RedHanded - Episode 335 - Shannon Matthews: Under the Bed

Episode Date: February 15, 2024

On 19 February 2008, 9-year-old Shannon Matthews left school, waved goodbye to her best friend, and then vanished on the half-mile walk home.West Yorkshire police, and a determined group of locals from Shannon’s estate, spent weeks doing all they could to find the missing little girl.But when the truth behind Shannon’s disappearance was eventually uncovered, it was more shocking than anybody could have imagined.Exclusive bonus content:Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHandPatreon - Ad-free & Bonus ContentFollow us on social media:YouTubeTikTokInstagramXVisit our website:WebsiteSources available on redhandedpodcast.comYouTubeRedHandedSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Red Handed early and ad-free. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. They say Hollywood is where dreams are made. A seductive city where many flock to get rich, be adored, and capture America's heart. But when the spotlight turns off, fame, fortune, and lives can disappear in an instant. Follow Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Hannah.

I'm Sruti. And welcome to a really, really depressing Red Handed. Yeah. Usually I'm so good at being like, I'm really good at compartmentalising, but this one has made me feel so sad and like, just Miz. It is. It is. Les Mills. It is Les Mills. It's like doing a whole class of Les Mills.

On an empty stomach and two hours sleep. Been there. Been there. Nine months after the disappearance of Madeleine McCann left an indelible mark of obsession on the fabric of British society, another search for another little girl was underway on the Yorkshire Moors. Nine-year-old Shannon Matthews stepped off her school coach on the afternoon of 19 19th of February 2008, and Shannon would never return home. Until that day, Shannon Matthews had lived on the Moorside

estate in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire. She lived with her mum Karen, Karen's boyfriend who's called Craig Meehan, and her other siblings. The search for Shannon was the greatest undertaken by the West Yorkshire police since they were on the hunt for Peter Sutcliffe. The search for Shannon was the greatest undertaken by the West Yorkshire police since they were on the hunt for Peter Sutcliffe. The search for Shannon stretched on for weeks. And in the second week of absolutely no leads, encouraged by her mates and probably the press, Karen Matthews consulted with a psychic at a friend's house. And this psychic told the expectant room that Shannon was alive and well. She was with someone that Karen and Craig both knew. And then this psychic woman slowly turned her head towards the 31-year-old Karen Matthews

and said that Karen knew exactly where her daughter was. Footage of this supernatural chinwag was handed in to the police, but as so often happens, nothing came of it. So here is what happened the morning that Shannon vanished. Shannon Matthews climbed down the ladder of the bunk beds she shared with one of her sisters in her 101 Dalmatians dressing gown. She trod carefully. There had been a big row in the house the night before,

and the tension was still in the air. Shannon had sworn at her mum's boyfriend, Craig, and she was so frightened of his response that she had run to her uncle's house round the corner. Now, this uncle didn't want to get involved, so he sent one of his own children to walk Shannon home, back into the argument. That fateful morning, Shannon left the house by 8am,

probably with no breakfast, and her mum Karen screamed after her not to come back. And she never would. She's nine years old. I feel like, obviously, if you are British, you know this case. Whether you follow us on social media or not the images of shannon and karen are alive and well in that front part of your brain or whichever part of your brain is responsible for memory the bad part i don't know that part of your brain is alive

and well and i don't know i know she looks so young in that but i'm i'm horrified to think she was nine years old she was nine in my, she does look like quite an old nine. And I think, I mean, there are going to be so many comparisons to Madeleine McCann in this episode because Madeleine looked so much younger and was younger. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because Madeleine was four? Yeah. And for lots of different reasons, like conventionally more appealing to the British public. So Shannon always was going to fall foul of that comparison, I think.

