Police given funding extension to investigate Ben Needham disappearance

The family of Ben Needham say they are delighted at a Home Office funding extension to the South Yorkshire Police team set up to investigate his disappearance from the Greek island of Kos.

The six-month extension, which runs until October 2016, will allow the officers in the Operation Ben team to further investigate leads and information which stretch back to the date of his disappearance in July 1991 - 25 years ago this Summer.

The team was initially set up in March 2015 and in the last year officers have made trips to Greece to interview people of interest whose names have been connected to the case. Last year a Greek Roma family believed by the Needhams to have had an involvement were cleared of suspicion.

Ben's mum, Kerry, told ITV News:

Last weekend, at the instigation of ITV News, Scandinavian media made an appeal for a tourist to come forward who may have filmed Ben on their video camera.

Ben's grandmother, Christine, says she recalls a woman filming Ben playing about in a hotel pool in June or July 1991. Christine believes from her accent she could be from Denmark, Sweden or Norway.

If the footage can be found it would be the only moving images of the youngster, who was just 21 months old when he disappeared from the remote farmhouse which his grandad, Eddie, was renovating in the village of Irakles.

Click below to watch Chris Kiddey's report: