Ben Needham MEGATHREAD

[Boing]

This from the Help Find Ben Needham FB page a couple of hours ago:

 

STATEMENT RE NEWS EVENTS

***************************************

"We can now confirm that this afternoon, a man who says he is a 21 year old Romanian handed himself in to Greek authorities and a DNA test HAS now been carried out willingly. Kerry Needham would like to release the following statement:

 

"I have just heard from Greece that the young man in the video has handed himself in to Greek authorities. He claims he is Romanian and was working in Limassol. The gypsies who were in his company are his girlfriend's family as she is Roma. He has willingly given DNA, so we are waiting on a result."

 

DNA Results are expected to take 2 to 3 days to get back."

 

I do hope they find him but they have said that the media have suddenly picked up on every possible sighting recently, when there have been many sightings over the years which have been negative and not been publicised. Fingers crossed for this one though.

[babyblueeyes]

MISSING SHEFFIELD BOY BEN NEEDHAM DNA TEST

 

The family of missing Sheffield boy Ben Needham are facing an anxious wait after Greek detectives announced they are to DNA test a young man living with a Roma family in Cyprus - which could be Ben.

 

Ben, from Sheffield, disappeared while on a family holiday in Cyprus in 1991 when he was just 21 months old.

 

His mum, Kerry Needham has never given up her search for him.

 

Now it has emerged a young man living with a Roma family in Cyprus will be DNA tested after evidence emerged suggesting he could be the missing tot.

 

Kerry, aged 41, said: “It’s scary.

 

“My head is all over the place.

 

“I have seen a photograph of the man and it does bear a resemblance to Ben.

 

“The image came from a reliable source.”

 

Ben, who would now be 23, vanished on the Greek island of Kos in 1991.

 

It has been reported an anonymous tipster approached the Lawyers Association in Kos with an image of the man believed to be Ben.

 

A video clip shows a man Greek sources say is aged between 20 and 25, with four other men from the Roma community, attending a church service in Limassol in Cyprus.

 

President of the association, Panayiotis Avrithis, handed the images to Alexandra Moussoura, the area’s District Attorney.

 

Greek police have described the development as ‘highly significant’.

 

Officers from South Yorkshire Police travelled to the Greek resort last year to conduct a search on a piece of wasteland in the hunt for Ben but the exercise proved fruitless.

 

Kerry told a television station: “We have always believed that Ben’s abduction was gypsy-related and have had a long ongoing inquiry in Larissa.”

 

The tot vanished after travelling to Kos with his mother and grandparents Eddie and Christine, who were renovating a farmhouse in the village of Iraklise.

 

 

http://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=719132468115631&id=609632969065582&set=a.630853620276850.1073741829.609632969065582&refid=52

 

Good luck fingers crossed x

Edited October 28, 2013 by babyblueeyes

[firey redhea]

If it is Ben or not, now he is an adult he is old enough to decide what to do, I imagine it to be a bit like an adopted child being reunited with its birth mother and plenty of those relationships seem ok, Ive as always thought Ben was alive and would be found, fingers crossed and God speed

[shaznay]

just look for the birth mark on his knee or a scar if it has been removed by surgery

 

It would be absolutely amazing if it was

[Super Hans]

It's such an incredibly long shot.

 

Even if it was him...he'd probably want to stay there.

[Beccyboop]

Mail link to pic of the man in question.

 

I hope it is him but that picture doesn't look anything like Ben's photo fit

[Dan_Ashcroft]

I hope it is him but that picture doesn't look anything like Ben's photo fit

 

Photo fits are pretty useless to be fair. 10% science and 90% artistic licence (a bit like those archaeological face reconstructions). From memory it's the tissue thickness that they are unable to predict, which introduces huge potential variations.

[Longcol]

And because he was blonde at 21 months doesn't mean he will be blonde now - or even fair. I was blonde at that age and went very dark by the time I was five. My eldest lad was very fair as a toddler and is now jet black.

[Plain Talker]

I hope it is him but that picture doesn't look anything like Ben's photo fit

 

Photo fits are pretty useless to be fair. 10% science and 90% artistic licence (a bit like those archaeological face reconstructions). From memory it's the tissue thickness that they are unable to predict, which introduces huge potential variations.

 

I'm another one hoping for the family's sake that their hopes aren't going to be raised, only to be dashed, and that they get the answers they have sought since Ben vanished..

 

However, looking at the face of the chap being DNA-tested, I don't think the chap's nose is quite right. Looking at the family resemblances of Kerry, Kerry's mum and Leighanna, Ben's sister, I would expect the adult Ben to be very like Kerry, facially, with a sharper nose, not the broad, snub-nose that this chap has. (and the sharp nose that the age-projected images of "Ben" has)

 

It would be wonderful for the family, if this chap does turn out to be Ben, but I'm not so sure it will be him.

[pattricia]

The photo in The Mail doesnt look much like him. I do hope it is though.