Mum of British boy who went missing in Greece 35 years ago thinks she knows what happened to him

The mum of a British boy who went missing from the Greek island of Kos over three decades ago has spoken out about what she thinks really happened to her son.

Kerry Needham took her 21-month-old son Ben with her to relocate from Sheffield to Greece in the summer of 1991.

Aged 19, she left the toddler at her parents' permanent residence - a farmhouse house they had been renovating - to go work at a nearby hotel.

Ben, who was in and out of the property, was reported missing at 2:30pm on 24 July, after it was thought he was out playing with his teenage uncle.

“We never thought for one minute an accident had happened or someone had abducted him,” Kerry told The Sun in a new interview.

“We thought someone must have found him, he must have got further down that lane than my mum thought he could have done in that time. We thought someone’s found him, taken him in, got him a drink, don’t forget it’s 90 degrees.

Ben's mum has spoken out to reveal what she thinks really happened to her son over three decades ago (ITV)

“All these logical things – maybe they’ll hand him into a police station afterwards or at the hospital, maybe he was dehydrated.”

The family never saw Ben again, and as the years have passed, Kerry now fears that he was snatched by traffickers who took him as far as America.

She said as the case gained more publicity, a Greek man contacted Ben’s grandfather Eddie to make him aware of gypsy trafficking gangs.

"He told my dad you need to be looking at gypsies because there’s a gang, a line, he didn’t call it trafficking, he said sold for illegal adoption," she explained. "It sounded impossible, but that’s when we started looking down those lines."

"New York seems to be the massive epicentre of illegal adoptions. This is how children disappear without a trace," the mum-of-two, who currently lives in Turkey, added.

“They’re so well-organised. They’re just gone within seconds. No one does see anything."

Kerry is now promising to 'keep an open mind' after she received an email from a woman who thinks that her boyfriend could be Ben.

What police think Ben could look like now if he was still alive (SYP)

“When I got that email last night, I didn’t jump for joy and think this could be him, because I’ve got no photograph, I’ve got very little information,” she said.

“The woman just said there are a lot of coincidences, a lot of things don’t add up from his past. It’s a case of getting more information out of that person without being too cold but without being too involved either.”

Kerry said she passed the enquiry on to the South Yorkshire Police who has been dealing with her case.

The force previously said: "Whist South Yorkshire Police has no jurisdiction in Greece, we are keen to support Greek authorities and Ben’s family in any way we can and a senior investigating officer remains in contact with Greek counterparts.

"Our thoughts are with Ben’s family who have never given up hope of discovering the truth of what happened on 24 July 1991 and we will continue to support them in that endeavour."

LADbible has contacted South Yorkshire Police for further comment.