She's Found Guilty

Good news, the jury in the Shannon Mathews case have found the mother guilty of charges relating to her daughter's disappearance, i'm sure everyone knew she was, but its nice to see the jury thought the same way.

I just heard it on the news.

The mother of Shannon Matthews has been found guilty of charges relating to her daughter's disappearance.

Karen Matthews, 33, and her co-accused Michael Donovan, 40, were convicted of kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice.

The pair have been warned they face "substantial" jail terms when they are sentenced later.

The nine-year-old was held at Donovan's flat in Batley Carr, West Yorkshire, for 24 days.

The 13-day trial at Leeds Crown Court heard the pair kept Shannon "drugged, subdued and hidden from the public" so they could claim £50,000 in reward money.

The trial judge Mr Justice McCombe said earlier that he would adjourn sentencing for reports to be prepared. No application was made for bail and the two defendants were led away.

During the three-week trial, the court heard that Shannon, now 10, went missing on 19 February as she walked home from school.

After a huge search operation by West Yorkshire Police costing almost £3.2 million, she was found by police in Donovan's flat, less than a mile from her home, on 14 March.

The search was one of the largest ever conducted by the West Yorkshire force.

The prosecution told the jury that Donovan kept Shannon drugged and imprisoned in his flat as part of a plan he and Matthews hatched to claim £50,000 in reward money.

Matthews denied the abduction and blamed the crime on her former partner, Craig Meehan, and other members of his family.

She said she was "disgusted" by allegations that she was involved in her daughter's kidnap.

Donovan, who is the uncle of Mr Meehan, claims he was scared of Matthews and agreed to take Shannon only because he feared for his life.

Neither of the defendants showed any emotion as the jury foreman returned the verdict.

Matthews stood staring straight forward in the stone-coloured jacket she has worn throughout the proceedings and with her red hair hanging untied over her shoulders.

Donovan, who had been described in court as "a dimwit" stood a few feet away from her, separated by a court security officer.

The court remained silent following the verdict after the judge warned the public gallery against over-emotional responses.

The seven men and five women on the jury took about six hours to find the pair unanimously guilty of all charges.

After they returned their verdict, Mr Justice McCombe thanked the jury for their "careful consideration" throughout the trial.

The judge said: "You have done it with great aplomb and behaved with great dignity."


Source

In all of this I feel sorry for Shannon.

I don't know how anyone could do such a thing.

jackie 46 wrote:In all of this I feel sorry for Shannon.

Yeah i do to a point, but i think she'll have a better life away from her lying deceitful money grabbing mother.

Did anyone watch that documentary on them last night it was quite interesting by taking a peice of her hair they could tell that Shannon had been drugged on several occasions even a year before her being kidnapped.So they've been giving her sleeping pills to shut her up at night properly so they can drink etc.

I saw a bit of it and I did see that part. Amazing what they can do.

It is it seems social services failed them as well.

Saw it, the evidence they got from the hair was amazing. But the show again showed how the Social Services got things badly wrong again, another inquirey needed.