THIS is the bed where Shannon Matthews was hidden during her kidnap ordeal, a court was told.

The picture is part of the prosecution evidence in the trial of Michael Donovan, 40, of Batley Carr, and Shannon’s mother, Karen Matthews, 33.

They deny kidnap and false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice.

The jury at the trial at Leeds Crown Court was also shown a strap allegedly used to tie up Shannon Matthews.

Forensic scientist Frances Senior presented jurors with a long white, elasticated tether containing knots and a large noose at one end.

The device was found at Donovan’s flat on March 14.

Donovan told yesterday’s hearing that Shannon’s mother had blackmailed him into imprisoning the schoolgirl.

Following his arrest, Michael Donovan told police co-accused Karen Matthews had offered him cash for looking after then nine-year-old Shannon.

Donovan told detectives Karen said, during a meeting at a cafe in Dewsbury town centre, she would then report her daughter missing.

But when he protested, Donovan said, Karen said she would set three men on him.

Donovan told police Karen was planning to leave her then partner Craig Meehan because he was violent in drink and had thrown a can of lager at Shannon’s head.

In a statement to police he said: “I wasn’t happy and she threatened she would get three lads on me. I knew one lad had stabbed a man and killed him.

“I was frightened that if I didn’t do it they would come after me. I said I didn’t want the money.

She told me if I went to anyone I would be dead...

“When I saw the news I wanted to take Shannon home but I was frightened Karen would set the men on me.”

Donovan said while Shannon was living at his house Karen had called telling him the reward for her daughter’s safe return had risen to £35,000. He said Karen instructed him to release Shannon in Dewsbury Market and take her to the police station once the reward reached £50,000.

But he told police: “If I had got the reward I wouldn’t have kept it. I would have given it to Karen.”

He said Shannon had told him he was ‘kind and generous, not like her parents’.

Donovan added when police broke into his flat on March 14 they had banged his head against a wall causing him to lose consciousness.

Proceeding.