Perdita
12-11-2008, 15:04
The nine-year-old schoolgirl Shannon Matthews was kidnapped and drugged in a "wicked" plan by her own mother and an accomplice to claim reward money, a jury heard today.
For 24 days the girl was tethered to a roofbeam, given ground-up temazepam and seasickness tablets, while her mother went on national television in the role of the stricken parent and a massive police search rolled out across the north of England, it was alleged.
Julian Goose, QC, for the prosecution, told Leeds Crown Court that Karen Matthews, 33, and her accomplice Michael Donovan, 40, maintained a colossal lie in a bid to claim the reward money offered by the press, which at its height reached £50,000.
The court heard the police investigation was sparked by a 999 call made by Ms Matthews, 33, which raised the alarm about Shannon’s disappearance on February 19.
Mr Goose went on: "The prosecution say that Karen Matthews is a consummate and convincing liar.
"While Karen Matthews was misleading the police and the public, Michael Donovan kept Shannon hidden.
"He was watching the search and the publicity as it was covered in newspapers which he bought from time to time until he was eventually arrested.
"As he was later to tell the police, the plan was to release Shannon in Dewsbury Market and for Donovan to discover her. The plan thereafter was to claim the reward which, by the time of Shannon’s discovery, was £50,000."
The victims of the plot were not just Shannon but also the hundreds of friends, neighbours and residents of the Dewsbury Moor estate who helped to look for the youngster, Mr Goose said.
The massive search for Shannon, which at its height involved more than 300 police officers, cost the taxpayer nearly £3.2 million.
More than 1,800 premises were searched and extensive house-to-house inquiries were conducted at many more.
Three quarters of all the UK’s specially trained police dogs were brought in to assist in the search, more than 800 CCTV tapes and computer hard drives were examined and 41 other areas were searched outside the half-mile radius of Moorside Road, including Cumbria and Nottinghamshire.
Mr Goose said the public followed the day-by-day events until Shannon was eventually found, "only then to discover that it had all been a lie, a trick and deliberately false complaint".
He told the court that that at the time of her disappearance Shannon was a pupil in year four at Westmoor Junior School in Dewsbury, and that day had been looking forward to her first school swimming trip with her friends.
The last official sightings her were by her friends and teachers after she got off the bus that took her back to school from the pool trip. As she set off to walk home, however, she found Mr Donovan waiting for her in his Peugeot 406 car, Mr Goose said.
"He told Shannon Matthews that she was to be taken to a fair. No doubt, this was said in order to cause Shannon to get into the car willingly with Michael Donovan.
"With this lie as part of the plan agreed with Karen Matthews, Shannon was kidnapped and taken away."
Ms Matthews, meanwhile had run round to a neighbour's house to say that Shannon was missing. Later she called the school and finally the police.
The court was played the recording of the 999 call made by Ms Matthews to the police in which she sounds upset as she describes her daughter and appeals for help.
The police arrived within minutes, only to find Ms Matthews out. When she returned, she told the officers Shannon had said she might run away.
She also appeared to cry as neighbours called to try to help, Mr Goose said.
"The prosecution’s case is that from the moment Karen Matthews went to Victoria Saunders’s home saying that Shannon was missing, then calling the school and later the police, she was acting out an elaborate and cruel lie," Mr Goose said.
"Karen Matthews even gave deliberately misleading lines of inquiry to the police." Mr Goose said she gave officers one address where she said she had been told by a clairvoyant that Shannon might be found.
The jury was played a series of TV appeals which Ms Matthews made after her daughter vanished.
Meanwhile Mr Donovan kept the youngster confined to his flat with a written list of rules to help keep her quiet and undiscovered, which police later found lying on top of the television in the lounge.
They stated: "You must not go near the windows; you must not make any noise and bang your feet; you must not do anything without me being there, keep the TV volume low - up to volume eight."
The court was told the rules said she could play her Super Mario games and her music CDs. It ended with the initials IPU, which the court was told meant "I Promise You."
Mr Goose said that a "more sinister" way of subduing Shannon was to give her Temazepam tablets and travel sickness pills called Traveleeze.
