Shannon Matthews hoax abduction

I thought we had a thread on Karen/Shannon Matthews etc but couldn't see one so will stick this latest news story about the mother here:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4023064/I-m-sorry-hurting-people-Karen-Matthews-begs-forgiveness-turning-God-faking-kidnap-daughter-Shannon.html

'Most hated mum in Britain' Karen Matthews begs for forgiveness after faking daughter Shannon's kidnap

Shannon Matthews mum committed a crime that shocked the nation to become Britain's most hated mother

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/most-hated-mum-britain-karen-9439985

'Most hated mum in Britain' Karen Matthews begs for forgiveness after faking daughter Shannon's kidnap

After snatching her own daughter Shannon in a twisted crime that shocked the nation, Karen Matthews became Britain’s most despised mum.

But the 41-year-old is now begging for forgiveness for the fake kidnap – said to be a cynical bid to collect reward cash – and told how she has turned to God as she tries to turn her life around.

Lonely Matthews, who was jailed for eight years in 2008 after being found guilty of abducting Shannon, then nine, joined a Bible group to meet new friends, has become a teetotaller and prays every day in an effort to lift her spirits.

But the mum-of-seven’s notoriety has left her unable to get a job and she claims she is trying to survive on just £25 a week in benefits.

And her weight has soared due to a behind bars diet of chocolate, which also left her teeth rotten.

Matthews, who has joined a Christian group that watches motivational videos featuring Bear Grylls talking about his religious views, told a pal she has “given up f****** swearing” and quit booze.

She revealed to the friend: “When I left prison I picked up a Bible and saw a passage about ‘God loves you’.

“I knew I was hated by everyone, cut off from my family… but here they were, saying I was loved.

"I know I did something wrong but I’m not the baddest person people are making out. I am sorry for hurting people.

“I’ve hurt my family. My friends that supported me at the time, I’ve hurt them.

“I love my mum and dad and I miss them. She’s my mum, she gave birth to me.

“I would hate to lose them before I had the chance to say, ‘Sorry.’”

The ex-con, who served half of her sentence for kidnap and perverting justice, moved hundreds of miles away from her home in Dewsbury, West Yorks, and adopted a new name – the same as her favourite Hollywood star.

She told the pal she turned to the Bible group as she spiralled into a life of miserable ­loneliness after being cut off from her family and friends.

Matthews added: “I get to meet people and talk. The people are kind and don’t judge. My favourite passages in the Bible are Matthew’s.

“They are the best because they are the same as my old surname. I asked for

forgiveness through prayer when I first prayed for ­forgiveness.

"I knew I did ­something wrong. It lifted me.”

The group meet in a Pret a Manger cafe. Websites they regularly use have Christian-sentiment messages from TV survival expert Grylls and want to help those with “questions about life”.

Matthews, once sex-crazed, attends church on Sundays… if she gets up on time.

Her daily outings from

The group meet in a Pret a Manger cafe. Websites they regularly use have Christian-sentiment messages from TV survival expert Grylls and want to help those with “questions about life”.

Matthews, once sex-crazed, attends church on Sundays… if she gets up on time.

Her daily outings from her £650 a month housing benefit flat are to Primark and charity shops. There are endless bus trips in a bid to keep warm.

Since her early release from prison Matthews has been out of work.

She has told friends her dream is to find a job in catering but she fails at the first hurdle once ­potential bosses see her criminal history.

She told one pal: “I would and I wouldn’t like a job. I’ve been to job interviews and they’ve turned me down when they see me.

“I need more confidence but I went to one interview and he just stared at me.”

And she has complained about the amount she is left with from her benefits.

She said to a friend: “They’ve completely lowered my money. It’s a horrible life.

“By the time I’ve put money towards running the flat and put £10 a fortnight on the electric and got myself a little bit of food, I have very little of live on.


“I’ve had to sell things. I haven’t even got any credit on my phone.”

The Mirror has chosen not to reveal where Matthews’ new home is – other than she has moved to the South of England where she lives alone.

When we saw her, she looked a forlorn, woman who has piled on four stone through comfort eating.

Matthews was gorging on a huge plate of chips at a cafe before going to watch carol singers.

With jet-black hair, she has a dramatic new look. But she told her pal she cannot get dental treatment for her decaying teeth under her new name.
Matthews added: “I have a doctor but no dentist. I need identification to register as my birth certificate has my old name.”

She is said to hate leaving home without putting her “face on” and now has piercings in her lip and eyebrow and a belly-button bar – a treat to herself for her 40th birthday last year.

But despite asking to be forgiven for her wicked crime, Matthews still insists she is innocent and did not snatch little Shannon, who was missing for three and a half weeks.

The youngster vanished on February 19 2008.

A police hunt was launched and people from the ­estate in Dewsbury Moor where she lived joined in.

Officers and locals feared the worst when there was no sign of the youngster.

But she was found alive on March 14 at the flat of her mum’s ­accomplice Michael Donovan in nearby Batley Carr, where she had been drugged and held captive.


Matthews came clean in a police car next to officer Christine Freeman and her closest friends, Natalie Brown and Julie Bushby.

But she later claimed she had arranged for her daughter to go away from home as part of a plan to leave partner Craig Meehan.

And Matthews still insists she did not plan the snatch with Donovan, who was also jailed for eight years after being found guilty of kidnap, false ­imprisonment and perverting justice.

She claims she only found out ­Shannon’s fate when told about it by police the day they found her.

