Disappearance of Shannon Matthews
Encyclopedia
Shannon Louise Matthews is a British girl who disappeared on the afternoon of 19 February 2008 in Dewsbury
, West Yorkshire
, England
. The search for her became a major missing person
police operation which was compared to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
. She was found on 14 March 2008 at a house in Batley Carr
, a short distance from Dewsbury. The house belonged to 39-year-old Michael Donovan, uncle of Craig Meehan - the boyfriend of Shannon's mother. Meehan was convicted on several accounts of possessing child pornography
.
Donovan - also known as Paul Drake - was arrested at the scene, and charged with kidnapping
and false imprisonment
. Karen Matthews, Shannon's mother, was charged with child neglect
and perverting the course of justice
, on 8 April 2008. The joint trial of Donovan and Matthews at Leeds Crown Court
commenced on 11 November 2008 and concluded on 4 December with both defendants found guilty of kidnapping, false imprisonment, and perverting the course of justice. They were both given eight-year prison sentences.
, after a visit to the Dewsbury Sports Centre swimming pool. The aschool is about half a mile from her home.
The investigation was led by Detective Superintendent
Andy Brennan. The West Yorkshire Police
questioned 1,500 motorists and searched 3,000 houses. By 5 March, more than 250 officers and 60 detectives were involved in the investigation, about 10% of West Yorkshire Police's operational strength. This became the largest police search for a missing person since the Yorkshire Ripper
investigation 30 years previously. Of 27 specialist victim recovery dogs
in the United Kingdom, 16 were involved in the search.
newspaper offered a reward of £20,000 for information leading to Shannon's safe return. It was increased to £50,000 on 10 March. A business in Huddersfield
- nine miles from Dewsbury - offered £5,000.
The West Yorkshire Police created a web page, 'Missing Shannon Matthews Appeal', to assist in the search and on 7 March, used it to release a photograph of Shannon. The police released the 999 call
made by Karen Matthews reporting the disappearance. An official website, 'Help Us Find Shannon', including the Shannon Matthews Appeal, was launched on 11 March. Both websites were removed following the discovery of Shannon.
, in the guardian.co.uk
blog, explained it by stating that "Overarching everything is social class" but added that Matthews going missing in the UK made a difference. The Independent
took the same line saying "Kate and Gerry McCann had a lot: they were a couple of nice middle-class doctors on holiday in an upmarket resort... Karen Matthews is not as elegant, nor as eloquent".
The Times
noted that the local community had pulled together but that the hunt appeared less newsworthy than the most minor developments in the search for Madeleine McCann. The Brisbane Times
said that Karen Matthews and Kate McCann represented two sides of the social class coin in Britain. The Daily Telegraph
speculated that had Shannon been part of a middle-class family, in which articulate parents were conversant with the mechanics of mobilising a slick public awareness campaign, then more public attention would have been focused on the effort to find her.
Shannon's mother, Karen Matthews, said on GMTV
on 7 March, that her boyfriend Craig Meehan was not involved and he "would not hurt anybody". Meehan was defended by Shannon's father, Leon Rose. Nonetheless, Matthews and her boyfriend, in an interview on Radio 4's Today programme
on 12 March, were questioned on suggestions by her parents that Meehan had been violent towards Shannon and on Karen having seven children by at least five fathers (Two of the children were registered as unknown). Commenting on the interview, The Independent said that the case had developed a cruel overtone and that such questions went far beyond necessity and lifted the lid on an uncomfortable hypocrisy in British society.
in Lidgate Gardens, Batley Carr. Michael Donovan, 39, was arrested at the scene.
Shannon was placed under Police Protection by the West Yorkshire Police and cared for by the Social Services
. The police exercised powers under section 46 of the Children Act 1989
which allows a child to remain subject to police protection for 72 hours. Shannon ceased to be subject to police protection on 17 March 2008. Since then Shannon has remained in the care of Kirklees Family Services on a voluntary basis.
On 15 March the police reported that Shannon had started on the road to recovery after her ordeal. Specially trained officers questionned her to establish what had happened. The questioning, which lasted for several weeks, took place in ten-minute sessions at a special children's suite resembling a classroom.
A film of the Matthews familys' search for Shannon, and her homecoming, was shown in an episode of the Channel 4
documentary series Cutting Edge
on 20 March.