Yeah, yeah. And that day, Shannon walked to school with her cousins and she told them what happened the night before. That's the reason we know about the argument. And then she spent the day quietly at school with her very best friend, Megan Aldridge. In the afternoon, Shannon, Megan and the rest of their class hopped on a coach to the local leisure centre

where they had a scheduled swimming lesson. And when it was over, the girls got back on the coach and they were back at school at about 3pm. Later on, the CCTV footage of the two girls walking out of the door would be broadcast nationwide in the weeks to come. Shannon had told Megan that one of her brothers was going to meet her at the school gate to begin the walk home. But no brother appeared, so Shannon set off on her own. A few days later, Megan would remember that Shannon walked the opposite direction to the one that she usually would, but no one figured out the significance of that straight away. And as we know, and if you are British you will almost certainly remember, that Shannon did not make it home that afternoon. Her mother, Karen Matthews, called the police to report her daughter missing at 6.48pm.

Now that might seem like a long time to wait, but Karen Matthews wasn't the most vigilant mother. And before we go on, let's clear something up. This case is absolutely riddled with classism, which we will discuss at length later on in the episode. Comparisons between the Matthews clan and the characters of the TV show Shameless were everywhere at the time. But just to be clear, Karen Matthews is not a bad mum because she's working class. She's also not a bad mum because she has seven children with five different men. Karen Matthews is a bad mum because she's a bad mum. And they come in every shape, size and class. Yeah, full stop, really. Like, I think that's the biggest, the biggest and most consistent theme in this case is, oh, well, they're trash, so who cares? What we're not going to do is give

you any information on Karen's other children. Who are we to dig for them? They've been through enough, so let's just stick to Shannon. Karen was 23 when she had Shannon, her third child. Shannon's father, Leon Rose, was just a teenager, and the pair split up when Karen dumped him to continue her cycle of younger boyfriend, baby, and then breakup. By the time Shannon disappeared, Karen was 31. She'd been playing the same game

for years. Karen left school at 16 with a below average IQ and a part-time cleaning job. She herself is one of seven children, although her parents, June and Gordon, are still together now. And a lot of what we know about Karen's school of raising children actually comes from June herself, so Karen's mum, Shannon's grandma. Karen always claimed and told police and press, etc, that she ran a harmonious home. She says things like when she's interviewed, the police are like,

what would you do if your child did something wrong? And she's like, well, I would sit down with them, explain why what they had done was wrong. That is bullshit. Of course it is. The reality of what life was like in that house is nightmare fuel. Absolutely. And also, I feel very like if you are listening to this case so far and you do not know what

happens, because we're trying not to spoil it. We're trying to like build up to have some drama and to tell you the story in a compelling way. But if you do not know this and you're like my god why are they coming down so hard on this poor missing girl's mum just you you'll see because i just don't want people to be thinking whether karen matthews is a shit mum or not what happened to shannon what's that got to do with it well well well so don't do that thing where you rush to instagram and comment and they'll be like oh i only listened

to the first 10 minutes yeah and again like i also want to say you know i re-watched the killing recently and in that there is a storyline in the second season there is a storyline about a mother who is a shitty mother like i'm not gonna mince my words around it she's a shitty mother her daughter is homeless in her early teens and it's because she wants to have her boyfriend live with her. The boyfriend came on to the girl and the girl is like, I need you to pick between me and your fucking piece of shit boyfriend. And she's like, you're not going to ruin this for me. I want to have this boyfriend. And so the girl goes and is homeless. And it kind of reminds me of like what would have happened in the Joanne Curtis case when we did the murder of lynn dawson

and a couple of people got in touch and they were like it was so harsh on margo who is joanne's mom because the daughter leaves and falls prey of this fucking predator yeah because she can't be at home because the boyfriend is a piece of shit i'm not saying that's what's happened here i'm just saying people got in touch with us and were like oh how dare you because she was a victim of male violence and I'm like yes okay but she also has her own agency and she also should have put her child first things can be two things like Karen Matthews did spend some time in the care system a couple of years her siblings didn't it was just her I'm not saying she's had the easiest life in the world. But lots of people have difficult lives. And it doesn't give you a carte blanche to be a shit mum, which is what she is. So anyway, long, very rambling caveats put in place. Let's continue.

