Ben Needham's mum Kerry accuses David Cameron of not giving family same support as Madeleine McCann's parents.19 December 2013
Kerry Needham, 41, claims the Prime Minister needs to throw the weight of government behind South Yorkshire Police in the search for her missing son.
Kerry Needham asks for a level playing field: Both Ben Needham and Madeleine McCann are missing.
The mother of Ben Needham, who went missing on a Greek holiday island 22 years ago, has accused David Cameron of not giving her case the same backing as he gave the McCanns.
Kerry Needham, 41, claims the Prime Minister needs to throw the weight of government behind South Yorkshire Police in the search for her missing son.
She has called for the same level of support and financial backing offered to the Metropolitan force in the hunt for missing Madeleine.
Her plea comes as ITV revealed a dossier that suggests a blond boy was seen eight times with a notorious Greek criminal family in the area where Ben disappeared.
Mrs Needham, from Ecclesfield, Sheffield, told ITV's Calendar programme: "We just want the same level of support and for South Yorkshire to have the same resources - finances, if that's what they need.
"I'm not being critical of the McCann family at all. What I'm being critical of is the fact that Ben has been missing 22 years now, and we've never had this support from the British Government.
"[David Cameron] just needs to take a closer look and offer South Yorkshire Police his support, or the Government's support, and whatever South Yorkshire Police need, give it to them."
The dossier, compiled by Mrs Needham and freelance journalist Melanie McFadyean, contains reports from eight witnesses, none of whom know each other, who all saw a boy with the same Greek family.
One witness spotted a blond toddler on the balcony of a house in Veria six months after Ben went missing. When she suggested reporting the sighting to police, her cousin said: "If we do that, [the family] will kill us."
Mrs Needham's MP Angela Smith told the broadcaster: "Cameron has gone about this the wrong way and he's being seen now to favour one family at the expense of others. That strikes many people as really really unfair.
"Clearly far more has been done for the McCann investigation. Nobody wants to deny the support the McCanns are getting, but there isn't a level playing field, and he's done nothing to address that.
"It would have been far better if he'd set up a unit, a national unit, dedicated to investigating and developing expertise to investigate children who have gone missing abroad."
The Labour MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge last month asked Mr Cameron why the Needhams have not received the same support as the McCanns, whose case has involved 37 full-time Metropolitan Police officers at a cost of £5million.
A written response from Mr Cameron called the case "heartbreaking" and cited a special grant from the Home Office to allow an excavation in Kos.
Ben vanished on July 24, 1991, after travelling to Kos with his mother and grandparents, Eddie and Christine, who were renovating a farmhouse in the village of Iraklise.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ben-needham-mum-madeleine-mccann-2945026
