Officers from South Yorkshire Police traveled to the Greek island of Kos to find a man who contacted them anonymously in 1993 saying missing Ben Needham had his name changed to Andreas and was living with a man called Nikos.

Ben was 21 months old when he disappeared on 24 July 1991.

At a news conference, Detective Inspector John Cousins said:

“The question I would like people to ask themselves is: could you be Ben? As a child, did you have blond hair and blue eyes? Do you have doubts over who your parents are, or perhaps you look physically different to your parents? Perhaps there are no photographs of you as a child? If you have any of these doubts, please call us and there are trained detectives standing by to take your call.

“We have a sample of Ben’s DNA and it would be very simple for us to carry out a test and find out if they are Ben. This can be done in total confidence and no one else has to know – there will be absolutely no pressure from us, we simply want to know what happened.” he added.

Mr. Cousins said officers were investigating calls made to the UK’s Missing Persons Bureau in 1993 by an anonymous Greek person who had said “Ben was known then as Andreas and was being cared for by a man called Nikos”.

He also said that his team “was committed to finding answers about what happened to Ben. We are not here to cast blame or create trouble for anyone. We simply want to find out what happened to him.”

Moreover, the charity Crimestoppers is also offering a reward of 12,500 euros to anyone that provides information that could lead to finding Ben, who will now be 26 years old.

The officers gave three mobile phone numbers to be used exclusively for the Greek public to contact British police:

• 6951040208 (Greek/English)
• 6951040217 (Greek/English)
• 6951040226 (English)

People can also contact British investigation team by emailing at opben.needham@southyorks.pnn.police.uk.