KIDNAP plot mum Karen Matthews is believed to be a free woman again after being release from prison for what a judge described as a "truly despicable" plot to abduct her nine-year-old daughter Shannon Matthews.

Karen Matthews, then 33, was sent to Foston Hall prison near Derby after being jailed in January 2009 for the kidnap of her daughter Shannon.

But she is believed to have been released from prison after serving half her sentence, including almost 10 months on remand.

There was no official confirmation of her release on Thursday, but Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of the probation union Napo, said Matthews will be on licence for the remainder of her sentence.

She will also be banned from returning to the area of Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, where she lived, Mr Fletcher said.

He added that the conditions of Matthews’s release also ban her from associating with Michael Donovan, in whose flat the youngster was found. Donovan was also jailed for eight years and has already been released.

Shannon was nine when she disappeared from her home in Dewsbury Moor, West Yorkshire, in February 2008. After a massive police operation, she was discovered 24 days later at her stepfather’s uncle’s home, less than a mile away.

Matthews wants to take part in a lie detector test on ITV’s Jeremy Kyle show as she continues to protest her innocence, her cousin Susan Howgate told ITV’s Daybreak.

She added that Matthews had "ruined" the lives of the family. "If she gets in touch with me, I’ll never speak to her again. I don’t want anything to do with her."

Other reports suggest that Matthews has dieted and dyed here hair in order to not be recognised on here release.

Shannon was found in Donovan’s flat in Lidgate Gardens, Batley Carr, West Yorkshire, in the base of a divan bed. The youngster had been drugged and forced to adhere to a strict list of rules while held captive.

Prosecutors said Donovan kept Shannon imprisoned as part of a plan he and Matthews hatched to claim a £50,000 reward offered by a national newspaper. The trial judge said it was doubtful Matthews and Donovan, who both have a low IQ, could have planned and carried out the kidnap without other people.

Craig Meehan - Matthews’s partner and Donovan’s nephew - was later jailed for possessing child abuse images on his computer. In 2010, a serious case review into Shannon’s case concluded her abduction could not have been foreseen by social services and other agencies involved with her family.

See our timeline on the next page to remind yourself just how the extraordinary story unfolded.

Here are the key dates and times in the story of the disappearance of Shannon Matthews.

Tuesday February 19 2008

:: 3.10pm - Shannon returns to school after a swimming trip with her class. This was the last public sighting of her until she was discovered at Michael Donovan’s flat. Some time after this, she gets into Donovan’s Peugeot car.

:: 4pm - Shannon’s mother Karen Matthews goes to her neighbour Victoria Saunders’s house to tell her Shannon had not come home and begins a search for her daughter.

:: 6.48pm - Matthews makes a 999 call to the police. Officers arrive within minutes.

Wednesday February 20

:: More than 200 police officers join local people in an overnight search for Shannon in sub-zero conditions.

:: By 7am West Yorkshire Police believe the situation is so serious they bring in their homicide and major inquiry team to run the investigation under Detective Superintendent Andy Brennan.

:: The force launches a public appeal for help to find Shannon.

:: Matthews returns home and makes an emotional appeal on her doorstep.

Thursday February 21

:: Mr Brennan says 250 uniformed officers plus 60 detectives are looking for Shannon and reveals a number of possible sightings of her on the day she vanished.

Friday February 22

:: Shannon’s father, Leon Rose, says his daughter had spoken about wanting to live with him before she went missing.

Saturday March 1

:: Matthews issues a Mother’s Day message to Shannon and The Sun offers a £20,000 reward.

Monday March 3

:: Matthews makes an emotional appeal at a police press conference clutching Shannon’s "Love Teddy". She says she cannot trust those close to her.

Wednesday March 5

:: Craig Meehan, Karen Matthews’s partner at the time, gives an interview denying any involvement in his stepdaughter’s disappearance.

Tuesday March 12

:: Detectives reveal the search for Shannon is the biggest West Yorkshire Police investigation since the Yorkshire Ripper inquiry.

:: The Sun increases its reward to £50,000.

Friday March 14

:: 12.45pm - Detective Constable Paul Kettlewell and Detective Constable Nick Townsend call at Donovan’s flat in Lidgate Gardens, Batley Carr, and get no response despite neighbours saying he is in. They call for back-up from the operation support unit.

:: 1.20pm - When the extra officers arrive, they smash their way into the flat and find Shannon 24 days (23 days, 18 hours and 22 minutes) after Matthews’s 999 call. She is found hidden in a bed alongside Donovan, who was arrested after a struggle.

:: 1.34pm - Donovan tells Pc Matthew Troake "Get Karen down here, we’ve got a plan" in the police van after his arrest.

Monday March 17

:: Donovan is charged with kidnap and false imprisonment.

Tuesday March 18

:: Matthews is interviewed under caution by detectives and denies any involvement in her daughter’s disappearance. She dismisses Donovan’s accusations against her.

:: Donovan appears before magistrates in Dewsbury.

Wednesday April 2

:: Meehan is charged with possessing indecent images of children and is later remanded in custody by magistrates.

Sunday April 6

:: Prison officials confirm Donovan tried to kill himself in Leeds Prison.

:: Matthews is arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice by Detective Constable Christine Freeman after Matthews admits she knew where Shannon was all along, during a car journey.

Tuesday April 8

:: Matthews is charged with perverting the course of justice and child neglect.

Wednesday April 9

:: Matthews makes her first court appearance at Dewsbury Magistrates’ Court. After this, she tells a security officer that Shannon’s disappearance was planned by Meehan and other members of his family.

Thursday April 17

:: Matthews is interviewed again by detectives. She produces a prepared statement in which she again blames Meehan for Shannon’s disappearance.

Friday April 18

:: Meehan denies child pornography charges at Dewsbury Magistrates’ Court.

Tuesday September 16

:: Meehan is found guilty of 11 counts of possessing indecent images of children. He is sentenced to 20 weeks in prison but is released because of the time he has already spent in jail on remand.

Tuesday November 11

:: A jury is sworn in to try Matthews and Donovan on charges of kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice.

Thursday November 13

:: Donovan is attacked by another inmate at Leeds Prison and suffers a fractured jaw.

Thursday December 4

:: Matthews and Donovan found guilty of all charges.

Monday January 5 2009

:: Meehan abandons an appeal against his conviction for downloading indecent images of children.

Friday January 23

:: Matthews and Donovan sentenced to eight years in prison each.

Thursday April 5 2012

:: Matthews is believed to have been released from prison after serving half her sentence, including almost 10 months on remand.