06 November 2023 , 10:02
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On a grey February day in 2008, the world’s media descended on a close-knit council estate in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, to report the tragic news a nine-year-old girl had gone missing in a case that reminded everyone of the sad disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
Her desperate mother Karen Matthews took to the airwaves to plead for her little girl’s return as the local community came together to search for her day and night. Distraught mum Karen made a series of tearful TV appeals for help in finding her daughter as West Yorkshire Police launched one of the force's largest-ever searches.
Then - 24 days after she was first reported missing - the young girl was found, hidden inside the base of a divan bed in Michael Donovan’s flat, just a mile from Karen's home. The poor girl had been drugged to keep her quiet and put on an elastic leash to prevent her from escaping.
As events unfolded, shocking revelations came to light that the mum, along with her boyfriend's uncle Michael Donovan, had staged Shannon’s kidnapping so they could claim the £50,000 reward for 'finding' her. Here, the Mirror takes a look at what happened to Karen Matthews, who was dubbed Britain's worst mum, and where she is now...
Life behind bars
Karen Matthews spent four years behind bars for plotting the 'kidnap' of Shannon (ANDY STENNING)Karen Matthews, 47, was sentenced to eight years in prison over the kidnap plot in 2009 and was sent to Peterborough prison before being moved to Foston Hall jail in Derbyshire. She told a Mirror reporter she "only missed sex and shopping" and was visited by former neighbour Julie Bushby for around two years.
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Julie, who organised the search for missing Shannon, told how Matthews had transformed her look, cutting her ginger hair short and dying it black in the prison hairdressers. She also described how Matthews would often appear sporting black eyes during visits, claiming she had been attacked by fellow inmates at least six times. During her time behind bars she was exposed for a get-rich-quick scheme writing sexually explicit letters to male admirers from prison.
New life for Karen Matthews
Karen Matthews has been given a new identity and lives in the south (Phil Harris)Police described Matthews as 'pure evil' after she was found guilty of kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice. Her boyfriend at the time, Craig Meehan, was not involved in the kidnapping plot but was convicted for possessing 49 indecent images of children on a home computer in a separate incident. Shannon was raised by a new family under a new identity and is now 25-years-old.
After the mum's release in 2012, Matthews was given a new home and a new identity in the south of England and was told she wasn’t allowed to go anywhere near Dewsbury, or get in touch with Shannon or her six other children who were put into care when she went to jail. Despite being found guilty of snatching Shannon and serving four years of an eight-year sentence, Matthews showed little remorse.
In 2018, she spoke to the Mirror in an unpaid interview still insisting she knew nothing of the kidnapping plot that shocked the nation. The former factory cleaner claimed her notoriety left her unable to get a job which meant she had to survive on £25 a week benefits. Karen landed a job as a carer for an elderly couple but was sacked in June 2019 after reports the wife became suspicious of her friendship with her husband. Speaking out for the first time in an interview with The Mirror in 2018, she said she had "sworn off men", would never get married and was trying to get her life back on track.
Karen with Paul Saunders - a convicted paedophile (MDM)A troubled love life
Sources close to Matthews claimed she started targeting older males after leaving prison, posting profiles on websites for women seeking financial arrangements with men. Then in May 2018, she found a 72-year old sugar daddy, Eric Anderson, to shower her with money and gifts to fund a lavish lifestyle. Eric denied the relationship was sexual saying, "It’s my Christian duty to explain what love is about."
Then over Christmas 2019 Matthews got engaged to Paul Saunders, a handyman she began dating after he did odd jobs for her at her home. It was also reported that she found religion and lost weight, after finding her new boyfriend. She even planned to use a surrogate to have a baby with her partner but they soon split up after news of his background emerged. Sunders had been jailed for five years in 2010 for sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl.
Karen with Shannon's step dad Craig Meehan who didn't have any involvement in the plot (mirror.co.uk)What happened to Shannon's step-dad?
Craig Meehan was sentenced to 20 weeks imprisonment but was released on the same day as he had spent longer on remand than the length of the sentence. The ex-fishmonger, now 30 and with a new name, had no part in the fake abduction but was jailed for indecent images of minors found on his computer.
Meanwhile, Michael Donovan, who was sentenced to eight years but was released early, was snapped by Sunday Mirror reporters outside a coffee shop watching children playing nearby back in 2012. He had been spending six hours a day there and police picked him up after a request from parole officials. He was returned to prison for a brief period. It is not known what happened to him after that.