Shannon Matthews found alive after 24 day ordeal. [Archive]

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Unamused Cat

March 16th, 2008, 12:12 AM

(UK) The news that nine-year-old Shannon Matthews had been found alive on Friday, hidden by her alleged abductor in the base of a divan bed, provoked astonishment, then jubilation. Television presenters on rolling news channels scrabbled frantically for details of the rescue. Relatives, friends, and Dewsbury locals expressed their unconfined joy: by evening, the impromptu street parties and children's discos were in full swing.

All that is understandable: for a child such as Shannon to be found alive after being missing for 24 days is almost unheard of. The one story more powerful than that of a lost child is that of a child found when hope had almost gone. Therein lay all the elements of a fairy tale satisfactorily resolved. But one little word in the police statement hinted at a different story: the circumstances of her disappearance, it said, were "complicated".
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That is, perhaps, the word that has defined Shannon's life so far. She is one of Karen Matthews's seven children, by five different fathers. The shifting male presences in her life must have taken a bit of adjusting to. The current stepfather is Craig Meehan, a 22-year-old fishmonger, whom relatives alleged had been violent towards Shannon and her siblings - a charge Mr Meehan has vigorously denied.

The man who allegedly abducted Shannon is Mr Meehan's 39-year-old uncle, whose own children were taken into care some years ago. After her rescue, Shannon was reunited with her mother, but she has been made the subject of an emergency police-protection order.

More at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/03/16/do1609.xml

Kidnapper's vile sex secrets:
http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/1603_shannon.shtml

Unamused Cat

April 8th, 2008, 02:51 AM

It seems this kidnapping was only a hoax by the victim's mother, Karen Matthews, and family to make some money. bah...

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg107/snarkyphotos/karenmatthews.jpg

Shannon Matthews' mother 'may have copied TV kidnap plot'

The mother of Shannon Matthews has been accused of knowing her daughter's whereabouts from the start of the £5 million search for her, sources have disclosed.

Karen Matthews, 32, was being questioned by detectives on Monday night on suspicion of perverting the course of justice after allegedly breaking down in tears in front of a police family liaison officer.

The mother of Shannon Matthews, Karen, has been arrested in connection to her disappearance.
Karen Matthews, Shannon's mother, has been arrested

The Daily Telegraph understands that officers are examining alleged similarities between Shannon's disappearance and a storyline from the Channel 4 drama series Shameless shown in the month before the nine-year-old vanished.

In it, the teenage daughter of Frank Gallagher, the head of a dysfunctional family, staged the fake kidnap of his youngest son, Liam, in an attempt to obtain a £500,000 ransom. All along, Liam was hidden a few doors away with a friend of his sister.

The episode attracted 2.5 million viewers when it was shown on Jan 22.

Shannon failed to return from school after her a swimming lesson on Feb 19, prompting Britain's biggest ever search for a missing person, involving hundreds of police officers and members of the public.

It has emerged that police are examining allegations that people claiming to be connected to Shannon's family asked for donations from the fund set up to find Madeleine McCann, the four-year-old who vanished from a Portuguese holiday apartment last May. A spokesman for her parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, said they had received "a number of approaches" for aid from the Find Madeleine Fund from purported representatives of the Matthews family.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/08/nshannon108.xml

Unamused Cat

April 8th, 2008, 03:08 AM

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg107/snarkyphotos/shannonG0504_468x675-1.jpg

THE mother of kidnap girl Shannon Matthews has allegedly told police: “I knew where she was, right from day one.”

Karen Matthews is said to have made her confession in a police car with a family liaison officer and two friends.

They sat in stunned silence as Matthews, 32, allegedly admitted knowing where her nine-year-old daughter had been kept for 24 days, while police spent £5million mounting Britain’s biggest ever missing person investigation.

She was arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice and read her rights while the police car stood at a red traffic light at 7pm on Friday.

Last night police were investigating the possibility that the mother-of-seven concocted the scam after watching an episode of Channel 4 comedy, Shameless.

In the show – screened on January 22, less than a month before Shannon went missing – a girl stages the fake kidnap of her brother to extort £500,000 in lottery winnings from her father.

Claims that members of Shannon’s family made several approaches to the parents of Madeleine McCann urging them to make a financial donation, are also being investigated.

After a police operation involving more than 600 officers, Shannon was discovered hidden under a divan bed at the flat of Mick Donovan, 39, an unemployed computer programmer and the uncle of Karen’s boy-friend, Craig Meehan.

Donovan has been charged with kidnapping and imprisoning Shannon against her will. He was rushed to hospital at the weekend after slitting his wrists while on remand at Leeds Prison.

Police are continuing to question Matthews at Wood Street Police Station in Wakefield, West Yorks, after her alleged confession to family liaison officer, Det Con Christine Freeman.

Matthews, who has been living at a police safe house, had been taken to meet some close friends by Det Con Freeman. Sources said that as they drove, one of the friends asked Matthews about reports that she had been having an affair with Donovan.

She denied it but was then challenged over a number of supposed inconsistencies in her story. As tempers rose inside the car, Matthews is said to have admitted planning to dump 22-year-old fishmonger Craig Meehan before she started crying and shaking.

A source said: “She said she had known where Shannon was from day one. It seems everything got out of control and she did not know how to stop it.

“She wanted to leave Craig Meehan and Mick Donovan had offered her a place to stay. They had talked at the funeral of Craig’s father, who died in November.”

Matthews then insisted she had not asked Donovan to take Shannon on February 19.

The source added: “It seems he was acting alone in that respect. What is clear is that Karen, soon after Shannon went missing, knew where her daughter was. She was too ashamed to tell the truth.”

During her daughter’s disappearance, Matthews made a number of tearful appeals for her daughter’s safe return.

Hundreds of people on the sprawling Dewsbury Moor estate offered to help in the search. It was Matthews who alerted the police when Shannon failed to return home three hours after a school swimming trip.

In the 999 call, she told the operator she had looked “everywhere I can think of”.

A spokesman for the McCanns confirmed they had received approaches from “people purporting to be members of Shannon’s family” for donations from the Find Madeleine Fund, but said it had been decided not to get involved.

Farrah Johnson, who played a key role in the local campaign to find Shannon, said on being told of the allegations: “It is disgusting and I am sick with anger.

“We all neglected our own children for weeks to help look for Shannon and now this has happened. It is unforgivable.”

Craig Meehan was charged with allegedly having 130 child porn pictures on his computer. None are of Shannon and he has not been charged in connection with Shannon’s kidnap.

His mother, Alice Meehan, 49, was arrested on suspicion of attempting to pervert the course of justice on Friday. Amanda Hyett, 25, of Moorside Road, Dewsbury, has also been arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender. Both have been bailed. Donovan is due to stand trial in November.

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/40551/Mum-I-always-knew-where-Shannon-was-

So Jaded

April 12th, 2008, 09:57 AM

SHANNON Matthews’ mum was banged up on a prison’s isolation wing last night after lags put a bounty on her head – of 10 cigarettes.

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/view/34772/Price-on-head-of-Shannon-s-Mum-Handful-of-fags-is-prison-Bounty/

Hell...I'll throw in a CARTON!

Unamused Cat

April 12th, 2008, 03:05 PM