Exclusive
CREEP DEAD
Shannon Matthews’ kidnapper Michael Donovan dies from cancer in hospital 16 years after plot that gripped nation
Back in 2008 Donovan held terrified Shannon captive at his dingy flat for 24 days
THE loner who snatched Shannon Matthews as part of a fake kidnap plot hatched by her shameless mum has died, The Sun can reveal.
Twisted Mick Donovan, 54, held the terrified schoolgirl captive in his grotty council flat for 24 days as hundreds of cops and thousands of locals searched for her round-the-clock.
11
11
11
11
11
11
11
11
He and Shannon's evil mum, Karen Matthews, came up with the hoax abduction in a bid to claim a £50,000 reward and even tried to extort money from the Find Madeleine McCann Fund.
Cops eventually found Shannon, then nine, in the drawer of a divan bed in Donovan's flat just a few miles from the estate where she vanished from.
Donovan, the uncle of Karen's then boyfriend Craig Meehan, was hiding in the other drawer.
The schoolgirl was on her way home in Dewsbury when she "disappeared" on February 19, 2008.
Read more News
The Sun can now reveal Donovan, who changed his name to Aiden Johnson, was pronounced dead at Three Valleys Hospital in Keighley, West Yorkshire, yesterday.
The sicko, 54, collapsed in the courtyard of the secure mental health hospital around mid-afternoon.
He had been there for the past six years following his 2012 release from prison over his role in Shannon's kidnapping.
Back in February he was diagnosed with Stage 3 throat cancer and given just months to live.
Most read in The Sun
He had gone to hospital for a routine check-up when medics discovered the massive tumour.
Donovan - whose family disowned him in 2022 - did not have a single visitor in the final months of his life.
Retired officer says he was ‘suspicious’ Karen Matthews was lying in interviews
Within weeks he was using a Zimmer frame and began looking "extremely frail", sources told The Sun.
And during Christmas last year he was investigated by cops on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children on his phone.
West Yorkshire cops came into the secure hospital to interview Donovan before confiscating the device.
During his stint there he also changed his name to Aiden Johnson to cover up his horrific past.
It is the second time he changed his name by deed poll having been born as Paul Drake.
But he was happy to take "credit" for Shannon's kidnapping after it was dramatised in the 2017 ITV series Moorside.
A source said: "He wouldn't interact with the other patients much other than to talk about that series.
"He seemed to think it made him some sort of celebrity."
Timeline of the Shannon Matthews kidnap plot
A look at the events that unfolded following the disappearance of schoolgirl Shannon Matthews:
February 19, 2008 - Shannon Matthews disappears and was last spotted outside Westmoor Junior School, Dewsbury.
February 19, 2008 - Police announce that they have started a massive search involving more than 200 officers as concern grows for the missing girl.
March 1, 2008 - Karen Matthews issues an emotional appeal for Shannon's return on the eve of Mother's Day.
March 5, 2008 - Police release a recording of part of the 999 call Matthews made reporting Shannon missing.
March 14, 2008 - Shannon is found alive and hidden in the base of a divan bed at a house at Michael Donovan's house in Batley Carr, West Yorkshire.
April 9, 2008 - Karen Matthews is charged with child neglect and perverting the course of justice over her daughter's disappearance - new charges of Kidnap and false imprisonment were later added.
December 4, 2008 - Matthews and Donovan are found guilty of kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice and both sentenced to eight years behind bars.
The source added that Donovan ";would not be missed" at the secure unit.
They said: "Nobody really liked him - he was a very unpleasant bloke.
"He kept to himself but he had a horrible temper if he wasn't happy with something - usually the food.
"He liked his cheese sandwiches and that was about it."
Back in 2008 Donovan held terrified Shannon captive at his dingy flat for 24 days while he and her mum Karen plotted her "disappearance".
The pair hatched the plan in an effort to claim a £50,000 reward for her safe return.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
They were found guilty of kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice and both sentenced to eight years behind bars.
A spokesperson for Elysium Healthcare said: "We will not be issuing any comment or statement.";
11
11
11
Twisted crime that shocked the nation
By PAUL SIMS
FOR 24 days, the nation held its breath as police and volunteers searched day and night for Shannon Matthews.
She vanished into thin air on February 19, 2008 - having last been seen on CCTV leaving school.
Hours later, her feckless mum, Karen Matthews, voice trembling in a thick West Yorkshire accent, made a television appeal for help.
Over the next three weeks she appeared before the cameras repeatedly - wearing a white t-shirt bearing Shannon's school photo and the words: "Have you seen Shannon Matthews."
In reality, she knew exactly where Shannon was - and she'd known right from the very start.
Shannon, then nine, had been taken to Mick Donovan's grotty council flat a little over a mile away from the council estate she grew up on in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, after being promised a trip to the seaside.
There, Shannon was drugged, bound and tethered - and handed a list of rules written out by her shameless mum, who warned at the end: "IPU (I promise u)."
It was a threat of reprisals should she think to break them, not comforting assurance.
They included: "You must not go near the windows. You must not get anything or do anything without me been here.
"Keep the TV volume (low) only up to 8 or lower. You can play the Super Mario games and you can play some DVDs and you can play the CD music."
The TV appeals continued as the nation - and the world - prayed for news. Most had given up hope and feared the worst.
An offer of reward money soon followed. It was what Matthews and Donovan - uncle to her then boyfriend Craig Meehan - had been waiting for all along.
Shannon was being used to make money: the victim of an evil plot hatched after Matthews watched an episode of the TV drama featuring the Gallaghers.
They had even reached out to the Find Madeleine McCann Fund for cash.
But suspicion was growing. Not just among the hardened cops of a West Yorkshire’s Homicide and Major Enquiry Unit but among the locals and even the friends of Matthews.
The dragnet that followed saw Meehan charged with possessing child sexual abuse images. Others were convicted of benefit fraud.
Finally, Shannon was found at Donovan's flat after a neighbour's tip off about "little footsteps" from upstairs.
Officers found her in the drawer of one side of a divan bed. Donovan was hiding in the other.
An officer scooped Shannon up in his arms and ran out of the property, telling colleagues "She's ok."
Donovan was arrested for abduction.
There was a party on the Dewsbury Hall estate long into the night. Residents played music and danced into the street as they downed wine and beer. They were jubilant.
But there was unfinished business.
As the net closed in and cops pieced together the evidence, Matthews finally crumbled.
She was being driven in a car with a highly experienced family liaison officer assigned to prise out the truth and a small number of pals when it came to a stop at a red light.
One of her pals then blurted the question on everyone's lips: "did you know?"
In that moment of high drama, Matthews confessed everything.
For 24 days, she had been lying through her teeth and - with the help of Donovan - had traumatised her own daughter.
It was nothing more than a cruel and evil hoax.
I remember clearly the night Matthews was charged by police. We’d been assembled by the Crown Prosecution Service for the announcement.
Andy Brennan, then the senior investigating officer and how head of the National Crime Agency, appeared in the background.
I asked him how Shannon was doing and he replied: "Her life's just beginning."
Topics