Ben Needham’s mother Kerry has told of her pain as police search a second site for her missing son.
A 19-strong team of officers from South Yorkshire Police continues to probe an arid stretch of farmland on the island of Kos, where 21-month-old Ben was last seen in 1991.
They are working on the theory that Ben, from Sheffield, may have been accidentally killed and buried there during renovation works 25 years ago.
The second site, around a mile away from the first, is being searched following a tip-off that digger driver Konstantinos Barkas, also known as Dino, deposited debris there during the excavations.
The builder died of cancer last year but a friend of his gave the information to police following a TV appeal in May. Barkas’s widow strongly denies he had anything to do with Ben’s disappearance.
Kerry Needham told The Mirror: “I’m terrified he is there. These next few days are going to be agonising.
“The thought of him being buried under all that is sickening. I thought it was impossible to hurt more – but every day this gets more painful and traumatic.”
The 43-year-old also thinks it is more likely Barkas killed Ben and dumped his body elsewhere (at the second site) in an effort to conceal what had happened.
She added: “He already had a big mound of building waste which he had been using throughout that day and previous days.
“The only reason to go elsewhere was to hide something.”
The second site is a small area of wasteland containing several mounds of rubble. It is known that some of the material was placed there by a cinema in 2012.
Speaking to ITV last month, Kerry said: “He (Dino) could have ended this 25 years ago. I could have grieved, had my daughter... you’ll never forget your child but at least I would have known where he was and I could have done something with my life instead of having a life on hold and not being able to do anything or focus on anything and living this nightmare.
“It could have ended 25 years ago. I could have probably forgiven that person back then, but now? No.”