Shannon report may be kept under wraps for sake of child

A decision to publish a report on the case of abducted schoolgirl Shannon Matthews is to be re-examined.

The development came on the second day of a High Court action brought by her father Leon Rose who is seeking to block publication of a document he believes will “seriously compromise” her welfare.

After “powerful” new “welfare material” was produced yesterday, the judge hearing the case in London granted an adjournment to Kirklees Safeguarding Children Board to enable it to consider whether the fresh information affects its decision to publish.

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Shannon disappeared in February 2008 as she walked home from school in Dewsbury Moor.

After a massive police operation she was discovered 24 days later at her stepfather’s uncle’s home less than a mile away.

In January 2009, her mother Karen was jailed for eight years for what a judge described as a “truly despicable” plot to abduct the nine-year-old, while Michael Donovan, in whose flat the schoolgirl was found in the base of a bed, was jailed for eight years.

A summary of the serious case review has been in the public domain since 2010 and Mr Justice Holman has heard the intention was not to publish the full Kirklees Safeguarding Children Board review, detailing the circumstances leading up to Shannon’s abduction and local authority involvement with her family at that time, but to release a “redacted overview”.

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Anthony Hayden QC, representing Mr Rose, who attended the hearing, told the judge at the start of the proceedings if the “redacted” version was made public it would cause his daughter “upheaval” as she continues to “heal from her ordeal”.

Mr Justice Holman said the new documents which will be considered by the Board were “clearly powerful documents” and he told Mr Hayden his client “should go away feeling some satisfaction”.

If the decision remains to publish then the case is likely to return to court at a date to be fixed.

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