True Crime Collection

Kidnapping of Shannon Matthews

Shannon Louise Matthews was born 9th September 1998. 

9 year old Shannon Matthews was seen at 15:10 on 19th February 2008, outside her school, Westmoor Junior School, Dewsbury Moor, after a visit to the Dewsbury Sports Centre swimming pool. The school was about half a mile from her home. At 18:48 Karen Matthews rang the police to report her daughter missing after she had not returned home from school. The West Yorkshire Police started the search which eventually involved more than 200 officers. 

The investigation into her disappearance was led by Detective Superintendent Andy Brennan. The West Yorkshire Police questioned 1,500 motorists and searched 3,000 houses. By 5th March, more than 250 officers and 60 detectives were involved in the investigation, about 10% of the West Yorkshire force's operational strength. It became the largest police investigation in West Yorkshire since the Yorkshire Ripper case 30 years earlier. Of 27 specialists victim recovery dogs in the UK, 16 were involved in the search.

The Sun newspaper offered a reward of £20,000 for information leading to Shannon's safe return. It was increased to £50,000 on 10th March, by which time she had been missing for 20 days. A business in Huddersfield - nine miles from Dewsbury - offered £5,000.

West Yorkshire Police created a web page, 'Missing Shannon Matthews Appeal', and on 7th March, released a photograph of Shannon on the website. The police released the recording of the 999 call made by Karen reporting Shannon's disappearance. An official website, 'Help Us Find Shannon', including the 'Shannon Matthews Appeal', was launched on 11th March. Both websites were removed after Shannon was found. 

A comparison was drawn between publicity given to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann and the much lower level of publicity for Shannon. Roy Greenslade, writing for The Guardian blog, explained, "Overarching everything is social class" but added that Shannon's disappearance 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 of Madeleine. 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. 

On 7th March, Karen said on ITV's GMTV that she was certain that her 22 year old boyfriend Craig Meehan was not involved in the kidnapping and he "would not hurt anybody". Craig was defended by Shannon's father, Leon Rose. Karen and Craig, in an interview on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on 12th March, were questioned about suggestions by her parents that Craig had been violent towards Shannon, and on Karen having seven children by at least five fathers (two children were registered as having unknown fathers). 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. 

West Yorkshire Police found Shannon alive at 12:30 on 14th March 2008, 24 days after she went missing. She was concealed in the base of a divan bed in a flat in Lidgate Gardens, Batley Carr. Michael Donovan, the 39 year old tenant of the flat, was arrested at the scene. 

Shannon was placed under police protection and cared for by the local social services department. The police exercised powers under section 46 of the Children Act 1989 which allows a child to remain subject to police protections for 72 hours. She ceased to be subject to police protection on 17th March. Since then she has remained in the car of Kirklees Family Services on a voluntary basis. On 15th March, the police reported that Shannon has begun to recover after her ordeal. Specially trained officers questioned 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.