Craig Meehan, was arrested on 2 April, on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children
after police had examined computers in the home. He was remanded in custody, by Dewsbury Magistrates Court, at a hearing on 3 April charged with 11 offences of possessing indecent images of children. On 18 April 2008 Meehan pleaded not guilty, and elected to be tried by magistrate rather than a jury. On 16 September 2008, Meehan was convicted by Dewsbury Magistrates of 11 counts of possessing child pornography, relating to 49 images of level one, two, three and four found stored on his computer after it was seized by police from the house he lived in with the Matthews, on Moorside Road, Dewsbury. On the same day, he was sentenced to 20 weeks imprisonment. He was released that day as he had spent longer on remand than the length of the sentence.
Karen Matthews, was arrested on 6 April on suspicion of attempting to pervert the course of justice. She was charged with child neglect and perverting the course of justice, on 8 April. At a hearing on 5 September 2008, she was also charged with kidnapping
and false imprisonment
.
Amanda Hyett, Craig Meehan's sister, was arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender, on 4 April 2008. Alice Meehan, mother of Craig Meehan and sister of Michael Donovan, was arrested on suspicion of attempting to pervert the course of justice, on 4 April. Both Amanda Hyett and Alice Meehan were released on police bail on 4 April but were rearrested with Meehan's sister Caroline, on 10 April and held on suspicion of perverting the course of justice before being released on bail.
The police announced they were investigating approaches to the Madeleine McCann fund, for money to assist the search for Shannon on 8 April.
Karen Matthews was remanded to face trial alongside Donovan in November 2008.
On 24 September 2008, it was reported that Craig Meehan had attempted suicide more than once and his mother had talked him out of it.
On 13 November, Detective Constable Mark Cruddace and Detective Superintendent Andy Brennan gave evidence at Leeds Crown Court
. A forensic toxicologist
told the court that tests on Shannon's hair indicated she had been given Temazepam
, for up to 20 months prior to her disappearance.
Michael Donovan claimed that Karen Matthews had asked him to look after Shannon for several days and that they would make money from newspaper rewards. He told the court that Karen Matthews had threatened him with violence.
On 27 November Karen Matthews gave evidence. Sobbing throughout, she denied having anything to do with her daughter's disappearance, claiming that Craig Meehan, told her to 'take the blame' for what had happened. She said she did so because she was scared of him.
In cross-examination, Julian Goose QC said that she had told police a total of five versions of the story and accused her of "telling lie after lie, after lie".
On 4 December 2008 Karen Matthews and Michael Donovan were found guilty of kidnapping, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice. The plan had been for Michael Donovan to release Shannon Matthews at Dewsbury Market, drive around the corner to 'discover her' then take her to a police station and claim the £50,000 reward. This would then be split between Karen Matthews and Donovan.
On 23 January 2009, Matthews and Donovan were both sentenced to eight years in prison.
Panorama
special: Shannon: The Mother Of All Lies was broadcast on the night of the trial verdict, (4 December 2008), about the disappearance and investigation, featuring the testimony of friends of the family and the police. The special was watched by 5.6 million viewers.
On 18 May 2009, an ITV
programme, Tears, Lies and Videotape, documented cases of people who manipulated the media for their own personal attention. The Shannon Matthews case was the main focus of the show.
Comedy act Kunt and the Gang
recorded a concept album based on the story, Shannon Matthews: The Musical, it went on sale in October 2010 on the Club Tuppence label.
Dewsbury
Dewsbury is a minster town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England. It is to the west of Wakefield, east of Huddersfield and south of Leeds...
, West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. The search for her became a major missing person
Missing person
A missing person is a person who has disappeared for usually unknown reasons.Missing persons' photographs may be posted on bulletin boards, milk cartons, postcards, and websites, along with a phone number to be contacted if a sighting has been made....
police operation which was compared to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
Disappearance of Madeleine McCann
Madeleine McCann disappeared on the evening of Thursday, 3 May 2007. She was on holiday with her parents and twin siblings in the Algarve region of Portugal. The British girl went missing from an apartment, in the central area of the resort of Praia da Luz, a few days before her fourth...
. She was found on 14 March 2008 at a house in Batley Carr
Batley Carr
Batley Carr, West Yorkshire, England is primarily a council estate in Batley, on the way to Dewsbury, along the A652, Bradford Road. The population is about 3,740. Crime is around the national average....
, a short distance from Dewsbury. The house belonged to 39-year-old Michael Donovan, uncle of Craig Meehan - the boyfriend of Shannon's mother. Meehan was convicted on several accounts of possessing child pornography
Child pornography
Child pornography refers to images or films and, in some cases, writings depicting sexually explicit activities involving a child...
