Shannon sentence: Karen Matthews gets eight years

Jan 23 2009 By Andrew Jackson

THE mother of Shannon Matthews was jailed for eight years today for her role in the kidnap of her own daughter.

Karen Matthews, 33, of Moorside Road, Dewsbury Moor, West Yorkshire, was sentenced at Leeds Crown Court after being found guilty last month of kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice.

Her former partner’s uncle, Michael Donovan, 40, was convicted of the same offences and was also jailed today for eight years.

Last month, Detective Superintendent Andy Brennan, the officer who led the investigation, said Matthews had "totally betrayed" her daughter and condemned her as "pure evil".

Following the trial, Kirklees social services announced an independent serious case review into the dealings agencies had with the family of Shannon.

The judge, Mr Justice McCombe, said: ``The offences that you committed were truly despicable.

"It is impossible to conceive how you could have found it in you to put this young girl through the ordeal that you inflicted upon her.

"It is incomprehensible that you could have permitted your friends, neighbours and in your case, Matthews, even your children to sacrifice time and energy in extensive searches for the supposedly missing child."

Giving mitigation on behalf of Donovan, Alan Conrad QC told the court the barristers in the case had a combined legal experience of more than 100 years but none had come across a case like it.

He said: "Nobody concerned has ever come across a case remotely like this before.

"The case here is truly unique.

"Despite all of us trawling through sentencing authorities, we managed to find nothing that came remotely close to this."