'Ben Needham wasn't killed by my husband' insists digger driver's widow
THE WIDOW of a Greek digger driver yesterday blasted claims that he may have accidentally crushed British toddler Ben Needham to death 25 years ago.
Ben Needham disappeared 25 years ago in Kos
Varvara Barkas insisted her late husband Konstantinos had nothing to do with the toddler’s disappearance and claimed he had never even mentioned the missing boy.
Ben, aged 21 months and from Sheffield, went missing on the island of Kos in July 1991 on a family holiday.
Detectives acting on new information believe Konstantinos – who died last year in hospital aged 62 – may have hit Ben while driving a digger on the day he went missing.
He never mentioned Ben
But Mrs Barkas said: “My husband was a good man and I know he had nothing to do with Ben’s disappearance.
“The only thing he ever said was that he saw a car that day. Even when he was dying he never mentioned Ben.”
She insisted there was nothing unusual in her husband’s behaviour that fateful evening.
Ben Needham's family make appeal on Greek TV for toddler's whereabouts
Officials believe Ben may have been killed by a digger on the day he went missing
She said: “As he was coming in that evening I had his dinner ready.
“Then he was immediately getting ready for the next day’s work.”
His son Valandis added: “When the British police came here he went up there to the site to help them but they would not find the little boy there.”
Ben was playing near a farmhouse owned by the family when he was last seen
South Yorkshire Police believe Ben may have died within hours of vanishing.
Detectives will fly to Kos within weeks to dig at two sites.