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Mother of Shannon Matthews charged

By Carla Bevan on Wednesday 9 April 2008

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Marie Claire News: Shannon Matthews

The mother of Shannon Matthews has been charged with child neglect and perverting the course of justice.

Karen Matthews, 32, will appear in court in Dewsbury later today after being arrested on Sunday in connection with the disappearance of her daughter in February.

The latest twist in the kidnap saga follows the arrest of Karen's boyfriend, Craig Meehan, and that of his uncle, Michael Donovan, who has been charged with abducting the nine-year-old.

Karen's arrest also comes in the wake of a police investigation into whether people claiming to be connected to the family tried to persuade the family of Madeleine McCann to share money from the fund they set up to help find missing Madeleine.

A spokesperson for the McCann family said there had been a 'number of approaches' from people who said they were related to Shannon and her family.

Wednesday 9 April 2008

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Ithink she should be throughly ashamed of herself.
Comment by Val on April 09 09:28

That poor little girl, what did she do to deserve a family like that. And to have all those family and friends out looking for her, shameless, heartless and brainless.
The McCann family really lost their little girl and they manage to keep their self respect and dignity throughout, even though the people of this country were determined to point the finger at them. I still pray they will find their dear little girl and my heart is with them and their dreadful plight.
How dare this gutter couple try and compare themselves to them.
Comment by Suzanne Redpath on April 09 09:41

I am sad to say I smelled a rat almost from the start. I lived close to some of the relatives and the talk of raising money and how much money the McCanns had, far outweighed any concern for Shannon. It seemed to me that they weren't acting the way a family with a missing child would act. They were more preoccupied with fund raising than actually looking for the child.
Comment by Adele Gatenby on April 09 09:48

Silly Parents, i hope they get the full sentence

Reasons Unknown x
Comment by Reasons Unknown on April 09 10:00

Iam sad to say the word 'Trash' comes to mind.

No one in their right mind would do something like this to a child.
If she wasn't busy having 7 kids with 5 men who are not with her there would have been time to reflect on her life and care for her kids like a decent mother. NOT ACCEPTABLE.
Ignorance is not an excuse to neglect your kids who are priority. If you can't look after children then use contraception.

Comment by anna kioufi on April 09 10:14

I thought it very strange from the start and said to my partner that in some way the Mother/Boyfriend were involved in some way.Maybe the uncle knew what was happening and took Shannon to protect her from her mother/boyfriend
Comment by Rosanna Frost on April 09 10:24

Absolutely agree - I thought all along that the 'family' had something/everything to do with it! What a ghastly load of chavvy, ignorant, brain-dead monsters - god help the UK if that's what we are breeding these days....
Comment by Gill West on April 09 11:05

Absolutely disgusting!! This woman does not deserve to be a mother
Comment by Missus on April 09 11:12

I can not beleive someone would use their own child like that. I hope she is locked up for a long time and has her children taken away from her for good. I have one word for these people SICK. I cannot get over how any parent or even right minded human being could put any child in a situation like that. She should never be allowed to have more children and if she does they must be taken away immediately. That is of course if she is found guilty!
Comment by Kate on April 09 11:40

Not only has she deplorably used Shannon for her own gain, she has also put her other 6 children at risk of being taken into care. I too hope she is suitably punished.
Comment by Vanessa Barber on April 09 13:03

I think that it's a very sad state of affairs. In the early days, there was a huge debate as to why Shannons' case wasn't attracting the same media attention nor amount of donations as the Madeleine McCann case. The conclusions drawn were mainly about the difference in social class between the two girls and sympathy was given to Shannon for being overlooked somewhat as a result of her lower social class compared to Madeleine. Who's honestly going to sympathise now? Poor Shannon granted, for having such waste of space parents, but who's going to feel sorry for the next 'poor' kid who goes missing without bad vibes from this case coming in to play? Karen Matthews should be put away ... and the key thrown far far away
Comment by Jo on April 09 17:37

Isn't it ironic how quick people are to label this family 'ignorant', yet they themselves are baying for blood after nothing more than a series of arrests. So far as we know, no-one has yet been charged with an offence, let alone been found guilty - yet huge sections of the population appear to have already convicted the family. People are regularly arrested and then released without charge. If that happens in this case, will the family ever be able to rid themselves of the stain of accusation? We demand to know the details of cases like these and lap up the details, but apparently have little understanding of the process and are incapable of showing critical judgement.

Although some information about the case has been released, a great deal cannot be released and therefore much of what we are reading is little more than speculation. Perhaps we should allow the police, social services, CPS etc to do their jobs and try to ascertain the truth. Our rushing to pass judgement only reflects our own prejudices and ignorance.
Comment by Jules on April 10 23:57

If some of your readers have noticed in the newspapers one of karen Matthews children, a boy, is already living with his natural father ( thanks for that ).
My son-in-law who is linked with West Yorkshire Police says too that it seems like it is a kind of " ransom money" state of affair.
I never trusted that step-father in the first place, Karen Matthews needed a fella aged 32 ,NOT 22 to put her house in order!!!!!
Comment by Marie Jones on April 11 08:08

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