"It is clear that this was done by Donovan because Shannon’s urine was tested after she was discovered and traces of both drugs were found," he said.
When Mr Donovan went out Shannon was probably tethered with a long strap which officers found hanging knotted from a roofbeam in the loft, the court heard.
He said: "It had a large loop at the end which, at full stretch, would reach around most of the flat but not permit anyone who was restrained by it from leaving through the front door.
"The prosecution say that it is a reasonable inference that Donovan, who had used other methods of subduing Shannon Matthews, had employed the strap to restrain Shannon when Donovan left the flat to go shopping."
Shannon was finally found after police decided to extend their house-to-house search to a one-mile radius around her home. Officers got no answer when they knocked on Mr Donovan's door, but neighbours said that he was in and that they had heard the footsteps of a small child inside, although they had not thought it was suspicious.
Thirty-five minutes later the police forced their way into the flat and heard a little girl’s voice coming from inside the base of a double bed.
"Shannon was heard to say ’stop it, you’re frightening me’ before she was recovered," Mr Goose said.
"Shannon was crying as she told the police that Donovan was under the bed."
The officers found Mr Donovan hiding in the other half of the bed base and arrested him after a struggle.
A subsequent search showed the flat contained the "rules document", the Traveleeze tablets, a prescription for drugs, including temazepam, and a copy of The Sun newspaper displaying the £50,000 reward.
Jurors heard that Shannon lived with her mother and her mother's 22-year-old boyfriend, Craig Meehan. Mr Donovan is Mr Meehan’s uncle. Mr Goose said that last year Mr Donovan was a frequent visitor to Mr Meehan’s sister’s house, not far from Shannon’s home.
The jury was shown a series of maps and other documents including a simplified version of Ms Matthews’s family tree.
Ms Matthews, 33, sat in the dock alongside Mr Donovan, 40, of Lidgate Gardens, Batley Carr, as Mr Goose outlined the case against them.
They are jointly charged with kidnapping Shannon and falsely imprisoning her for 24 days earlier this year. They are also accused of perverting the course of justice. They have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The trial before Mr Justice McCombe is expected to last three weeks.
I hope they chuck those two into prison and throw away the key :angry:
For 24 days the girl was tethered to a roofbeam, given ground-up temazepam and seasickness tablets, while her mother went on national television in the role of the stricken parent and a massive police search rolled out across the north of England, it was alleged.
Julian Goose, QC, for the prosecution, told Leeds Crown Court that Karen Matthews, 33, and her accomplice Michael Donovan, 40, maintained a colossal lie in a bid to claim the reward money offered by the press, which at its height reached £50,000.
The court heard the police investigation was sparked by a 999 call made by Ms Matthews, 33, which raised the alarm about Shannon’s disappearance on February 19.
Mr Goose went on: "The prosecution say that Karen Matthews is a consummate and convincing liar.
"While Karen Matthews was misleading the police and the public, Michael Donovan kept Shannon hidden.
"He was watching the search and the publicity as it was covered in newspapers which he bought from time to time until he was eventually arrested.
"As he was later to tell the police, the plan was to release Shannon in Dewsbury Market and for Donovan to discover her. The plan thereafter was to claim the reward which, by the time of Shannon’s discovery, was £50,000."
The victims of the plot were not just Shannon but also the hundreds of friends, neighbours and residents of the Dewsbury Moor estate who helped to look for the youngster, Mr Goose said.
The massive search for Shannon, which at its height involved more than 300 police officers, cost the taxpayer nearly £3.2 million.
More than 1,800 premises were searched and extensive house-to-house inquiries were conducted at many more.
Three quarters of all the UK’s specially trained police dogs were brought in to assist in the search, more than 800 CCTV tapes and computer hard drives were examined and 41 other areas were searched outside the half-mile radius of Moorside Road, including Cumbria and Nottinghamshire.
Mr Goose said the public followed the day-by-day events until Shannon was eventually found, "only then to discover that it had all been a lie, a trick and deliberately false complaint".
He told the court that that at the time of her disappearance Shannon was a pupil in year four at Westmoor Junior School in Dewsbury, and that day had been looking forward to her first school swimming trip with her friends.
