Ben Needham Sheffield: "It's the not knowing that's the killer" says mum as body found in German river

The mother of a Sheffield toddler who went missing 32 years ago has said she is "anxious" about South Yorkshire Police and Interpol looking into whether the body of a boy found in a river in Germany could be her son.

SYP has confirmed it is investigating whether a body found in the River Danube in May last year could be that of Ben Needham, who vanished from the Greek Island Kos at just 21 months old.

Interpol DNA experts have confirmed this afternoon that they do not believe the child found in the river to have been German. It is not known how long the body, which was weighed down with a flagstone slab and wrapped in foil, had been in the water.

Ben's mum, Kerry Needham, told the BBC: "It's the not knowing that's the killer. If we did get an answer we could try our best to move on and rebuild our lives.

"The German police think this little boy is a victim of abduction or child trafficking. If it turns out to be Ben...I don't know how you would come to terms with something like that happening to your child.

"That's what scares me at the minute, because it is horrific. I have been looking for the past six months into child trafficking in and out of Greece and lots of other countries. Its an eye opener to what is happening to children out there."

Someone sent Ben's parents a photo of the reconstruction of what the boy may have looked like, and Kerry said it resembled Ben, or what she believed he might look like around the age of five or six, and alerted SYP.

She added: "If it was the horrific outcome that he had died, you would go through a grieving process and try to rebuild some kind of life. I don't think we would ever live a normal life ever again, but we would be able to move on with our lives and concentrate on ourselves and family rather than dedicating every hour to trying to find Ben."

The boy in the river, estimated to be between five and six, was approximately 110cm tall and weighed 15kg, with brown hair.

Kerry added: "I’m anxious, very very anxious, and as the years have gone on it gets harder to deal with. I know that might sound strange, but so many years have gone by and we have allowed our hopes to get raised, and every time we went out thinking we’ve found him, the devastation it causes us when it's turned out not to be him...

"We just don't allow our hopes to get built up at all. It's too traumatic to deal with. We still do our best to follow up all the info we receive. This is just another lead that needs to be followed up. I'm aware SYP are going to be working with Interpol to follow this up, and they have Ben’s DNA, so hopefully this will be a quick process and can put our minds at rest."

Interpol's secretary general Jürgen Stock said: "Someone, somewhere knows something about this boy, making it equally important to release certain details publicly. Whether he was the victim of trafficking, abduction or violence, we are committed to mobilizing all of Interpol’s policing capabilities to identify him and help investigators shed light on his death."

South Yorkshire Police said: "We are aware of reports of a body being found in Germany. We are looking into the reports and at this time, we do not have any further update to provide."

For more information about Ben Needham and the appeal to find him, visit: www.facebook.com/helpfindben.