.
Donovan - also known as Paul Drake - was arrested at the scene, and charged with kidnapping
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
and false imprisonment
False imprisonment
False imprisonment is a restraint of a person in a bounded area without justification or consent. False imprisonment is a common-law felony and a tort. It applies to private as well as governmental detention...
. Karen Matthews, Shannon's mother, was charged with child neglect
Child neglect
Child neglect is defined as:# "the failure of a person responsible for a child’s care and upbringing to safeguard the child’s emotional and physical health and general well-being"...
and perverting the course of justice
Perverting the course of justice
Perverting the course of justice, in English, Canadian , and Irish law, is a criminal offence in which someone prevents justice from being served on himself or on another party...
, on 8 April 2008. The joint trial of Donovan and Matthews at Leeds Crown Court
Leeds Crown Court
Leeds Crown Court is the highest court in West Yorkshire, England. The buildings are situated in Westgate in Leeds city centre, adjacent to Leeds magistrates courts.-Notable cases:...
commenced on 11 November 2008 and concluded on 4 December with both defendants found guilty of kidnapping, false imprisonment, and perverting the course of justice. They were both given eight-year prison sentences.
Investigation
Before her disappearance, Shannon was last seen at 15:10 on 19 February 2008, outside her school, Westmoor Junior School, Dewsbury MoorDewsbury Moor
Dewsbury Moor is a district of Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, England. It lies to the west of the Dewsbury town centre. The population is around 5,650. Crime rates are higher than the national average....
, after a visit to the Dewsbury Sports Centre swimming pool. The aschool is about half a mile from her home.
The investigation was led by Detective Superintendent
Superintendent (police)
Superintendent , often shortened to "super", is a rank in British police services and in most English-speaking Commonwealth nations. In many Commonwealth countries the full version is superintendent of police...
Andy Brennan. The West Yorkshire Police
West Yorkshire Police
West Yorkshire Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing West Yorkshire in England. It is the fourth largest force in England and Wales by number of officers, with 5671 officers....
questioned 1,500 motorists and searched 3,000 houses. By 5 March, more than 250 officers and 60 detectives were involved in the investigation, about 10% of West Yorkshire Police's operational strength. This became the largest police search for a missing person since the Yorkshire Ripper
Peter Sutcliffe
Peter William Sutcliffe is a British serial killer who was dubbed "The Yorkshire Ripper". In 1981 Sutcliffe was convicted of murdering 13 women and attacking seven others. He is currently serving 20 sentences of life imprisonment in Broadmoor Hospital...
investigation 30 years previously. Of 27 specialist victim recovery dogs
Detection dog
A detection dog or sniffer dog is a dog that is trained to and works at using its senses to detect substances such as explosives, illegal drugs, or blood. Hunting dogs that search for game and search dogs that search for missing humans are generally not considered detection dogs...
in the United Kingdom, 16 were involved in the search.
Publicity
The SunThe Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
newspaper offered a reward of £20,000 for information leading to Shannon's safe return. It was increased to £50,000 on 10 March. A business in Huddersfield
Huddersfield
Huddersfield is a large market town within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England, situated halfway between Leeds and Manchester. It lies north of London, and south of Bradford, the nearest city....
- nine miles from Dewsbury - offered £5,000.
The West Yorkshire Police created a web page, 'Missing Shannon Matthews Appeal', to assist in the search and on 7 March, used it to release a photograph of Shannon. The police released the 999 call
999 (emergency telephone number)
999 is an official emergency telephone number in a number of countries which allows the caller to contact emergency services for urgent assistance....
made by Karen Matthews reporting the disappearance. An official website, 'Help Us Find Shannon', including the Shannon Matthews Appeal, was launched on 11 March. Both websites were removed following the discovery of Shannon.
Media reaction
A comparison was drawn between the publicity given to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann with a much lower level of publicity for Matthews in early March 2008. Roy GreensladeRoy Greenslade
Roy Greenslade is Professor of Journalism at City University London and has been a media commentator since 1992, most notably for The Guardian....
, in the guardian.co.uk
Guardian.co.uk
guardian.co.uk, formerly known as Guardian Unlimited, is a British website owned by the Guardian Media Group. Georgina Henry is the editor...
blog, explained it by stating that "Overarching everything is social class" but added that Matthews going missing in the UK made a difference. The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
took the same line saying "Kate and Gerry McCann had a lot: they were a couple of nice middle-class doctors on holiday in an upmarket resort... Karen Matthews is not as elegant, nor as eloquent".
