A regional daily reporter who covered the disappearance of toddler Ben Needham 25 years ago says she hopes his family’s “torment” can come to an end soon.

Helen Johnston was working as a journalist on Sheffield daily The Star at the time the 21-month-old, pictured left, vanished on the Greek island of Kos in 1991, and was flown over to cover the search.

A toy car believed to belong to Ben has been found on the island in recent days, and police said on Monday they believe Ben died as a result of an accident.

Helen, who now freelances and works as a journalism lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University, has recalled her experience covering the initial search for Ben in a piece for her old newspaper.

She wrote: “Back in 1991 a journalist had little more to rely on than a notebook and pen. I was dropped into a foreign land with no mobile phone, no laptop or tablet, no internet and no email.

“I had to rely on initiative and tenacity to get the story. After 25 years I can’t remember every detail of those few days on Kos, but some things are etched on my memory.

“Meeting a young Kerry Needham and taking her picture outside the caravan the family were living in; talking to her broken-hearted dad Eddie at the police station while we waited for more information; sitting with Ben’s dad Simon Ward at the spot where he went missing.

“These were ordinary Sheffield people who had moved to Greece for a better life in the sun, but instead had suddenly found themselves thrust into the media spotlight by a tragic event which was to change their lives forever.”

At the time, there were suggestions Ben had been kisnapped, with no suggestion he had been killed either accidentally or deliberately.

Helen added “There was no social media in 1991, no Facebook or Twitter hungry for every detail of the story. These were the days before free wifi at hotels and restaurants and there were people on Kos who didn’t know anything about Ben’s disappearance. Without any internet I had to file my story from a phone at the hotel after scribbling it down in my notebook.

“A national newspaper reporter with a hire car had given me a lift to see the Needhams, but then abandoned me there as she raced back to try to get her story out before me. Luckily the BBC Athens correspondent was more generous and offered me a ride back to town on his motorbike.”

The latest searches have been conducted after a friend of a now-deceased digger driver, who had been working on a farmhouse the Needhams family were renovating on the island at the time, claimed the man may have been responsible for Ben’s death.

Helen concluded: “I’ve still got the yellowing papers with their black-and-white photos containing those first stories about Ben in 1991, and over the years I have followed the news of possible sightings and new leads in the case.

“For the family’s sake I hope this new development, heartbreakingly sad and tragic though it is, may at last bring their torment to an end so they can finally lay his memory to rest.

“Whatever happens, the name Ben Needham will never be forgotten by me and countless others who have read his name in news reports over the past 25 years.”