Karen Matthews guilty of kidnapping Shannon with Michael Donovan

The mother of Shannon Matthews has been convicted, along with her boyfriend’s uncle, of kidnapping her own nine-year-old daughter in an unlikely plot to keep thousands of pounds in reward money.

Karen Matthews hatched the plan with Michael Donovan, who took the schoolgirl to his flat and imprisoned her for 24 days, while her mother made emotional appeals for her return.

The jury at Leeds Crown Court today found the pair guilty of kidnapping, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice. Mr Justice McCombe warned the defendants that they faced a “substantial custodial sentence” before they were led away in custody.

As the jury delivered their verdicts after six hours of deliberation, Matthews stood staring straight forward in the stone-coloured jacket she has worn throughout the proceedings and with her red hair hanging untied over her shoulders.

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Donovan, also in silence, stood a few feet away from her separated by a court security officer. Neither of the defendants showed any emotion as the jury foreman returned the verdicts.

There was also silence from the rest of the court after the judge warned the public gallery that any reaction would see them arrested and taken straight down to the cells.

Petra Jamieson, a close friend and neighbour, said afterwards that she was shocked by the lack of reaction from Matthews: “I was disgusted. She showed absolutely no emotions. I’ve stood by her throughout this but that proves to me that she knew all along.”

Detective Superintendent Andy Brennan, the senior investigating officer from West Yorkshire Police, broke the silence outside the court describing Matthews as “pure evil”.

“She started misleading those closest to her from the moment Shannon was reported missing,” he said. “It is difficult to understand what type of woman would subject her own daughter to such a wicked and evil crime. Karen Matthews is a manipulative individual who has demonstrated a remarkable ability to lie."

The officer said that Donovan was also an “accomplished liar” - not the weak-willed, scared man he attempted to portray in court. “He’s a complete liar and he’s always come across as a sad pathetic individual, but behind that there’s someone who clearly knows what they are doing,” Mr Brennan said.

During the three-week trial, the court heard that Shannon, now 10, went missing on February 19 as she walked home from school.

After a multi-million pound search operation by police, she was found by officers in Donovan’s flat, at Lidgate Gardens, Batley Carr, less than a mile from her home.

Many local residents had joined the hunt and rallied around the Matthews family fearing that Shannon had been abducted by a stranger. Instead Donovan was keeping her drugged and tethered in a plan to claim £50,000 in reward money.

Matthews, 33, from Dewsbury Moor, West Yorkshire, denied the abduction and blamed the crime on her former partner, Craig Meehan, and other members of his family. She said she was “disgusted” by allegations that she was involved in her daughter’s kidnap.

Donovan, 40, who is the uncle of Mr Meehan, claimed that he was scared of Matthews and had only agreed to take Shannon because he feared for his life.

Malcolm Taylor, from the West Yorkshire Crown Prosecution Service, described Shannon’s kidnap as a “cynical plot”.

He said: “Karen Matthews and Michael Donovan seemed honestly to believe that they could stage the disappearance of Matthews’ own daughter and benefit financially from the huge wave of public sympathy that would inevitably follow.

“In the words of prosecuting counsel she lied, and lied and lied again to the police and through the media to the public while Donovan was holding Shannon drugged and helpless less than two miles from her home.

“This was an abuse of public trust, public services, the public purse and worst of all Matthews’ own daughter for personal gain.”