Greece Greece - Ben Needham, 21 mos, Isle of Kos, 24 July 1991

[pol100gk]

I've also lived in Greece (and was in Greece when Ben went missing) and this scenario makes perfect sense to me. Barkas was working on a piece of land adjacent to where Ben's grand parents were fixing up the house and Ben must have walked over to have a look and there was an accident in which Ben was killed, possibly because Barkas didn't see him and ran him over. Barkas feels guilty and covers up the accident out of shame. Harming a child, however accidental it was, is a huge stigma in Greece. Barkas died last month of cancer so now the witnesses are coming forward. It doesn't say a lot about Barkas' character that he covered this up but then there are many weak people in the world and I am sure his life was ruined with that decision, haunted by inner demons. How can it not be? The witnesses must be credible and the timing makes perfect sense so I presume the police are taking this seriously. My guess is that Barkas must have confessed to his friends or family and they waited till after his death to report it to police.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Maybe the person who it is suspected ran over Ben may have been working illegally as an immigrant or was breaking some employment law so he felt he had to cover it up. Did Greece even have much health and safety legislation on building sites back then?

I really doubt it! I've been to a few Greek islands and many times I have chuckled at their apparent lack of any H&S. In fact, it's sometimes refreshing that other countries allow their citizens to think for themselves / make their own mistakes without fear of being sued.

I agree with what others have said - I think this is probably it. Seems the police, media and family are all taking this rumour very seriously. Something is different to all the other false hopes they've had dashed, but we shall see.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

I've also lived in Greece (and was in Greece when Ben went missing) and this scenario makes perfect sense to me. Barkas was working on a piece of land adjacent to where Ben's grand parents were fixing up the house and Ben must have walked over to have a look and there was an accident in which Ben was killed, possibly because Barkas didn't see him and ran him over. Barkas feels guilty and covers up the accident out of shame. Harming a child, however accidental it was, is a huge stigma in Greece. Barkas died last month of cancer so now the witnesses are coming forward. It doesn't say a lot about Barkas' character that he covered this up but then there are many weak people in the world and I am sure his life was ruined with that decision, haunted by inner demons. How can it not be? The witnesses must be credible and the timing makes perfect sense so I presume the police are taking this seriously. My guess is that Barkas must have confessed to his friends or family and they waited till after his death to report it to police.

Nail on the head.

They haven't told before because they didn't want a (probably much loved) friend or family member to go to jail in his dying years. I'd be interested to know how long others have been aware. I bet he wished every day that he had done the right thing, called the police/ambulance and 'fessed up.

 

[Ellmau]

Apparently they questioned this man at the time.

Digger driver Konstantinos Barkas, known as Dino, was working near the farmhouse where Ben went missing in 1991.

According to the Daily Mirror a friend of Mr Barkas has finally admittedthe driver may be responsible.

Mr Barkas previously came forward in 2012 to tell police he may have accidentally covered the child in rubble while digging near a farmhouse on the island.

But the new witness allegedly claims that Dino Barkas hit him first.

Detectives are understood to be investigating whether Mr Barkas knew he had killed the boy and whether there was a 'conspiracy' among his friends to protect him.

Barkas's son denies the story:

'They shouldn't accuse him of anything, especially now that he can not defend himself.'

'I cannot understand why they bring up something that has been cleared so many years ago.'

Valantis, who was a young boy at the time, said he also recalled his father telling the police that he noticed a car full of gypsies passing from the area at a high speed around the time Ben went missing.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...eve-crushed-digger-Greek-island-Kos-1991.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...dler-Ben-Needham-says-father-blamed-DEAD.html

 

[Ellmau]

Interesting reading now, to revisit the stories in 2012, when Barkas spoke to a newspaper:

The Mirror tracked down JCB driver Konstantinos Barkas, who confirmed he was excavating earth for a new property to be built 50 yards away.
He was at work on the site during the crucial first three hours after the little boy from Sheffield went missing while on holiday with his parents, Kerry Needham and her then boyfriend Simon Ward.

Speaking for the first time, Mr Barkas, 61, also revealed he has given a statement to police.

“Yes, I was the man with the JCB that day,” Mr Barkas said.

“Loads of earth were being taken to clear the ground for the new house down the road. Cutting that much ground from the hill was a big job.

“I think people were misled in thinking the child was abducted.

"Could there have been an accident? I don’t think so but no one really knows what happened.

"The little boy was two years old and the thorns in that field were as high as my waist.

