Sponsored by
Shannon's mother 'lied and lied again'
THE mother of schoolgirl Shannon Matthews had "lied and lied and lied again" to the police, to her friends and to the jury in court, the prosecution counsel claimed yesterday in his closing speech.
Julian Goose QC told Leeds Crown Court that Karen Matthews was a "consummate liar" who from reporting her daughter missing had given five different accounts, contradicting herself in the process.
Mr Goose told the jury: "If she was telling the truth about what had happened, one story would be all that was necessary.
"You know from your own life experiences that people who tell lies have to stick to their lie because if they change it they get found out.
"You may think that you can be sure about it, ladies and gentlemen, she has been found out for the dishonest and wicked liar that she is.
"She is incapable of telling the truth, she can conjure up tears at will as she did for you and given that she has admitted repeatedly in interview she knew where Shannon was and made a false complaint, you may wonder what is her real defence."
Her final account in court was to resort to blaming her then partner Craig Meehan and others while claiming to have known nothing, he said.
The prosecution case is that a plan was hatched between Matthews and co-accused Michael Donovan to take Shannon, keep her captive, make a false complaint and wait for the reward money which he would then claim.
Mr Goose said the Crown did not accept Donovan's story that he was acting under duress at the time he took Shannon.
"He was not acting in fear he was a willing partner in the whole enterprise," he said.
"His job to was to keep Shannon out of the way while Karen Matthews lied to the cameras and the police and watched the reward money growing.
"He kept her hidden, he kept her under the influence of drugs, in his control through those rules and we say that strap, he was not under duress."
Mr Goose said the most damning evidence that linked the defendants was the drugs used to keep Shannon quiet at Donovan's flat – the same two she had been receiving during the months previously while living with her mother at home.
He suggested it would be a "coincidence beyond imagination" that she was given temazepam and the same travel sickness tablet while at his flat as her hair showed she had taken for up to 20 months before.
He said it was the Crown's case that Karen Matthews had given those drugs to her daughter in the past and she and Donovan were now lying because "the evidence about the drugs damns them the most".
Matthews, 33, of Moorside Road, Dewsbury Moor, and Donovan, 40, of Lidgate Gardens, Batley Carr, each deny kidnap and false imprisonment of Shannon and intending to pervert the course of justice.
Alan Conrad QC for Donovan told the jury they had heard all about Donovan, his educational difficulties, his low IQ, his lack of commonsense and submissive personality and he suggested their impression might now be very different: "Rather than an evil monster he is in a reality a pathetic inadequate, capable of living on a basic level but vulnerable, unsophisticated and weak in body and mind."
When he agreed to take Shannon he was in fear of his life because of threats from Matthews.
He said Donovan might be considered an oddball, a loner, a strange man but he had looked after Shannon well, she was fed and cared for and there was no suggestion of sexual or physical abuse.
Donovan accepted giving her travel sickness tablets but not the temazepam, and Mr Conrad suggested it was possible if Shannon was used to them at home she had helped herself to the supply Donovan had in his flat to help him sleep.
The trial continues.
More coverage:
Day 13: Shannon's mother 'lied and lied again'>>
Day 12: Mother 'did not know about Shannon drugs'>>
Day 11: I didn't do it, Shannon's tearful mum tells court>>
Day 10: Kidnap accused 'hid Shannon in flat out of fear'>>
Day nine: Shannon accused faced previous charge of abduction>>
Day eight: Shannon accused too poorly to attend trial>>
Day seven: Shannon taken on trips to park>>
Day six: Shannon mother 'told friends she knew who took her daughter'>>
Day five: Shannon 'frightened and crying when we found her'>>
Day three: 'Creepy' Shannon kidnap accused attacked in prison>>
Day two: Shannon mother 'joked about sex with policeman' during search>>
Day one: Shannon 'drugged and bound in 50,000 fraud plot'>>
Email to a friend
Print this page- Three-inch blanket of snow heading our way today
- Alan Shearer in list of favourites for Leeds and England jobs: Latest odds
- Barnsley’s Keith Hill invokes Fawlty Towers over link with Leeds job
- McCormack feels United search can be narrowed down
- Redfearn throws down gauntlet as queue builds at Elland Road
- Rival chips in with £500,000 to restore the original Harry Ramsden’s
- Visit from Princess as Serbian culture celebrated
- SportsTalk: Leeds United’s manager search, Super League and Calcutta Cup
- Libraries aren’t like supermarkets, they are magical places where dreams begin
- Strategic review will lead to job losses at Yorkshire Bank
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 11 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: -1 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Light rain
Temperature: 1 C to 6 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: North west
