The kidnapping of Shannon Matthews
Updated on 04 December 2008
Nick Martin writes on events behind the kidnapping of Shannon Matthews and the people who did it.
The Dewsbury Moor Estate sits on the side of a steep hill overlooking the factories and terraced houses below.
On a clear day there are views of the Yorkshire moors and at night white and red lights from the traffic on the motorway stream across the horizon.
The estate is made up of two hundred red brick semis that have had freshly painted green gates and brand new front doors thanks to millions in regeneration money.
Children clamber over the newly built playgrounds and parents don't have to worry now that the roads have been partly pedestrianised and marked 'home zones'.
The Dewsbury Moor estate is a pretty typical council estate in Britain.
It was home to Shannon Matthews, the schoolgirl at centre of a bizarre story.
She lived with her mother Karen, her stepfather Craig Meehan and her brothers and sisters. In February this year, they were about to become one of the most talked about families of 2008. They would attract sympathy and speculation, prejudice and anger.
The residents of the Dewsbury Moor Estate would find themselves at the centre of a strange tale too - a tale of deception and greed. As a group they would become the unwitting victims of that deception.
First of many lies
When Karen Matthews called 999 to report her daughter missing on 19 February no-one, not even Ms Matthews herself, could have imagined the scale of what was to come.
"I'd like to report my daughter as missing," Karen Matthews told the operator, a quiver in her voice revealing what any mother would be feeling; helplessness, blind panic, despair. But it's likely that Karen Matthews felt none of these as she uttered the first of many lies.
A day later we were dispatched to Dewsbury to cover the story. I was standing outside 24 Moorside Road waiting for Karen Matthews to come out of her house because we were told she wanted to make an appeal through the media.
The time was 7.30pm when she emerged from the house and walked slowly down to the garden gate where a huddle of anxious journalists was waiting. She was wearing a grey hooded sweater, her auburn hair scraped back and her hands shaking.
For Karen Matthews there was no going back now as the bright lights of the TV cameras plunged her into the spotlight.
The act
I stood next to Karen Matthews at the gate and told her not to worry about the cameras, to just talk. I held the microphone up, and listened as she made her appeal.
"If anyone's got my daughter, my beautiful princess daughter, bring her home, please," she pleaded.
Her eyes were red and she sounded upset, but there were no tears.
The 33-year-old was acting to the cameras and she knew all along where Shannon was because she had planned it.
Nobody knew that at the time, not even her close friend
Petra Jamieson, a mother of four who lived a few doors down from Karen Matthews.
"To me she didn't come across as knowing anything about where Shannon was or who had Shannon. She just seemed to be worried and wanting to know where her daughter was."
The community
On the night Shannon went missing the temperature in Dewsbury was minus 4 - the coldest part of Britain that night. The residents gathered together with torches and sticks search for the schoolgirl, their shouts of "Shannon" fading as they disappeared into the darkness.
Bins, back gardens, lofts and sheds were searched. And this level of community support was sustained throughout the time that Shannon was missing.
An impressive collective effort, the court heard during the trial. Even the judge said he was impressed when he heard what the community had done.
For three weeks Karen Matthews lied to police and her friends. She invited the cameras into her house, she spoke to reporters and wore 'Help Find Shannon' T-shirts and accepted gifts but said nothing.
The fantasist
All along Shannon was sitting in an upstairs flat just a mile away. She was with 39-year-old Michael Donovan, the uncle of Shannon's stepfather Craig Meehan.
Michael Donovan was born Paul Drake. He changed his name after watching the 80s TV show 'V' and said he liked the character of Donovan so much he decided to change his name at the age of 16.
With a low IQ, Donovan was deemed special needs at school. He said he'd been bullied most of his early life and that had affected him deeply.
In 1990, whilst working as a delivery driver he was involved in an accident which resulted in an arm injury. He suffered since then from a condition known as Distonia which meant the right side of his body was prone to seizures.
He had been married and had two children. But the marriage had failed because he said his former wife was too controlling and they eventually divorced. He retained custody of his daughters and they lived with him in West Yorkshire. But his physical and mental disabilities meant the eldest daughter was caring for her father. Eventually social services took out a care orders and removed the children.
In November 2007 Donovan took his eldest daughter to Blackpool, checked into a bed and breakfast under a false name, and failed to return her to her foster family.
Police eventually tracked them down, raiding the B&B and discovering Donovan and his daughter hiding. He was arrested and charged with abduction but the case against him was dropped when it reached court.
A year later he would be found hiding again, this time with Shannon Matthews.
In court he was accused of being a compulsive liar, of being a fantasist.
The plot
Nobody knew that Michael Donovan and Karen Matthews had formulated a plan over cups of tea in a Dewsbury café.
The plan was to hide Shannon, report her missing, wait for the reward money to reach £50,000 and then Donovan would release Shannon into Dewsbury Market.
Under the glare of a CCTV camera, Donovan would then 'find' her and head to the police station, collect the reward which he would then share with Karen.
Detective Superintendent Andy Brennan, who led the investigation, said: "The one person that Shannon should have been able to rely on more than any other person was her own mother.