“I remember I was still there when Kerry’s brother Stephen, Ben’s uncle, came back late in the afternoon and told me the boy was missing. I will never forget that.”

Kerry believes Ben was snatched by someone driving a white car along the lane at the time.

The car sighting was reported to Kos police by the four builders working on the new house, who included Mr Barkas.

Obviously nothing's confirmed yet, but if the story pans out I'm thinking maybe there never was a passing car?

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ben-needham-may-be-buried-at-a-building-site-845614

 

[Alyce]

Some more background detail on Mr Barkas


A close friend of the Barkas family, who asked not to be identified, said: “Everyone on Kos – and I mean everyone – knew Dino.”

The owner of a cafe in nearby Kos Town said: “He was a very well-known figure in the business community.

"He was a very successful businessman involved in the building of many hotels on the island.

“Despite owning the company he was a very hard worker and didn’t mind getting his hands dirty.




http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/digger-driver-centre-ben-needham-8852737?ICID=FB_mirror_main

 

[ScotsPaddy]

I still reckon it was the uncle, there was something about an interview he done for a documentary years ago that has always made me think he knew more or was hiding something.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Such a shame the family each assumed he was with the other and didn't realise he was missing for 3 hours. I now think there probably was a digger accident and I think Dino's 2012 story was preempting the truth.

 

[Ellmau]

New interview with Kerry and lots more:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/all-about/ben-needham


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ed-prime-suspect-protected-son-fragments.html

 

[Pisces Cloud]

I watched a documentary not long ago and I'm sure one of Ben's grandparents mentioned a pair of shorts going missing and a couple of dinky toys. They said he'd wet the shorts and so they hung them on a tree to dry. When they were looking for Ben the shorts and toys had gone too. Which now seems weird if it was the digger driver.

 

[Ellmau]

Grandfather is in denial:

Ed Needham said he had lined up Dino Barkas – who was working on a property 100 yards away – to dig a road on a farmhouse he was renovating.

He said the Greek businessman – known to like a drink – turned up later driving his digger “too fast”.

After Ben vanished Ed said he trawled the area, scoured the site where Dino had been working and even looked in and around the digger for any sign of Ben.

He said: “I searched all round that digger. I even searched the bucket in case Ben had climbed on to it or done something silly like that.”

He told the Sunday Mirror: “I just find it so hard to believe. I just can’t see how Dino could have looked us in the eye just hours after killing our grandson.

“I can’t see him hiding something like this. But what do I know?”

Ed said he only met Dino about four times and had been convinced he was a “gentle giant” and a “gentleman”.

But he said Dino had form for panicking on site when they worked together on a Greek army housing project just months before Ben vanished.

Of the day Ben vanished, Ed said: “It was about mid morning. I went and asked him (Dino) if he would come and put a road in.

"When he came he flew into it too fast with the machine. For a big machine it felt fast. He came in at speed. He didn’t say anything. You can see for miles in that cab.

“I find it hard to think Ben would have gone near that machine because of the noise it made – but maybe I’m in denial.”

Facing up to the prospect of Ben’s body being found, he added: “It is horrifying to think our poor baby has been lying there all this time.”

Christine said: “I was fussing over him, telling him to stop playing with the tools. He was playing with a hosepipe letting the water trickle over his head and was digging with a trowel at some ashes.

“I was saying ‘Come off it Ben’ when Ed’s boss told me to ‘Leave the boy!’ Desperate to fit in and leave my English ways behind, I did as I was told.

“That’s my biggest regret. This wouldn’t have happened if we’d been in England. If I’d stuck with my English ways.”

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ben-needhams-grandfather-reveals-spoke-8860116

 

[CoverMeCagney]

I watched a documentary not long ago and I'm sure one of Ben's grandparents mentioned a pair of shorts going missing and a couple of dinky toys. They said he'd wet the shorts and so they hung them on a tree to dry. When they were looking for Ben the shorts and toys had gone too. Which now seems weird if it was the digger driver.

I'd be really interested to get more info on that! If true it's quite a big deal, in the middle of nowhere, on the day Ben went missing.

 

[Alyce]

A long read but plenty of background information in this extract, including the part about the wet shorts.


On 24 July, Christine, Eddie, Danny, Stephen and the owner of the house, Michaelis Kypreos, were in the farmhouse eating lunch. Ben was playing on the terrace just outside the door. He was running in and out, pouring water over his head and messing about with a stick. They could see through the open door on to the terrace where Ben was playing. There was a tree on which they'd hung his wet shorts.



https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/mar/29/missing-child-ben-needham

 

[Alyce]

The night Ben went missing, Eddie and Stephen had driven to the port on Kos at 3am. There was a line of trucks and cars waiting to board the ferry. Eddie and Stephen peered into the windows. They couldn't believe there were no police checking the vehicles. The policeman who had said he would join them there never turned up.

