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width="1" height="1" //divpThe mother of Shannon Matthews was told she faced a substantial jail
term yesterday after she was found guilty of kidnapping her daughter, holding her drugged in a
relative's flat, then calling police and making a series of tearful TV appeals./ppKaren Matthews,
33, will be sentenced after Christmas with her co-defendant, Michael Donovan, 40, who was found
hiding with the nine-year-old in his flat 24 days after she failed to return from a school swimming
trip in Dewsbury in February./ppThey triggered a pound;3.2m police hunt, the largest operation by
West Yorkshire police since the Yorkshire Ripper inquiry./ppHaving acted out a plan which police
believe may have been inspired by the search for Madeleine McCann, both were found guilty at Leeds
crown court of kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice./ppBefore sending
them down, Mr Justice McCombe told both that they faced "substantial custodial sentences".
/ppOutside court, neighbours and police condemned the cruelty and waste of resources caused by a
scam aimed at stealing pound;50,000 in reward money for finding Shannon. Julie Bushby, chair of the
residents and tenants association on the Moorside estate where Matthews lived with her partner,
Craig Meehan, said: "She's let us down. The tears she cried when she did those appeals on TV and
when she gave evidence in court were crocodile tears. As for Michael Donovan, he's just
weird."/ppDetective Superintendent Andy Brennan, who led the investigation, said: "Karen Matthews
is pure evil. She started deceiving those closest to her from the very moment that Shannon was
kidnapped. /pp"It is difficult to understand what type of mother would subject her own daughter to
such a wicked and evil crime. She is a manipulative individual who has demonstrated a remarkable
ability to lie. /pp"Michael Donovan is an accomplished liar. Following his arrest and during this
trial, he has attempted to portray himself as a weak-willed individual who only acted under duress.
We have never accepted this as an accurate reflection of his involvement in Shannon's
kidnapping."/ppThe pair will be sentenced after psychiatric and social services reports which are
likely to include events before the fake kidnap. The trial heard forensic evidence that Shannon had
been given the sedative temazepam and the travel sickness tablets Traveleeze, both used to drug her
at Donovan's flat, as early as May 2006 and on at least three occasions prior to the kidnap./ppFor
24 days, the hunt for Shannon Matthews was a repeat of the search for Madeleine McCann. Detectives
abandoned murder inquiries to join the team and hundreds of local people took part. /ppThen, to the
astonishment of even the hardened murder specialist heading the police inquiry, the woman at the
heart of it turned out to be the kidnap's organiser. "Get Karen down here!" yelled Donovan as
police dragged him from his flat in Batley Carr, a mile and a half from Shannon's home, after
finding the girl hidden under a bed. "We'd got a plan. We're sharing the money -
pound;50,000."/ppAt that moment, in Leeds, a mobile beeped for Brennan, who was explaining the lack
of progress to members of the police authority. "We've found Shannon," was the message from
Detective Constable Paul Kettlewell, one of five officers who broke down Donovan's door./pp"Where's
the body?" asked Brennan, a veteran of more than 20 murder inquiries./pp"No, we've found her alive
and we're on the way to the station," said Kettlewell./pp"It stopped me in my tracks," says
Brennan. "I had to get straight over to Dewsbury to see her physically to reassure myself." He
walked into a room where Shannon was playing with some toys, and she smiled and said hello. Brennan
recalls: "I smiled back and said hello myself. That was all that needed to be said. We'd rescued a
kidnapped, nine-year-old child and police work doesn't get any better."/ppDuring questioning, Karen
Matthews and Donovan came up with six contradictory explanations and were branded, respectively, a
"consummate liar" and a "pathetic inadequate" by QCs in court./pp"Basically, we've had two prolific
liars who are giving wildly different views. Which one do you believe?" says Brennan. "But in the
end, they've either got to knock down our evidence or blame one another. Blaming is what they
did."/ppDonovan's wild cries as he was bundled into a police van by officers - who found a
restraining leash in his flat and a set of "kidnap rules" to keep Shannon quiet - were soon borne