The last official sightings her were by her friends and teachers after she got off the bus that took her back to school from the pool trip. As she set off to walk home, however, she found Mr Donovan waiting for her in his Peugeot 406 car, Mr Goose said.
"He told Shannon Matthews that she was to be taken to a fair. No doubt, this was said in order to cause Shannon to get into the car willingly with Michael Donovan.
"With this lie as part of the plan agreed with Karen Matthews, Shannon was kidnapped and taken away."
Ms Matthews, meanwhile had run round to a neighbour's house to say that Shannon was missing. Later she called the school and finally the police.
The court was played the recording of the 999 call made by Ms Matthews to the police in which she sounds upset as she describes her daughter and appeals for help.
The police arrived within minutes, only to find Ms Matthews out. When she returned, she told the officers Shannon had said she might run away.
She also appeared to cry as neighbours called to try to help, Mr Goose said.
"The prosecution’s case is that from the moment Karen Matthews went to Victoria Saunders’s home saying that Shannon was missing, then calling the school and later the police, she was acting out an elaborate and cruel lie," Mr Goose said.
"Karen Matthews even gave deliberately misleading lines of inquiry to the police." Mr Goose said she gave officers one address where she said she had been told by a clairvoyant that Shannon might be found.
The jury was played a series of TV appeals which Ms Matthews made after her daughter vanished.
Meanwhile Mr Donovan kept the youngster confined to his flat with a written list of rules to help keep her quiet and undiscovered, which police later found lying on top of the television in the lounge.
They stated: "You must not go near the windows; you must not make any noise and bang your feet; you must not do anything without me being there, keep the TV volume low - up to volume eight."
The court was told the rules said she could play her Super Mario games and her music CDs. It ended with the initials IPU, which the court was told meant "I Promise You."
Mr Goose said that a "more sinister" way of subduing Shannon was to give her Temazepam tablets and travel sickness pills called Traveleeze.
"It is clear that this was done by Donovan because Shannon’s urine was tested after she was discovered and traces of both drugs were found," he said.
When Mr Donovan went out Shannon was probably tethered with a long strap which officers found hanging knotted from a roofbeam in the loft, the court heard.
He said: "It had a large loop at the end which, at full stretch, would reach around most of the flat but not permit anyone who was restrained by it from leaving through the front door.
"The prosecution say that it is a reasonable inference that Donovan, who had used other methods of subduing Shannon Matthews, had employed the strap to restrain Shannon when Donovan left the flat to go shopping."
Shannon was finally found after police decided to extend their house-to-house search to a one-mile radius around her home. Officers got no answer when they knocked on Mr Donovan's door, but neighbours said that he was in and that they had heard the footsteps of a small child inside, although they had not thought it was suspicious.
Thirty-five minutes later the police forced their way into the flat and heard a little girl’s voice coming from inside the base of a double bed.
"Shannon was heard to say ’stop it, you’re frightening me’ before she was recovered," Mr Goose said.
"Shannon was crying as she told the police that Donovan was under the bed."
The officers found Mr Donovan hiding in the other half of the bed base and arrested him after a struggle.
A subsequent search showed the flat contained the "rules document", the Traveleeze tablets, a prescription for drugs, including temazepam, and a copy of The Sun newspaper displaying the £50,000 reward.
Jurors heard that Shannon lived with her mother and her mother's 22-year-old boyfriend, Craig Meehan. Mr Donovan is Mr Meehan’s uncle. Mr Goose said that last year Mr Donovan was a frequent visitor to Mr Meehan’s sister’s house, not far from Shannon’s home.
The jury was shown a series of maps and other documents including a simplified version of Ms Matthews’s family tree.
Ms Matthews, 33, sat in the dock alongside Mr Donovan, 40, of Lidgate Gardens, Batley Carr, as Mr Goose outlined the case against them.
They are jointly charged with kidnapping Shannon and falsely imprisoning her for 24 days earlier this year. They are also accused of perverting the course of justice. They have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The trial before Mr Justice McCombe is expected to last three weeks.
I hope they chuck those two into prison and throw away the key :angry: