Ten years after the fake kidnapping of nine-year-old Shannon Matthews, her mother Karen has claimed she is “not Britain’s worst mum”.
The 43-year-old was found guilty of false imprisonment, kidnap and perverting the course of justice, serving four years of an eight-year prison sentence, but still claims she is innocent.
What happened to Shannon Matthews in 2008?
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On the afternoon of 19 February, nine-year-old Shannon Matthews was reported missing, having apparently disappeared walking the half-mile between her school and the home she shared with her mother Karen and three siblings in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.
Her ”kidnapping“ sparked a massive manhunt which saw ten per cent of West Yorkshire’s police working on the case and concerned locals joining search parties and holding vigils.
Matthews was at the forefront of the appeal, making tearful appearances in front of news cameras pleading for her daughter’s safe return.
However, on 14 March, events took an unexpected turn. Following a tip-off from neighbours, police raided the nearby home of Michael Donovan, the uncle of Karen’s boyfriend, and found Shannon hidden in the base of a divan bed. The girl was unharmed, but had been drugged and tethered to limit her movement during her 24-day captivity.
When confronted by police, Donovan confessed that he and Matthews had planned the abduction in a scheme to get reward money. He planned to eventually release Shannon and then “find” her, splitting the reward.
What was the reaction at the time?
Before the abduction was unmasked, several commentators wrote about the apparent lack of fanfare around the Matthews case compared with that surrounding Madeleine McCann, who had disappeared the previous year.
The Independent’s Cole Moreton said the fact that a celebrity-backed appeal to find Madeleine raised £2.6m in reward money, compared to £25,000 raised for Shannon, reflected the UK’s lingering class prejudice. Kate and Gerry McCann “were a couple of nice middle-class doctors on holiday in an upmarket resort”, while single mum Matthews and her family were “complicated, and working-class”, living in one of the most deprived areas of the country, he said.
The apparent discrepancy in media coverage even made international news, with the Brisbane Times saying the cases represented “two sides of the social class coin in Britain”.
What happened to the Matthews family?
Matthews denied any involvement in her daughter’s abduction but, along with Donovan, was found guilty and sentenced to eight years in prison. The judge called their scheme “truly despicable”.
Shannon, now 19, was taken into care, along with her three siblings, and placed with a foster family. She is said to live under an assumed name.
Donovan was released in 2012, after serving half his sentence. A week later, Matthews was released from prison on licence. She now lives in the south of England and works as a volunteer in a Christian charity shop.
She became a born-again Christian, but stopped going to church as she was “getting grief” once people identified her, and says she lives in a one-bedroom basement flat with her budgie Bob.
Speaking to the Daily Mirror this week, she said: “I’m not Britain’s worst mum. I didn’t kill anybody. Baby P’s mum and Maxine Carr don’t get the abuse that I do.
“None of it’s true. I’m on the edge. It makes me want to kill myself but I’d never do that. I’m scared I’ll die lonely and alone.”
She claims she was made a “scapegoat” and was not involved. However, the Mirror notes that “in another interview she claimed she knew where Shannon was after she had been snatched – contradicting her own story”.