The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
noted that the local community had pulled together but that the hunt appeared less newsworthy than the most minor developments in the search for Madeleine McCann. The Brisbane Times
Brisbane Times
Brisbane Times is an Internet-based news site for Brisbane and Queensland, Australia. It was launched on 7 March 2007 by then-Queensland Premier Peter Beattie....
said that Karen Matthews and Kate McCann represented two sides of the social class coin in Britain. The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
speculated that had Shannon been part of a middle-class family, in which articulate parents were conversant with the mechanics of mobilising a slick public awareness campaign, then more public attention would have been focused on the effort to find her.
Shannon's mother, Karen Matthews, said on GMTV
GMTV
GMTV was the national Channel 3 breakfast television contractor, broadcasting in the United Kingdom from 1 January 1993 to 3 September 2010. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of ITV plc. in November 2009. Shortly after, ITV plc announced the programme would end...
on 7 March, that her boyfriend Craig Meehan was not involved and he "would not hurt anybody". Meehan was defended by Shannon's father, Leon Rose. Nonetheless, Matthews and her boyfriend, in an interview on Radio 4's Today programme
Today programme
Today is BBC Radio 4's long-running early morning news and current affairs programme, now broadcast from 6.00 am to 9.00 am Monday to Friday, and 7.00 am to 9.00 am on Saturdays. It is also the most popular programme on Radio 4 and one of the BBC's most popular programmes across its radio networks...
on 12 March, were questioned on suggestions by her parents that Meehan had been violent towards Shannon and on Karen having seven children by at least five fathers (Two of the children were registered as unknown). Commenting on the interview, The Independent said that the case had developed a cruel overtone and that such questions went far beyond necessity and lifted the lid on an uncomfortable hypocrisy in British society.
Discovery
West Yorkshire Police found Shannon alive at 12:30 on 14 March 2008, 24 days after going missing. She was concealed in the base of a divan bed in a flatApartment
An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...
in Lidgate Gardens, Batley Carr. Michael Donovan, 39, was arrested at the scene.
Shannon was placed under Police Protection by the West Yorkshire Police and cared for by the Social Services
Social work
Social Work is a professional and academic discipline that seeks to improve the quality of life and wellbeing of an individual, group, or community by intervening through research, policy, community organizing, direct practice, and teaching on behalf of those afflicted with poverty or any real or...
. The police exercised powers under section 46 of the Children Act 1989
Children Act 1989
The Children Act 1989 is a British Act of Parliament that altered the law in regard to children. In particular, it introduced the notion of parental responsibility. Later laws amended certain parts of the Children Act...
which allows a child to remain subject to police protection for 72 hours. Shannon ceased to be subject to police protection on 17 March 2008. Since then Shannon has remained in the care of Kirklees Family Services on a voluntary basis.
On 15 March the police reported that Shannon had started on the road to recovery after her ordeal. Specially trained officers questionned her to establish what had happened. The questioning, which lasted for several weeks, took place in ten-minute sessions at a special children's suite resembling a classroom.
A film of the Matthews familys' search for Shannon, and her homecoming, was shown in an episode of the Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
documentary series Cutting Edge
Cutting Edge (Channel 4 TV series)
Cutting Edge is a British TV documentary series broadcast by Channel 4, it has been its flagship documentary series since 1990 that focuses on political and social issues.-Graham Taylor: The Impossible Job:Original airdate: 24 January 1994...
on 20 March.
Post-kidnap pre-trial events
Michael Donovan, uncle of Karen Matthews' boyfriend, was charged with kidnapping and false imprisonment on 17 March 200. Donovan appeared before Dewsbury magistrates on 18 March, and was remanded in custody. He appeared at Leeds Crown Court, via a video link from his prison cell, on 26 March. The provisional trial date was fixed for 11 November.Craig Meehan, was arrested on 2 April, on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children
Child pornography
Child pornography refers to images or films and, in some cases, writings depicting sexually explicit activities involving a child...
after police had examined computers in the home. He was remanded in custody, by Dewsbury Magistrates Court, at a hearing on 3 April charged with 11 offences of possessing indecent images of children. On 18 April 2008 Meehan pleaded not guilty, and elected to be tried by magistrate rather than a jury. On 16 September 2008, Meehan was convicted by Dewsbury Magistrates of 11 counts of possessing child pornography, relating to 49 images of level one, two, three and four found stored on his computer after it was seized by police from the house he lived in with the Matthews, on Moorside Road, Dewsbury. On the same day, he was sentenced to 20 weeks imprisonment. He was released that day as he had spent longer on remand than the length of the sentence.