So Karen and her various boyfriends would often argue violently in the house. Money that should have gone on nappies went on booze and fax. The house on Moorside Road was infested with mice and beetles and covered in waste and vomit. To say that these children were living in squalor is to put it mildly. Now we'll spare you all of the horrible details but there is one story from the Matthews house that really stands out. On the wall in Shannon's bedroom there were notes written between her and one of her brothers. It read, do you think we'll get tea tonight? And they mean an evening meal.

They don't just mean a cup of tea. Yeah, for our international and possibly southern listeners, in the north, tea means evening, dinner means lunchtime. So yes, this question mark, do you think we'll get tea tonight, is written. And the reply that's written is, we might get a packet of crisps if we're quiet. Unsurprisingly, social services were alerted by both neighbours and family members multiple times. But despite the Matthews children showing up for school with matted hair, unwashed clothes, and layers of dirt so thick it rolled off their feet. No signs of neglect were recorded. They say Hollywood is where dreams are made, a seductive city where many flock to get rich, be adored, and capture America's heart. But when

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all episodes of the Cotton Club murder early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. You don't believe in ghosts? I get it. Lots of people don't. I didn't either until I came face to face with them. Ever since that moment, hauntings, spirits, and the unexplained have consumed my entire life. I'm Nadine Bailey. I've been a ghost tour guide for the past 20 years. I've taken people along with me into the shadows, uncovering the macabre tales that linger in the darkness. And inside some of the most haunted houses, hospitals, prisons, and more. Join me every week on my podcast, Haunted Canada,

as we journey through terrifying and bone-chilling stories of the unexplained. Search for Haunted Canada on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you find your favourite podcasts. In early 2003, the Matthews children were put on the at-risk register by the council after reports of alcohol abuse in the home and the children being left alone for nights on end. So this is the thing is that there are people noticing what is going on in the lead up to what happens. It's not like, oh my God, that family, I never saw it coming. So as a result of the kids being put on the at-risk register, Karen was psychologically assessed and she was found to be in need of supervision as, quote, her ability to protect her children is compromised by her inability to successfully place the children's

needs above her own. I think that pretty succinctly sums up Karen Matthews. Inexplicably though despite that report being made five years before Shannon Matthews vanished the Matthews family were taken off the at-risk register. Basically, there's just a comment that is filed by a social services person. I don't know whether it was a social worker or a liaison officer or whatever, but essentially they take them off the register. They're like, they seem like they're settled down. That's like the exact quote.

Wow. So the warning signs that something was off were there for years. According to June, that's Karen's mum, she always knew when social services were due to come round to Moorside Road because Karen would ask to borrow money to fill the cupboards with actual food. Again, I think that's the thing about Karen Matthews that I find very hard to move past and feel any sympathy for her because when she's questioned by police, like what would you do if your children did something wrong blah blah blah and the food stocking she knows what the right thing to do is she just again to use the social workers words she just doesn't want to put the children's needs

above hers yeah which like if there is a definition of being a mother yeah so usually karen would receive 350 quid a week in benefits and and by 2009, she had shacked up with Craig Meehan, and they'd been living together for about four years, I think. Craig earned 300 quid a week on the fish counter at a nearby Morrison's, and the pair of them ran the party house of the Moorside estate. Everyone knew about it, and people came and went at all hours of the day.

And people who are interviewed in the various documentaries, there are lots of documentaries, some are better than others, go forth. But a lot of the people on the estate are like, oh yeah, like all the time. Everyone knew about it. It wasn't, again, not a secret. And again, to just be running a quote unquote party house, which I think is putting it nicely.

