Shannon Matthews kidnapping

[faceless]

Kidnapped schoolgirl 'kept on leash'
Reuters
13 November 2008

SCHOOLGIRL Shannon Matthews was drugged and probably kept captive on a leash in a "wicked" plot hatched by her mother and another man to claim a newspaper reward for her recovery, a court has been told. Prosecutor Julian Goose said a looped strap tied to a roof beam at the West Yorkshire flat where she had been held for over three weeks was probably used to restrain the nine-year-old.

Mr Goose said her mother Karen called police on February 19 to say her daughter had not returned to her Dewsbury home from a school swimming trip, sparking a massive police hunt. "The 999 call was part of a dishonest and we say wicked plan by Michael Donovan and Karen Matthews," the Press Association reporting him as telling Leeds Crown Court. "Shannon was an innocent victim of the plan. She was kidnapped and falsely imprisoned in the flat where Donovan lived. She was drugged to subdue her during the period of her captivity."

Karen Matthews and Donovan, the uncle of her then boyfriend Craig Meehan, deny charges of kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice. Mr Goose said Donovan had told police the plan was to release Shannon in Dewsbury Market and for Donovan to discover her. He would then have claimed a newspaper reward, which had risen to £50,000 by the time police found Shannon in Donovan's flat, around a mile from her home, 24 days after she disappeared.

"The prosecution's case is that this plan was as dishonest as it was wicked," Mr Goose said. "Karen Matthews was using one of her own children in her plan with Donovan to kidnap and falsely imprison her. Both defendants stood by and watched the very large police investigation and assistance by many members of the public in the search for Shannon."

Shannon's disappearance sparked one of Britain's largest ever missing person hunts, which involved more than 300 police officers and cost almost £3.2 million. "Throughout this extensive search, Karen Matthews maintained her lie and Michael Donovan watched as the reward money increased," said Mr Goose.

Matthews was a "consummate and convincing liar", taking part in impassioned televised appeals for her daughter's return. "Both defendants stood by and watched the very large police investigation and assistance by many members of the public in the search for Shannon," Mr Goose said. The public followed the day-by-day events until Shannon was eventually found, "only then to discover that it had all been a lie, a trick and deliberately false complaint".

Donovan had been waiting in his car on Shannon's route home from school and persuaded her to get in by telling her she was going to a fair. He kept Shannon in his flat and wrote a set of rules telling her to keep quiet and stay away from the windows to prevent her discovery. But he also subdued the girl by giving her Temazepam sleeping pills and Traveleeze travel sickness tablets, Mr Goose said. Traces of both drugs were found in her blood after she was rescued.

The case continues.

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I thought the story was pretty mental, but this really puts it in the spotlight...

[eefanincan]

I read that earlier this morning --- incredibly disgusting what some people will do for money.

[Skylace]

What sick fucks.

[seshme]

She'll be fucked up for life.

How could they possibly think they would get away with it...?

[Twirley]

OMG - what they did is unbelievable. That woman does not deserve to be a mother. Her child will be scarred for life.

[SpursFan1902]

You have to have a license to fish, hunt or drive a car, but any deviant with the right parts and partner can have kids. It really is a shame that people who don't want, deserve or who aren't responsible enough to have kids, have them. This just makes my blood boil!! I hate to see innocent children abused because no one taught or enforced birth control on their parents. I think of my neice and nephews and just what I would do to ANYONE who did something like that to them.