Greece doesn't even have a central data base for births, therefore we can all safely assume, this is the main reason for the country's illegal adoptions.
For all we know, Ben could have been adopted illegally.
Someone... Somewhere... knows what has happened to Ben.
It is more than likely, this... Someone, still lives in... Kos!!!
Like with any criminal act, the answer to Ben's abduction is at the place where it happened, on Kos island in Greece.
Furthermore, according to Greek law, the 15 year statute of limitations, has already passed since Ben's abduction and it prohibits the authorities from ever prosecuting the perpetrators.
Very Well Done... Greek authorities..., your public servants, have accomplished their dirty little mission!!!
Kerry Needham