Karen Matthews and Michael Donovan jailed for 8 years
- 00:01:49
- ITN
Karen Matthews and Michael Donovan jailed for 8 years
The mother of Shannon Matthews has been jailed for eight years for her role in the kidnap of her daughter. Karen Matthews, 33, of Dewsbury Moor, West Yorkshire, was sentenced at Leeds Crown Court after being found guilty last month of kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice. Her former partner's uncle, Michael Donovan, 40, was convicted of the same offences and was also jailed for eight years. Judge Mr Justice McCombe said it was doubtful Matthews and Donovan could have planned and carried out the kidnap without other people. He added that he would not draw a distinction between the two of them in their sentences. He said: "In my judgment, their culpability is the same. In saying that, having regard to their low intellect, as emerged in evidence at trial and in the pre-sentence reports, it must be doubtful whether they could have conceived or continued these offences without the assistance or connivance of others. "The pre-sentence report in Matthews' case comments that neither defendant seems to have the cognitive ability to devise and orchestrate such an elaborate offence with any degree of likelihood of success. "It is argued for both that they were not of sufficient intelligence to conceive and implement this plan without the involvement of others." The judge said that although Shannon was not physically harmed during the time she spent at Donovan's flat, her experience must have been "highly disturbing". He said: "It is clear as a matter of common sense that it must have been highly disturbing to a nine-year-old child to be removed suddenly from her normal environment, her school, her siblings and her friends, without knowing when, if at all, she would be returned." Mr Justice McCombe commented on a report made about Shannon since her recovery. He said it stated that Shannon was "disturbed and traumatised and frightened" after her ordeal. Reading from the report, the judge said: "She appeared to relive her experiences and she often complained of having nightmares where she is being tied up. "Shannon will need periods of psychotherapy followed by individually-based therapeutic interventions to help her to recover from her experiences." Shannon was found in Donovan's flat in Lidgate Gardens, Batley Carr, West Yorkshire, 24 days after she went missing in February last year. A jury heard how the pair conspired to keep the schoolgirl drugged and imprisoned in a desperate plan to claim £50,000 in reward money. Shannon, now ten, went missing on February 19 as she walked home from school near her home in Dewsbury Moor, West Yorkshire. West Yorkshire Police launched a massive search operation costing almost £3.2 million - one of the largest conducted by the force. Shannon was later found imprisoned in Donovan's Lidgate Gardens flat with traces of the "potent hypnotic" drug temazepam and travel-sickness medication melcozine in her system. Last month, Detective Superintendent Andy Brennan, the officer who led the investigation, said Matthews had "totally betrayed" her daughter and condemned her as "pure evil".
ITN | January 23, 2009