Karen Matthews, was arrested on 6 April on suspicion of attempting to pervert the course of justice. She was charged with child neglect and perverting the course of justice, on 8 April. At a hearing on 5 September 2008, she was also charged with kidnapping
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
and false imprisonment
False imprisonment
False imprisonment is a restraint of a person in a bounded area without justification or consent. False imprisonment is a common-law felony and a tort. It applies to private as well as governmental detention...
.
Amanda Hyett, Craig Meehan's sister, was arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender, on 4 April 2008. Alice Meehan, mother of Craig Meehan and sister of Michael Donovan, was arrested on suspicion of attempting to pervert the course of justice, on 4 April. Both Amanda Hyett and Alice Meehan were released on police bail on 4 April but were rearrested with Meehan's sister Caroline, on 10 April and held on suspicion of perverting the course of justice before being released on bail.
The police announced they were investigating approaches to the Madeleine McCann fund, for money to assist the search for Shannon on 8 April.
Karen Matthews was remanded to face trial alongside Donovan in November 2008.
On 24 September 2008, it was reported that Craig Meehan had attempted suicide more than once and his mother had talked him out of it.
Trial
In November 2008, the BBC reported that the trial heard evidence that Shannon had been drugged to subdue her whilst held. "The jury was told Shannon was drugged and restrained with a strap tied to a roof beam after her mother hatched a plan to make £50,000 from her faked kidnap. The jury was told Shannon was kept locked in a flat for 24 days by Michael Donovan, who police believe used an elasticated strap with a noose on the end to tether her when he went out."On 13 November, Detective Constable Mark Cruddace and Detective Superintendent Andy Brennan gave evidence at Leeds Crown Court
Leeds Crown Court
Leeds Crown Court is the highest court in West Yorkshire, England. The buildings are situated in Westgate in Leeds city centre, adjacent to Leeds magistrates courts.-Notable cases:...
. A forensic toxicologist
Forensic toxicology
Forensic toxicology is the use of toxicology and other disciplines such as analytical chemistry, pharmacology and clinical chemistry to aid medical or legal investigation of death, poisoning, and drug use...
told the court that tests on Shannon's hair indicated she had been given Temazepam
Temazepam
Temazepam is an intermediate-acting 3-hydroxy benzodiazepine. It is mostly prescribed for the short-term treatment of sleeplessness in patients who have difficulty maintaining sleep...
, for up to 20 months prior to her disappearance.
Michael Donovan claimed that Karen Matthews had asked him to look after Shannon for several days and that they would make money from newspaper rewards. He told the court that Karen Matthews had threatened him with violence.
On 27 November Karen Matthews gave evidence. Sobbing throughout, she denied having anything to do with her daughter's disappearance, claiming that Craig Meehan, told her to 'take the blame' for what had happened. She said she did so because she was scared of him.
In cross-examination, Julian Goose QC said that she had told police a total of five versions of the story and accused her of "telling lie after lie, after lie".
On 4 December 2008 Karen Matthews and Michael Donovan were found guilty of kidnapping, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice. The plan had been for Michael Donovan to release Shannon Matthews at Dewsbury Market, drive around the corner to 'discover her' then take her to a police station and claim the £50,000 reward. This would then be split between Karen Matthews and Donovan.
On 23 January 2009, Matthews and Donovan were both sentenced to eight years in prison.
In the media
A BBC OneBBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
Panorama
Panorama (TV series)
Panorama is a BBC Television current affairs documentary programme, which was first broadcast in 1953, and is the longest-running public affairs television programme in the world. Panorama has been presented by many well known BBC presenters, including Richard Dimbleby, Robin Day, David Dimbleby...
special: Shannon: The Mother Of All Lies was broadcast on the night of the trial verdict, (4 December 2008), about the disappearance and investigation, featuring the testimony of friends of the family and the police. The special was watched by 5.6 million viewers.
On 18 May 2009, an ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
programme, Tears, Lies and Videotape, documented cases of people who manipulated the media for their own personal attention. The Shannon Matthews case was the main focus of the show.
Comedy act Kunt and the Gang
Kunt and the Gang
Kunt and the Gang are a musical comedy act based in Basildon, Essex, following in the tradition of 80s Basildon-based electronic pop acts Depeche Mode and Yazoo....
recorded a concept album based on the story, Shannon Matthews: The Musical, it went on sale in October 2010 on the Club Tuppence label.