KAREN Matthews jailed for eight years for faking her own child’s
abduction in a reward scam has been released from prison today,
according to reports.
Her release comes less than three years and three months after she was
sentenced for kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting the course of
justice.
She was jailed for eight years in January 2009 but had already been in custody
for eight months.
Matthews’ actions in February 2008 sickened the entire country.
The sinister mum-of-seven got oddball Michael Donovan to hide her daughter
Shannon, now 13, in a plot to claim £50,000 reward money.
As a 24-day police hunt for Shannon got under way, Donovan, 44, imprisoned her
in his home, drugged, and tethered the youngster under a BED.
She was found less than a mile from her home in Dewsbury Moor, West Yorks.
Donovan was the uncle of her mother’s then-boyfriend Craig Meehan.
It later emerged she had been REMOVED from a council at risk register
as she was no longer deemed vulnerable.
Matthews, 36, cared so little about her kids she forgot how many she had.
And tests on Shannon’s hair showed up traces of drugs, including sedative
temazepam and travel sickness pills, that cops believe Matthews used to
sedate her daughter so she didn’t have to waste time caring for her.
Kidnap victim Shannon was placed on a child protection register in 2002 but
was taken off in late 2004 after social workers decided the family was
“settling down”.