Ben Needham's guilt-stricken grandad returns to Kos to see if missing toddler's remains are beneath building foundations HE laid

• e-mail

Ben Needham's grandad has returned to the Greek island of Kos as he fears he may have accidentally laid building foundations over the site where his grandson is believed to have been crushed to death and buried.

Guilt-stricken Eddie Needham, 68, is assisting investigators as they probe whether the toddler was killed by a digger in an accident at the building site 25 years ago.

Eddie's need to support his family meant he went back to work two weeks after Ben vanished.

Police are investigating if digger driver Konstantinos 'Dino' Barkas may have accidentally killed Ben. He was working near the farmhouse where Ben went missing in 1991 and a friend of Mr Barkas recently came forward claiming the driver may be responsible.

As he returns to Kos, Eddie hopes to find out if the foundations he laid under the farmhouse extension after Ben's disappearance are the same ones that are there now.

'If he was buried there he has been buried there on purpose,' Eddie told the Mirror.

'I can't believe anybody would bury a baby. Nobody would be that evil. But I believe that we have been spun a spider web of lies all these years,' he said.

Eddie Needham (centre), grandfather of missing Ben, is pictured with South Yorkshire Police officers on Wednesday in Kos 

Eddie Needham (left) with DI Jon Cousins of South Yorkshire Police (second left) and other officers in Kos on Wednesday

Stefanos Troumouhis (in pink) is the owner of the olive grove where the investigation is taking place in Kos

The farmhouse in Kos is close to the house where Ben's family were staying.

South Yorkshire Police, who are carrying out a new £1million inquiry to solve the mystery, have told mother Kerry Needham to 'prepare for the worst'.

Mr Barkas was questioned at the time Ben went missing but he died from cancer last year. The new witness has been questioned by South Yorkshire Police.

The digger's son Valandis has insisted his father had done all he could to help police with their inquiries when the 21-month-old went missing and 'wouldn't harm an ant, let alone a little child'.

The youngster vanished on July 24, 1991, when Miss Needham, who was 19 at the time, left him with her parents Eddie and Christine Needham –who had emigrated to Kos – while she worked at a local hotel.

Eddie Needham (second left) explains his work at the building site in 1991 to DI Jon Cousins of South Yorkshire Police (left) and other officers

Eddie Needham (left) is shown around the soil examination process by an officer in Kos

Forensics officers work at the rear of the farmhouse where Ben Needham disappeared from, on the ground where an extension was recently demolished

The farmhouse extension has been demolished in the search at the site believed to be where missing toddler Ben Needham could have been crushed to death by a digger

A new witness has claimed that 'Dino Barkas (pictured), who died of cancer last year, may have killed him in an accident with his JCB digger

Ben Needham disappeared from a farmhouse on a Greek Island of Kos in 1991 whilst on holiday with his parents. Grandfather Eddie Needham (left) is pictured here at the time with mother Kerry Needham and grandmother Christine Needham.

Photographs have emerged showing the inside of the house where Ben was last seen, which have remained virtually untouched since Ben Needham's last tragic holiday in 1991

Police are also focusing on a fig tree after photographs revealed it was not present when the Sheffield toddler disappeared on the Greek Island 25 years ago

Ben wandered off at around 2.30pm but police were not contacted for at least three hours because the grandparents thought he must have gone with Kerry's 17-year-old brother Stephen.

Kerry Needham said last month she was angry that the new witness had kept quiet for so long, adding: 'He could have ended this 25 years ago.

'I could have done something with my life instead of having my life on hold and not being able to do anything or focus on anything and living this nightmare.

'I could have probably forgiven that person back then but now, no. It's 25 years of misery to find out this ending. It's going to be difficult.'

Miss Needham and her family are now steeling themselves for the possibility that police will finally solve the mystery and find Ben's remains.

On Tuesday, police started demolishing a wing of the farmhouse owned by a family who now live in Australia, which had not been built at the time the 21-month-old toddler vanished in 1991.

Police will mpw excavate the area underneath the house in the village of Iraklis.

Detective Inspector Jon Cousins, from South Yorkshire Police, said the family were 'clearly upset' but have agreed for the property to be torn apart in the hope it might provide answers for the Needhams.

Eddie Needham is returning to this farmhouse to see if the foundations are the same ones he laid in 1991  

Police searching for Ben Needham have stumbled upon a 1,500-year-old burial site in the grounds of the Greek farmhouse where he vanished, pictured is where the bodies were found

Investigators are pictured  digging behind the farmhouse where missing toddler Ben Needham was last seen alive (pictured)

TIMELINE: A 25-YEAR SEARCH FOR THE TRUTH

Here is a timeline of events charting the disappearance of Sheffield toddler Ben Needham on the Greek island of Kos 25 years ago.

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 newspaper publishes a report that members of the police operation go 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

The excavation, at what is now an olive grove,  is expected to take up to 12 days, police say

Digging began after a fresh line of inquiry suggested 21-month-old Ben may have been crushed to death by a digger near a farmhouse his grandparents were renovating