When they searched the fields around the farmhouse, they heard noises in the dark, like a baby, but never a baby, perhaps lambs or goats. As soon as it was light, Eddie searched sheds and outhouses. He went through bins, pulling out plastic sacks, dreading what he might find.

He spent three days next to a digger as it excavated the rubble of a demolished house on the lane in Herakles, bracing himself for the possibility that it would disgorge his grandson's body.

The police told him they thought Ben was alive: if there is a dead body, certain birds flock to it, they said, but no such birds had been seen.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/mar/29/missing-child-ben-needham

 

[Alyce]

Stephen was the last of the family to see Ben. "He said: 'Bike, bike,' and I said, 'No chance, go to Grandad.'" Then Stephen got on his bike and didn't look back.

Because of this, when he was questioned by the police he was singled out. They said that his moped looked as if it had been involved in an accident. Stephen told them about a minor crash a few days before, when he'd swerved to avoid some tourists on quad bikes, which explained the lack of indicators and a smashed fairing. But they weren't satisfied. "You fall off, kill the child, bury him?" the policeman said. The questioning had gone on like this for days.

Ever since the police questioned Stephen, their idea that he might have had a hand in Ben's disappearance has haunted him. "Did I take him, did I pick him up and put him on my bike, did I drive down that lane? I was questioning my own sanity. It was always there. How could a child disappear, how could he just vanish? Did I forget him somewhere or have an accident? Did I run over him or fall off my bike? I've asked myself that again and again."

In 2001, when another TV documentary was made, to coincide with the 10th anniversary of Ben's disappearance, Stephen was asked if he would be interviewed and whether he would undergo a form of hypnotherapy on camera. He agreed because he'd heard it might help to retrieve hidden memories.
In the film he had to revisit the last moment he saw Ben and confront the doubt created by the police interrogation. It was traumatic but, when the filming was over, Stephen walked away sure that any suspicion that he or anyone else might have harboured that he could have accidentally killed Ben would be dispelled once and for all.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/mar/29/missing-child-ben-needham

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Great article from the Guardian, thanks for posting, Alyce!

The wet shorts thing wasn't cleared up though, did they (and the toy cars) go missing, or not?

 

[dotr]

Very good article, i really feel for the family, especially Ben's mom.
Life is not always easy or straightforward, the article gave a human face and honest heart to the tragedy this family is living with, and made especially difficult because it happened so far from home.
Hoping answers come soon and with rapidly evolving technology, they just might.
imo

 

[Al Ka]

I have been following this case for many years, however sad and hurtful truth might be I am glad Kerry and her family are finally getting some answers. So many pass away without ever receiving any.

I wish something was done in Katrice Lee case, 2 year old toddler missing from Brittish Military Base in Germany in 1981 (http://www.websleuths.com/forums/sh...s-Paderborn-28-Nov-1981&highlight=Katrice+lee). The case never got any fundings or too big publicity and everything is being hushed up I assume due to happening on Military ground. I really wish more or at least "anything" was done there. They are another heartbroken parents without any answers missing their baby.

 

[Pisces Cloud]

I'd be really interested to get more info on that! If true it's quite a big deal, in the middle of nowhere, on the day Ben went missing.

I think it's mentioned in the video below too.

[video=youtube;fXfKaOfwsro]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXfKaOfwsro[/video]

 

[watson110]

I have been following this case for many years, however sad and hurtful truth might be I am glad Kerry and her family are finally getting some answers. So many pass away without ever receiving any.

I wish something was done in Katrice Lee case, 2 year old toddler missing from Brittish Military Base in Germany in 1981 (http://www.websleuths.com/forums/sh...s-Paderborn-28-Nov-1981&highlight=Katrice+lee). The case never got any fundings or too big publicity and everything is being hushed up I assume due to happening on Military ground. I really wish more or at least "anything" was done there. They are another heartbroken parents without any answers missing their baby.

I remember the Katrice case being on a German TV program a few years back. This happened not too far from where I live and we are also about the same age. Last year british police came to Germany to investigate. This happened in a British NAAFI Shop where local people arent allowed to shop at only Military and employees. So my guess is that whoever snatched Katrice has long left Germany and probably moved back to the UK.