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Now she faces long-term jail sentence for wicked plot
THE mother of Shannon Matthews faces a "substantial" jail sentence for planning the "wicked" kidnap of her own daughter to make money.
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Karen Mathews stood impassively with her hands clasped in front of her as the jury gave the verdicts yesterday at Leeds Crown Court, unanimously convicting both her and her co-accused Michael Donovan.
Neither showed any emotion as the foreman announced "Guilty" six times on charges against each of kidnapping Shannon on February 19, her false imprisonment for 24 days and perverting the course of justice by falsely reporting her missing.
The trial judge, Mr Justice McCombe had warned people in the public gallery to respect the dignity of the court whatever the verdicts, and they were greeted in a tense silence .
He agreed to applications by Frances Oldham QC for Matthews and Alan Conrad QC for Donovan for reports to be prepared by the Probation Service about the two defendants before sentencing them.
But he said they faced "substantial custodial sentences."
The pair will not be sentenced before Christmas.
Thanking the jury, who spent more than six hours in deliberation over two days, the judge said it had not been an easy case.
Matthews reported her daughter missing on the evening of February 19 after she failed to return home from Westmoor Junior School where she had been dropped with fellow pupils after enjoying her first swimming lesson at Dewsbury Sports centre.
The hoax 999 call set into motion a massive search by West Yorkshire police costing almost 3.2m before the nine-year-old was found on March 14, hidden inside a divan bed at Donovan's flat in Lidgate Gardens, Batley Carr.
Only then did it emerge how Shannon had been drugged and kept quiet in the flat during her ordeal as her mother shed "crocodile tears" for the cameras desperately pleading for her daughter's safe return.
Horrified officers discovered an elastic strap fastened to a beam in the loft which could have been used to restrict Shannon's movements around the flat and a list of rules was found which she was expected to obey, such as not going near the windows.
But even more sinister was the revelation the schoolgirl was drugged with the adult sedative Temazepam and a travel sickness medication Traveleeze, both causing drowsiness and sleep.
Donovan said from his arrest that Karen Matthews was in on the plan but claimed he had only taken Shannon under duress in fear of his life after being threatened by Matthews. A defence rejected by the jury.
Donovan maintained he treated the schoolgirl well, buying her toys, crayons and clothes and said he took her out in his car to play in parks and when he went into supermarkets, an account treated with scepticism by those involved in the national search for the youngster.
Matthews changed her account repeatedly after Shannon's recovery and ended up blaming her then partner, Donovan's nephew Craig Meehan and members of his family for the plot. She told the jury she was "disgusted" to be blamed.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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