Ben Needham and Jay Slater's mums call to ban 'cruel' armchair detectives

The mum of missing Ben Needham is backing the ‘Jay’s Law’ petition after being “plagued, harassed and attacked” by people posting lies on social media.

Kerry Needham, 54, from Sheffield, who now lives in Turkey, has been hurt by “cruel” fake headlines on social media such as, ‘He’s dead, it’s been confirmed’ and ‘Kerry reunited with son’.

One disturbing photo posted online showed police carrying a blue box, insinuating Ben was inside it. The fake snap was captioned: ‘Come on son. I’m bringing you home.’

Kerry tells The Mirror: “It’s done for clickbait and it’s so cruel.”

And she says, despite numerous pleas for social media companies to remove such offensive comments and images, she is “ignored time and again”.

READ MORE: Jay Slater mum's huge boost in campaign to crack down on armchair detectives spreading lies

“I feel the need to report these posts because it is totally untrue but nothing gets done,” she says

“I’ve reported so many of these entertainment sites and reported them to Facebook saying these headlines are totally untrue but nothing happens.

“This misinformation crowds out the genuine people with information. "

Ben went missing 34 years ago on July 24, 1991, when he was 21 months old and playing outside a farmhouse his grandfather was renovating on the Greek island of Kos.

Kerry was working in a nearby hotel as a waitress, after starting a new life overseas.

Backing Debbie’s petition, she says: “Social media companies have to take notice because they are distressing people. This has to stop because people like Jay Slater’s mum and the McCanns have been targeted.

“It is awful for people like us to read these headlines.

“We have to have social media to keep up the profile for our children, but these headlines make people make their minds up based on wrong information.

“They should go on Ben’s facebook page and find out the facts, then become an armchair detective if you want. But base it on the truth not on lies that are causing distress.”

Watching what Jay’s mum went through, Kerry says she was “horrified” for her.

“I wish her well. I hope she gets somewhere with Jay’s Law,” she says. “It was horrific and awful what she went through. I back the petition.

“People don’t know what to believe because these cruel nasty people post what they post - it can be very misleading to genuine people.

“There have been comments about me being neglectful, leaving Ben alone on a building site, one said ‘Serves them right should have been watching him’.

“Sometimes I comment. It seems like I'm forever trying to defend myself as a mother of a missing person, to show you weren’t neglectful and the facts you are reading are totally wrong.

“We seem to get a lot of people who claim to know what has happened.

“There’s a woman who keeps sending messages to Ben’s Facebook page claiming she was there when he disappeared, but she clearly wasn’t.

“You have to be really careful how you deal with these people, because if you ignore that one piece of information that is right, who knows what could happen.

“People have even messaged me to say ‘Mum I’ve sent me my phone call please call me’.

“You end up constantly battling with cruel people online. It has to change.”