Ben Needham: Mum of Sheffield boy who went missing calls on police to rule out link to body found in river

The mum of a Sheffield boy who went missing on a family holiday wants police to investigate whether a child's body found in a German river could be her son.

Ben Needham was just 21 months old when he vanished on the Greek island of Kos in 1991. His body has never been found and his family have not given up hope of finding him alive, though police believed he died in a tragic accident involving a digger.

Interpol and German police appealed last week for help to identify a young child's body which was found in the River Danube near Grossmehring in Bavaria in May 2022. 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.

The boy is thought to be aged between five and six, and was approximately 110 cm tall and weighed 15kg, with brown hair. Police have shared facial reconstruction images in an attempt to confirm his identity.

Ben Needham's mum Kerry Needham has alerted South Yorkshire Police to the Interpol appeal, according to a report in the Mirror, as she wants them to investigate whether the body could be that of her son.

Ben Needham's mum believes facial reconstruction of boy found in river 'has a look of Ben'

She was quoted as saying: "I am hoping our British police will check this out and contact the German officers about this. We need to rule it out. I’ve always said all along that I don’t believe he’s died."

She added: "The reconstruction has a look of Ben. I never realised how child trafficking is so rife and massive. I spoke to a man this week who was trafficked out of Greece in the 1950s. It is still happening today in Greece but very underground."

Inretpol'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 this information and will look into it."

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