out by events. Shannon was offered the chance to see her mother after her rescue, but turned it
down. For her part, Karen told the officer who broke the good news to her: "I like the ringtone on
your mobile" - then went shopping./ppMatthews was arrested after breaking down during a routine car
trip with a police support officer, and babbling that she had asked Donovan, who is Meehan's uncle,
to look after Shannon as part of a plot to get away from his nephew, but "everything went
wrong"./ppIn court, the prosecuting counsel, Julian Goose QC, made effective use of film clips of
Karen Matthews' tearful TV appeals, which he contrasted with evidence from neighbours and police
liaison officers of her nonchalance when the media were not watching. In the middle of more than
three hours of evidence punctuated by sobs, Matthews was read details of how she laughed and joked
with her boyfriend immediately afterwards. It was, said Goose, a cruel charade./ppDonovan's
defence, Alan Conrad QC, was equally scathing, urging the jury to draw the obvious lesson from
Matthews' style in both the witness box and during the long search for her daughter. After the
court had watched a TV appeal where she begged a supposed abductor: "If anyone has got my daughter,
my beautiful princess daughter, let her come home", Conrad turned on her. "You can play for the
cameras and play for the court, can't you?" he said, to more tears./ppThere were major weaknesses
in the prosecution case: no forensic evidence to link Matthews to the flat where Shannon was
imprisoned, and police doubted that Donovan had the wit to carry out a kidnap. But there was
evidence the kidnappers desired a reward./ppDonovan spoke of planning to release Shannon and then
"find" her in Dewsbury market, and a copy of the Sun with the reward money edging up to
pound;50,000 was carefully folded in his flat./pp"I believe that they were going to hold out until
they got to pound;50,000," says Brennan. "And though there's no direct evidence that this case
mirrored the McCann one, you can see the possibility. Madeleine was still fresh in everyone's
minds. A young, pretty girl was being looked for in Portugal, and Shannon was a photogenic girl
missing here in Dewsbury. You can see why two and two was put together."/ppDonovan evaded the
police search for three weeks because of his web of aliases. It was an extended family member who
alerted the inquiry team, after Donovan rang him to ask if he had been interviewed by detectives.
"Yes," he said. "Well don't put them on to me," said Donovan. The man rang the police who were,
naturally, instantly suspicious./pp"We'd just got Donovan on our list, at 18th in the tally of
suspects, some of whom were family members but the vast majority not," says Brennan. "We'd have
called on him in the next few days but after that call, he became Friday's priority. Friday was
March 14, the day that Shannon was found."/ppIn court, Karen Matthews sprayed allegations at her
family, particularly Meehan's relations, suggesting that they were the real plotters. She was just
the chosen fall-guy, she claimed, because unlike most of them she had no criminal record and "would
get off lightly" if the scam failed./ppBrennan doesn't hide his scepticism, but says: "If any
evidence comes to light suggesting others are involved, we will pursue it. If we discover anything
more, we will deal with it, you can be sure." /ppThe story of Shannon Matthews may not be over
yet./ph2Stranger than fiction?/h2pWidespread rumours that an episode of the TV series Shameless
might have inspired the kidnap plot were dismissed by the head of the police inquiry, Det Supt Andy
Brennan. "I'd have picked up that straight away," he said. "I was born in Gorton in Manchester
where Shameless is made." /ppAn episode shown a month before Shannon disappeared involved the fake
kidnap of a young boy, Liam Gallagher, in an attempt to claim a pound;500,000 ransom. The child was
hidden a few doors away from his home, with a friend of his sister. Links between the programme,
which attracted 2.5 million viewers, never came up in evidence either during the trial or in
statements to police. Neither did the case of Madeleine McCann, which dominated headlines for
months before Shannon disappeared./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom:
10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/shannon-matthews-kidnap"Shannon Matthews
kidnap/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/ukcrime"Crime/a/li/ul/diva
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