Overview
- South Yorkshire Police, which told Kerry Needham on Monday it would stop active inquiries, said Greek authorities now have primacy and it will keep a family liaison officer and one detective as the contact point.
- Kerry Needham called the move devastating and urged the public and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to push for continued UK involvement.
- The force cited time and resource pressures for stepping back and said it stands ready to support Greece or act on any new evidence.
- Plans reported by the family to re-interview witnesses with inconsistent statements and to meet the Greek public prosecutor have been dropped.
- Kerry Needham highlighted a funding gap, saying Ben’s case received about £1.3 million over 35 years compared with roughly £13–14 million for the Madeleine McCann investigation, after earlier searches and tests on Kos and later DNA checks found no match to Ben.