Networked Knowledge - Media Report

[This edited version of the report has been prepared by Dr Robert N Moles]

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On 16 April 2008 Andrew Norfolk and Jenny Booth of The Times reported “Shannon mum to stand trial with alleged abductor”

They said, the mother of Shannon Matthews will go on trial alongside the man accused of abducting her nine-year-old daughter, she learnt today. Karen Matthews, 32, who is charged with child neglect and perverting the course of justice, was told of her trial date during a brief appearance this morning via videolink at Leeds Crown Court. The Recorder of Leeds, Judge Peter Collier QC, told her that she would be tried on November 11 alongside Michael Donovan, 39, who is accused of Shannon's kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment.

Ms Matthews, who is being held on remand at New Hall prison in Wakefield, spoke only to confirm her name and to acknowledge that she could hear the proceedings.

She sat behind a table, wearing a blue top underneath a grey, zipped cardigan, and listened intently to the legal discussions. Mr Donovan, a computer programmer and the uncle of Ms Matthews's former partner, Craig Meehan, was not in court but was represented by his solicitor, Malcolm Nowell.

Malcolm Taylor, prosecuting, told the court that the Crown felt it was "sensible to create a consolidated timetable for the two defendants". Ms Matthews and Mr Donovan will next appear in court for a plea and case management hearing on July 11. Shannon’s disappearance on the way home from school in February led to one of the largest search operations in the history of West Yorkshire Police, involving more than 300 officers and 60 detectives. The child was found 24 days later, hidden in the base of a divan bed, when detectives forced entry to a flat less than a mile from her home in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.

Ms Matthews is alleged to have been aware that her daughter might be with Mr Donovan but chose not to tell the police. The charges against her allege that she “repeatedly concealed information in relation to the whereabouts of Shannon Matthews in interviews and other contacts with officers of the West Yorkshire Police and claimed to have no knowledge of her whereabouts”. She is also said, between February 18 and March 15, to have “wilfully neglected or abandoned” Shannon in a manner “likely to cause unnecessary suffering . . . or injury to her health”.

Shannon is now in the care of social services, as are three of her siblings, who were taken from the family home last week after Karen’s former boyfriend, Craig Meehan, 22, was arrested and charged with possessing indecent images of children on his computer, in a separate case unrelated to the abduction. No application for bail was made on behalf of Ms Matthews by her solicitor, Richard Butters, and she was remanded in custody.

The semi-detached council house on Moorside Road that was home to Ms Matthews, Mr Meehan and four of her seven children — by five different fathers — has been boarded up. Police have distributed leaflets in the local area urging residents not to "take the law into your own hands" and to "leave the police to do their job". At a hearing in magistrates court last week, Ms Matthews maintained through her lawyer that she did not know where Shannon was during the days that she was missing from home. "She wants to get this matter sorted out. She wants to come back to court and explain her situation and face the music, face the evidence,” said Roger Clapham, Ms Matthews's lawyer.

He acknowledged that the case had aroused anger and disgust, but said this came from “people who don’t know the full facts of the case”. Mr Donovan's sister, Alice Meehan, 49, and his niece, Amanda Hyett, 25, were both arrested last week and bailed pending further inquiries. Mrs Hyett was held on suspicion of assisting an offender and Mrs Meehan on suspicion of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

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