Search for missing Ben Needham could move to Cyprus

A young man living with a Roma family is Cyprus could be DNA tested after reports suggested he might be missing Briton Ben Needham who disappeared in Kos in 1991 while on holiday with his grandparents.

According to the Sunday Mirror, Greek detectives will DNA test the young man after sensational evidence emerged suggesting he could be the missing child. Details of the breakthrough first emerged in the newspaper Greek Reporter.

The paper said that the young man, aged 22 or 23, moved to Cyprus with a Roma family a few years ago to avoid mandatory military service in Greece.

An anonymous source submitted a video, allegedly showing Ben, to the president of the Lawyers Association in Kos, Panayiotis Avrithis who then gave it to the District Attorney of Kos Alexandra Moussoura. The  video shows a young man aged 20 to 25 with four other Roma men at a church in Limassol.

According to the reports the young man bears a great resemblance to the image Scotland Yard released of how Ben might look now. Greek prosecutors have asked their Cypriot counterparts to find him, the reports said.  The reports said the video had already been handed to Cypriot authorities.

The claims in the Greek paper came from a man who went to a remote gypsy camp in Larissa, central Greece, to search for his own missing son when he saw a child he thought matched Ben’s description. His search was prompted by the case of Maria, a young blonde-haired blue-eyed girl aged 4 who was taken from a gypsy family last week.

Ben’s mother Kerry, 41, told the Sunday Mirror she was encouraged by the breakthrough in the hunt for her missing son.

“I’ve seen the picture and believe he bears a resemblance to how Ben might now look,” she said.   “We’ve never given up hope of finding Ben and we are encouraged that the police in Greece are continuing to investigate.”