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Police have DNA tested a Co Down man to check if is he is Ben Needham who has been missing for 24 years.

Ben Gleave, 28, from Bangor, hopes the result will bring his 10 years of torment to an end.

He said: “It’s been terrible. My world has been turned upside down again and I feel like I’ve committed a crime and need to clear my name.

"I’ve had a DNA mouth swab taken today and I will have to wait for the results. But I just don’t think I’m the happy ending to the Needham story.”

He was first tested in 2005 by Canadian police after a neighbour claimed he was Ben Needham.

Her actions were prompted by a striking resemblance to an age progressed image of the missing boy aged 11 and her belief his life story “did not add up".

Ben Gleave met two PSNI officers at his Bangor home on Wednesday afternoon and underwent a mouth swab which was last night was sent by secure courier to a forensics lab in England.

It will take between 48 hours and two weeks for the results to be returned.

The test was ordered by South Yorkshire Police and carried out on their behalf by officers from PSNI Holywood.

Dad-of-two Ben Gleave, 28, first volunteered a DNA sample to police in Canada in 2005, amid claims he was the missing British child.

But almost 15 years later it emerged that these tests had vanished after they had been sent to a private detective in the UK.

Ben Needham’s mother Kerry, 43, said last night she was “hugely relieved” officers investigating Ben’s disappearance had taken swift action over Mr Gleave.

Her son was 21 months old when he vanished from the Greek island of Kos in July 1991.

In 2005 Madeleine Ranson from Canada spotted an age progression image of Ben Needham and was convinced it was her young neighbour who had recently arrived in Nova Scotia from the UK.

And after questioning Mr Gleave, she insisted his life story “did not add up” and called the police prompting an investigation.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers took DNA samples, fingerprints and photographs of Mr Gleave and sent them to a UK private investigator because there was no local police case open at the time.

However, 24 years after the youngster vanished, Mr Gleave is back in the glare of the world’s spotlight as the search picks up pace and the suspicion that he could be Kerry Needham’s beloved son has been reignited.

Mr Gleave told Belfast Live: “It’s been terrible. My world has been turned upside down and I feel like I’ve committed a crime and need to clear my name.

“I’ve had DNA taken today and I will have to wait for the results. The PSNI detectives assured me that DNA sample would bring the situation to a conclusion pretty quickly.”

Mr Gleave, a Slimming World consultant, added: “If by some chance a DNA test proves positive, it would make very little difference to me because I can’t undo the past and I’d have to live with the consequences of that - and so too would everyone else.

“In a way I wish for Kerry Needham’s sake that I was her son, but I don’t believe I am. My heart goes out to her. I have two children aged six and eight, and if I was separated from them for 24 days, let alone 24 years, I’d go out of my mind.

“My suffering is nothing compared to hers but I’m finding it hard to cope with this and I feel the only way to get back to normality is to tell people what really happened.

“My background was a little chaotic in that I moved country a few times and, yes my name was changed when I was a child but I know who my parents, Jennifer and Wayne Gleave, are and I know who my biological dad is too.

“I didn’t have a birth certificate for a long time but I do now and I have a passport and I'm happy to have another DNA test done to prove my identity.

“I just don’t think I’m the happy ending to the Needham story and I’m sorry for them about that.”

Canadian Madeleine Ranson’s call to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Nova Scotia prompted them to collect the potentially vital evidence.

But it only came to light last weekend that the DNA and fingerprints, plus copies of photos taken at the time, had gone missing in the intervening period.

Sadly for heartbroken mum Kerry Needham, she does not believe Mr Gleave holds the key which will end her 24 year nightmare.

She said: “This was one of many lines of inquiry held by Interpol for many years but for whatever reason had not been concluded.

“I’d never heard of this man before but when I saw his picture in the media over the weekend I immediately thought he looked nothing like our family.

“He did look similar to an age progression of Ben when he was 11 - but I never liked that computer image."

Kerry added: “I’m glad he agreed to do a DNA, at least it can put everyone’s mind at rest. I will be happy that it's all laid to rest for his sake and he can get on with his life again.”

Kerry believes South Yorkshire Police will “get to the bottom of the situation” and said: “They've told me they will leave no stone unturned.”

The Ben Needham case was granted £700,000 by the Home Office to fund a police investigation last April.

Madeleine Ranson, who reported Mr Gleave to the RCMP in Canada believing she had solved the one of the UK’s most frustrating missing child cases, had been a friend and neighbour of Ben Gleave and his family for two years when she made the claim.

Mr Gleave said it was during a fall out between Mrs Ranson and his 45-year-old mother Jennifer that his neighbour’s suspicions were raised about his identity.

They included the fact that Mr Gleave:

Had at that time no birth certificate but did hold a passport,

Left Blackpool for Northern Ireland when he was seven,

Left Northern Ireland for a remote Canadian community of less than 100,000 when he was 16.

Mrs Ranson reported that Mr Gleave’s childhood photo was strikingly similar to the age progression photofit produced of Ben Needham to depict him aged around 11.

She told police Jennifer Gleave had changed her son’s name from Ben Stockdale to Ben Gleave when he was six years old following a second marriage.

And Mrs Ranson recalled being told that almost all the family photos, including those of Mr Gleave’s early childhood, had been dumped by a family friend in Northern Ireland.

Mr Gleave said: “Madeleine Ranson still believes my true identity is Ben Needham and there’s no convincing her otherwise. She tells me that my life story just does not add up. She was acting in the best interests of the Needham family but I think she was mistaken.”

The RCMP arrived at the Gleave family home on Isle Madame, off the southern tip of Cape Breton in Nova Scotia, with finger print and DNA testing kits two days before Mr Gleave was due to leave Canada and return to Northern Ireland just over 10 years ago.

He said: “The island’s two police officers both turned up and at first I thought the situation was funny because it seemed so ridiculous. But then they pulled out the DNA kit and things got serious.

“I never heard anything more about it and forgot about it until last weekend when I got a call out of the blue asking me if I was Ben Needham and revealing the DNA test was never completed and had been lost.

“Now hopefully this new DNA test will give us all the definitive answer we've been waiting for and we can deal with the results calmly.”