Shannon has been totally betrayed by her mother. Karen's interest and motivation throughout this had not been for Shannon or anybody else it's been for her and getting her hands on £50,000."
Family Liaison Officer Christine Freeman was never very far away from Karen Matthews. She'd been assigned to Karen from the start as the eyes and ears of the investigation. As a local herself she knew the area and its people.
"I would say that early on there were significant inconsistencies in Karen's story," she said.
"At various points she back pedalled, changed her mind, she said that people were putting words in her mouth."
In fact, Karen was becoming tangled in her own lies. She told police FIVE different stories:
VERSION 1: THE DISTRAUGHT MOTHER
When Shannon first went missing Karen Matthews was the victim, the grief stricken mother who knew nothing of Shannon's whereabouts, who simply wanted her daughter back safe and well.
VERSION 2: LEAVING CRAIG:
Karen Matthews claimed that she wanted to leave her partner Craig Meehan and that she had asked Michael Donovan to take Shannon for a few days while she plucked up the courage to leave Craig. But she claimed that she didn't know WHERE Shannon was, just that she was with Donovan.
VERSION 3: ALL CRAIG'S IDEA
As police questioned Karen further she claimed that the whole plot had been concocted by her partner Craig Meehan, his sister Amanda Hyatt and Michael Donovan. Matthews said she was too scared of Craig Meehan to say anything.
VERSION 4: 'FORCED' TO TAKE BLAME
A twist to Version 3, Karen Matthews said it was Craig Meehan, Amanda Hyatt and Michael Donovan but that Craig Meehan had told her to "take the blame" because she was a woman with no previous convictions. And out of fear, she went along with it.
VERSION 5: KNEW NOTHING
In court Karen Matthews told the jury that she knew nothing about the plot to hide Shannon effectively coming full circle in her version of events.
When it emerged that Shannon had been found with a member of her extended family questions began to be asked about the police investigation.
West Yorkshire Police pointed to the fact that there were more than 300 people in Shannon's extended family - and it is this fact alone which the police say delayed identifying Michael Donovan earlier.
When police eventually found their way to his flat in Lidgate Gardens Shannon had been missing for 24 days. They booted the door in, stormed upstairs and found Shannon inside the base of a divan bed. Michael Donovan was with her, folded up in the foetal position. They dragged him from the flat and arrested him.
"Get Karen down here," he told police.
"We've got a plan to make money, we're sharing the money, £50,000."
A clinical 'reunion'
Detective Constable Christine Freeman said:
"I couldn't believe it. I was amazed that Shannon had been found alive. The sense of relief was enormous. When I got to the police station where Shannon had been taken I saw police officers with 30 years service with red eyes where they had been crying, happy that Shannon had been found.
"I met Shannon, I wanted to touch her hand but I couldn't because forensics hadn't examined her."
The shock came when Shannon was eventually examined. She had been drugged with strong sedatives. But she hadn't just been drugged during the 24 days missing, but traces of Temazepam had been found in her hair which showed she'd been drugged for nearly two years.
DC Freemam said she'd heard at the police station what Donovan had said about Karen when he was arrested.
"It was reassured because I had a feeling inside that all was not right but I had to give Karen the benefit of the doubt."
It was a clinical 'reunion' for Karen Matthews and her daughter. Through a one-way mirror Karen was able to officially identify Shannon but go no further.
Fireworks and flashbulbs
The Matthews home was lit up with flashbulbs on the evening of March 14th. The photographers and cameramen were waiting for Karen and Craig to emerge - it was the picture they'd all been waiting for and everyone wanted to see the relief on Karen's face.
It was a reluctant photocall when it eventually happened. Standing shoulder to shoulder with Craig Meehan wearing a black and grey striped jumper Karen didn't smile, she just stared at the cameras.
From the front door friends shouted 'smile' and she did, briefly, before kissing Craig, turning around and disappearing back into the house.
Residents carried crates of lager through the streets; fireworks flew into the sky and lit up the dark fields where only three weeks ago residents had carried out their futile search.
Moorside Road celebrated into the night.
A week later, in DC Freeman's police car with two friends, Karen Matthews broke down and confessed that she knew where Shannon was all along. Karen Matthews was arrested and later charged with abduction.
The trial
At her trial she sat alongside Michael Donovan in the dock with a security guard between them. She showed little emotion throughout as she listened to the evidence against her. But that changed when she spent two days in the witness box, sobbing throughout, wiping tears from her eyes as she denied everything and blamed everyone.
Michael Donovan cut a frail and pathetic figure in the witness box. In a scratchy, low voice Michael Donovan clamed he was threatened with violence, that Karen had forced him into her plot. The jury believed neither returning with guilty. Detective Superintendent Andy Brennan told reporters on the steps of Leeds Crown court that Karen Matthews was "pure evil".
On Moorside Road today Number 24 stands out for many reasons. It was the stage for a show which was played out to the nation.
But when the council returned to the house it was to block up the windows and doors.
Inside, is very much how it was left. The dishes still on the sink and Shannon's teddy still in her room.
But there is no family at Number 24 Moorside Road anymore.