During the trial at Leeds crown court, a forensic toxicologist testified how hair samples showed the youngster had been taking the “potent hypnotic” drug ­Temazepam regularly for months before she vanished.

A TV drama is due to be released next year about the kidnapping with Gemma Whelan from Game of Thrones playing Karen and Cilla star ­Sheridan Smith as Julie.



Taken from MSN copy of Mirror story as that won't copy and paste

Now would they have even attempted this abduction scam if the whole McCann farce didn't happen prior?

Personally, I don't think they would've done.

Andrew, I've added your post here.

I think that there are others who would win a "most hated mother" competition before Karen Matthews, remembering creatures like the so-called mothers of Daniel Pelka and Baby Peter who were party to horrific long-term abuse which eventually proved fatal.

There's some disgusting and evil 'mothers' out there that could all compete for that title.

I can think of a certain someone who will possibly go down in history as the 'most hated mother' when the truth starts to unravel to the general public.

Imo etc.

Neither the papers who printed this nor Karen Matthews have given a second's thought as to how splashing this across the front pages will affect poor Shannon.

Shannon will have spent the last 9 years struggling to get over what happened. She's 16, hopefully got some stability and order to her life, looking forward to Christmas and now she'll be faced with everything she's been trying to forget.

The media really are scum.

Her mum is "scum" too for giving such an interview IMO

Now did Karen approach the press or did the press approach ...? (assume she's not called Karen anymore) for this 'story'?

And did she get paid for it I wonder?

The story says she has adopted the name of her favourite film star - maybe she's Demi or Angelina now.......

Shannon is 18 now, Poe - born in September 1998 - so presumably is living independently now. I hope that she has a better life than her mother.

Châtelaine wrote:Her mum is "scum" too for giving such an interview IMO

Oh I absolutely agree Châtelaine, Karen is quite prepared to inflict emotional damage on Shannon for her own benefit.

Andrew wrote:https://www.thesun.co.uk/living/2770682/a-mothers-betrayal-and-comparisons-with-madeleine-mccann-how-the-disappearance-of-shannon-matthews-sparked-a-class-war/

Apologies for bumping my own post (again)... But I find this piece quite interesting in terms of why it's just come out now etc.....

The comparisons have been there from day dot... but to come out now (after the verdict) and release it.... Intrigues me.

I rather hope that the idea is to link one dodgy case with another.

Hopefully they are trying to prepare people for what lies ahead.

I assume she wants the plastic surgery paid for by tax payers seeing as she is on benefits

I have given this its own thread, as it got rather missed amidst other posts -it is very interesting how the press are now linking the two cases.  Would this have happened before, I wonder?

More about the forthcoming BBC drama on the case.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/2634922/moorside-bbc1-shannon-karen-matthews-cast-sheridan-smith/

Bloodhound wrote:Hopefully they are trying to prepare people for what lies ahead.  

I assume she wants the plastic surgery paid for by tax payers seeing as she is on benefits

Not quiet sure what your getting at here BH. In what way does this prepare us!  And CF can you explain how you see press linking both .......im probably having a stupid moment??

They would not have mentioned the Matthews case in the same breath as McCann at one time Bampots.  The article is linking to the McCann case saying how they had all the help and publicity and the Matthews case because they were from council estates had no such help.  Just putting them together in the same article is linking don't you think.

A mother’s betrayal

That's about as much as they can get away with at this moment in time in terms of linking.

Bampots wrote:

Bloodhound wrote:Hopefully they are trying to prepare people for what lies ahead.  

I assume she wants the plastic surgery paid for by tax payers seeing as she is on benefits

Not quiet sure what your getting at here BH. In what way does this prepare us!  And CF can you explain how you see press linking both .......im probably having a stupid moment??

I'm being optimistic and hoping for a good outcome. Maybe they published the story not just to show the different treatment of class, but to link McCanns to a horrible mother who put her daughter through hell, to show it happens in real life. Prepare the minds of the people who still think no mother would wrong her child. Now people read about both mothers on the one page shortly after all the headlines show McCanns lost the trial.
Just a thought really.

I liked the link - it highlights the socially polar opposite ways to scam the public out of money.

One is the bottom feeder and the other is the scum that always floats to the top.

Mimi wrote:I liked the link - it highlights the socially polar opposite ways to scam the public out of money.

One is the bottom feeder and the other is the scum that always floats to the top.

You have such a way with words Mimi

Will stick this article here:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/how-police-uncover-karen-matthews-9756726

How did police uncover Karen Matthews' sordid plan to fake kidnapping of own daughter for publicity?

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/feb/04/the-moorside-shannon-matthews-kidnap-julie-bushby-natalie-brown-murray-story-bbc-drama

Snipped:

Except Moorside is no longer just an ordinary estate. It is – and for a long time, probably, will be – “the Shannon Matthews estate”. It became notorious in the winter of 2008 when nine-year-old Shannon went missing after leaving school on the afternoon of 19 February. The media moved in en masse straight away: nine months earlier, three-year-old Madeleine McCann had vanished while on holiday in Portugal and they made the most of the similarities with that case. But there were marked differences between the two events and how they were reported. The McCanns were both doctors, well spoken and middle-class; Shannon’s mother, meanwhile, was 32-year-old Karen Matthews, who’d had seven children by five different fathers in nine years. Many people felt that Karen Matthews’s missing daughter wasn’t getting the same kind of publicity as Madeleine McCann had because, as one newspaper put it, “Karen Matthews is not as elegant, nor as eloquent” as the McCanns.