Shannon Matthews

On 19 February 2008, nine-year-old Shannon Louise Matthews (born 9 September 1998) was reported missing in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, England.

The search for her became a major missing person police operation which was compared to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

Shannon was found alive and well on 14 March 2008 at a Batley Carr house belonging to 39-year-old Michael Donovan.

Donovan is the uncle of Craig Meehan, the boyfriend of the kidnapped girl's mother, Karen Matthews.

The kidnapping was planned by Matthews and Donovan to generate money from the publicity.

Donovan—also known as Paul Drake—was to have eventually "found" Shannon, taken her to a police station, and claimed the reward money, which would be split between Donovan and Matthews.

Donovan was charged with kidnapping and false imprisonment.

Matthews was charged with child neglect and perverting the course of justice on 8 April 2008.

Their joint trial at Leeds Crown Court commenced on 11 November 2008 and concluded on 4 December with both defendants found guilty.

They were both given eight-year prison sentences.

Meehan was convicted of possessing child pornography which was discovered on his computer during the investigation, but had nothing to do with the kidnapping.

Nine-year-old Shannon Matthews was seen at 15:10 GMT on 19 February 2008, outside her school, Westmoor Junior School, Dewsbury Moor, after a visit to the Dewsbury Sports Centre swimming pool for a swimming lesson.

The school was about half a mile from her home.

At 18:48 Karen Matthews rang the police to report her daughter missing after she had not returned home from school.

West Yorkshire Police started the search which eventually involved more than 200 officers.

The investigation into her disappearance was led by Detective Superintendent Andy Brennan.

West Yorkshire Police questioned 1,500 motorists and searched 3,000 houses.

By 5March, more than 250 officers and 60 detectives, about 10% of the West Yorkshire force's operational strength, were involved in the investigation.

It became the largest police investigation in West Yorkshire since the Yorkshire Ripper case 30 years earlier.

Of 27 specialist victim recovery dogs in the UK, 16 were involved in the search.

The Sun newspaper offered a reward of £20,000 for information leading to Shannon's safe return.

It was increased to £50,000 on 10 March, by which time she had been missing for 20 days.

A business in Huddersfield – nine miles from Dewsbury – offered £5,000.

West Yorkshire Police created a web page, 'Missing Shannon Matthews Appeal', and on 7 March, released a photograph of Shannon on the website.

The police released the recording of the 999 call made by Matthews reporting Shannon's disappearance.

An official website, 'Help Us Find Shannon', including the 'Shannon Matthews Appeal', was launched on 11 March.

Both websites were removed after Shannon was found.

A comparison was drawn between publicity given to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann and the much lower level of publicity for Shannon.

Roy Greenslade, writing for The Guardian blog, explained, "Overarching everything is social class" but added that Shannon's disappearance in the UK made a difference.

The Independent took the same line saying, "Kate and Gerry McCann had a lot: they were a couple of nice middle-class doctors on holiday in an upmarket resort... Karen Matthews is not as elegant, nor as eloquent".

The Times noted that the local community had pulled together but that the hunt appeared less newsworthy than the most minor developments in the search for McCann.

The Brisbane Times said that Karen Matthews and Kate McCann represented two sides of the social class coin in Britain.

The Daily Telegraph speculated that had Shannon been part of a middle-class family, in which articulate parents were conversant with the mechanics of mobilising a slick public awareness campaign, then more public attention would have been focused on the effort to find her.

On 7 March, Matthews said on GMTV that she was certain that her 22-year-old boyfriend Craig Meehan was not involved in the kidnapping and he "would not hurt anybody".

Meehan was defended by Shannon's father, Leon Rose.

Matthews and Meehan, in an interview on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on 12 March, were questioned about suggestions by her parents that Meehan had been violent towards Shannon, and on Matthews having seven children by at least five fathers (two of the children were registered as having unknown fathers).

Commenting on the interview, The Independent said that the case had developed a cruel overtone and that such questions went far beyond necessity and lifted the lid on an uncomfortable hypocrisy in British society.

West Yorkshire Police found Shannon alive at 12:30 on 14 March 2008, 24 days after she went missing.

She was concealed in the base of a divan bed in a flat in Lidgate Gardens, Batley Carr.

Michael Donovan, the 39-year-old tenant of the flat, was arrested at the scene.