The mother of missing toddler Ben Needham wiped away tears as she revealed she believes her son will never be found alive after disappearing 25 years ago.

Kerry Needham’s voice broke as she told ITV’s Good Morning Britain of “the agonising wait” for news of her lost son, who vanished on the Greek island of Kos.

Mrs Needham said the family were “tired and distressed” but would “try to get on with everything” following what they expect to be a bad outcome to police investigations.

Mrs Needham was speaking as police entered their third week of searches in Kos following new information that Ben, who was 21 months old when he disappeared, may have been accidentally killed by a digger driver.

Missing: Ben Needham disappeared from the Greek island of Kos in 1991
PA

She said: “I think it really now is a case of finding him not alive.

“We can’t live another 25 years like this, my parents can’t and I can’t. It’s not the best solution but it will eventually lay it to rest for us, we’re all extremely tired and distressed.”

Tearful: Kerry Needham welled up on TV
ITV

She added: “Twenty-five years living and not knowing where your child is, is torment. I don’t like to say it but then at least we would know and it would be closure and he can be laid to rest and we can remember him as he was.”

Mrs Needham said it was an “agonising wait every day” for news from the police.

How police believe Ben Needham would look now (PA)
HANDOUT/PA

She said: “Every time the phone rings you think ‘is this going to be the one with the bad news? It’s stressful, it’s frustrating, it’s painful but we’re trying to stay as strong as we possible can.”

Officers from South Yorkshire Police and Greek volunteers have been working for a fortnight near the farmhouse where Ben was last seen in 1991 and said they would extend their stay after discovering a layer of spoil material that had been deposited at this site within the last 30 years.

The current operation was prompted by information that digger driver Konstantinos Barkas, also known as Dino, may be responsible for the toddler’s death, as he was clearing land with an excavator near where the Sheffield boy was playing on the day he vanished.

Mr Barkas is believed to have died from stomach cancer last year.

Hunt: The Greek rescue services sift through excavated soil at the search site.
Getty Images

Mrs Needham, who has been warned to “prepare for the worst”, thanked the public, the police and the British media for their support.

She said: “We wouldn’t have got this far without South Yorkshire Police. They’ve been fantastic and they’ve tried to do this as painlessly as possible and they’ve tried to find those answers for us and we need those answers good or bad and unfortunately it looks like it’s going to be a bad outcome but we’ll just try to get on with everything.”

On Saturday, Detective Inspector Jon Cousins said he had a long conversation with Mrs Needham to update her on the search and he was encouraged the family was still supportive of the police operation.