There can be hardly any more pitiful sight than that of a distraught parent pleading for the return of a missing child. I was in the gym when I saw 32 year old Karen Matthews on the news for the first time, I remember seeing the photo of Shannon her missing nine year old daughter and thinking 'poor little thing'.
Dammit I defended Karen Matthews at one point saying that just because she was less photogenic and less well spoken than the McCanns didn't make her ordeal less painful.
Guess I was wrong.
For almost a month Shannon remained vanished, whole her mother and her step father whipped up a public storm, getting t-shirts printed up and giving interviews. CCTV footage of poor Shannon leaving her swimming class were released, more photos of a shy chubby faced young girl were flashed across the screen.
Police found Shannon on March 14, hidden in the base of a divan bed at the maisonette home of computer programmer Donovan in Batley Carr, a mile from her home. Donovan is the uncle of Karen Matthews 22 year old partner Craig Meehan. Karen dumped Meehan last week after he was charged with 11 child porn offences unconnected to Shannon.
It now transpires that Matthews was planning to leave Meehan all along and move in with Donavan, that Donavan had probably picked Shannon up on the day of her disappearance and that Karen Matthews, the sobbing distraught mother, had known where Shannon was all along, from day one.
"But detectives are ALSO probing claims that associates of the Matthews family tried to extract money from the Maddie McCann fund – and the possibility of a kidnap plan based on an episode of Channel 4 show Shameless."
Donovan, a computer programmer, is on remand awaiting trial accused of kidnapping Shannon and holding her against her will at his flat.
Due to face a court in November, he is on suicide watch in prison after trying to kill himself.
Last Friday, Amanda Hyett, 25, and her mother, Alice Meehan, 49, were also arrested. Mrs Hyett was held on suspicion of assisting Donovan.
It's unreal. What a family. How on earth did Karen Matthews think she could get away with this? SHe's saying now that she wanted to leave Meehan and that on the day Shannon 'vanished' she had packed clothes but chickened out at the last minutes. This was all about her, her wants, her needs, her life.
What sort of woman put her friends neighbours and family through the hellish anguish of thinking a chid was abducted and possibly murdered. How could she get up day after day and hand out t-shirts with her daughter's face printed on it to people offering help and solace. How could she get in front of television cameras and sob and makes emotional appeals knowing what she knew? What kind of person does that?
In any event this shameless harridan has destroyed not just her life but of those around her. Then family are shattered, friends are bewildered and angry, the powerful little community, all those people who gave time and money to help find Shannon have been slapped in the face. And for what? So that Karen Matthews could leave her minging boyfriend and move in with the next in a long line of men. She's a mother to five children for god's sake. Some people really do take the biscuit and I hope the police and the courts absolutely throw the book at this horrible woman.
Sorry, this wretch is the mother of seven children. Thanks Docky.
Labels: A commodity of children.