Yes, I'm trying to be even handed. I'm not doing be even handed. Yeah. I'm not doing a great job. Yeah. When you have a house full of children is just one of the most sinister things that anybody can be doing. Seven children. Oh my God.

Maybe six. It's a bit unclear. I think one of the kids lives with their biological dad, but because they're all kept secret identities, we don't really know. But between six and seven children in that house. And just unfettered access by all sorts of strangers, coming in, doing whatever they want. So yeah, coming back to Craig. Craig was 10 years younger than Karen, but arguably more intelligent, depending on who you ask. Yeah, they say that, man. I don't know. Yeah. Potato, potato.

He does look like a potato. But whether he looked like a potato or not, everyone in Moorside Estate knew everyone else. And no one really seemed to have a particular problem with Craig. What I will say is there is a culture of no one wants to be a grass. Oh, yeah. And there is one, I think she's a local councillor, this lady, who would go around the estate and read with the children. And she was like, Karen would never let me in her house because she thought I was a grass. So I never had that much contact with Shannon because Karen wouldn't engage with me. Yeah. It's so tricky, isn't it? Because social services in this country,

we've had a succession, just an absolute procession of massive catastrophic social work failures in this country. From whether it's Baby P to Daniel Pelker, there are so many cases, Victoria Klimbie, the case that we covered years and years ago on Red Handed. And often, you know, one individual social worker will end up with all of the blame for why that situation went wrong. And in some cases, yes, absolutely. I'm like, it's your fucking job. And yes, everybody makes mistakes at work. But when you make mistakes, it is catastrophic. But at the same time, I have to say that, you know, social work is massively underfunded. And the people who were, for example, in charge of the baby pee case, they were working twice the number of cases that they should have been working. Therefore, they were letting things slip through the gaps.

And then when you have the added difficulty of, like I said, and I've talked about this at length before, I used to produce education conferences, social work, education, healthcare, they form this little trifecta of child protection that you're meant to see in this country, like joined up working. But you have what's known as like hard to reach parents and hard to reach families who don't want to engage with social work who don't want to engage with the schools because they've had negative experiences they might not be doing anything nefarious they've just had negative experiences and therefore they might feel like you're going to be a quote-unquote grass

because there's this attitude of these people are going to take my children away and put them in care and they're going to be under more harm and I'm trying my best with limited resources. Karen Matthews is not that person. Nefarious is the word. But yes, Craig, nobody really, you know, has too much bad to say, but it might be, as Hannah said, because they kind of don't want to speak badly of somebody within their own community. And although at times Dewsbury has not had the best reputation it certainly does have a sense of community actually one of the detached houses on the estate was converted into a community house it's really nice it's like events and like yoga and stuff everyone hangs out I think that is one of the most important things that this shit show of a case that was the disappearance of Shannon Matthews brought to

the attention of some of the more elitist members of our society is that people in deprived areas aren't just like out for themselves doing what they can doing nefarious things. I mean, my god, there was such a community effort to find Shannon Matthews. The people in there were like, we are going to do everything we can to find the child of one of our own. It's just a shame what actually transpired. So in the Shannon Matthews era, there is no doubt that the leader of this community was the indomitable Julie Bushby. I love Julie Bushby. Played by Sheridan sheridan smith played by sheridan smith in the what was the drama called i think it's called more side more

side yeah so they made a dramatization about this case called more side on channel four itv bbc something itv and yeah excellent casting yeah so as soon as julie got wind of shannon's disappearance I think it's ITV. BBC something. ITV. And yeah. Excellent casting. Yeah. So as soon as Julie got wind of Shannon's disappearance, she was the first to gather everyone together and hit the streets to look for the nine-year-old. Everyone was sure that Shannon would show up. There was no way that she could have been abducted, not in a place like this.

As we said, a place where everyone knows everyone. Or so Julie thought. It was windy that night, with a freezing rain. If Shannon was on the moor, she would have been terrified. So the whole estate kept looking in every bush and every bin. But they found nothing. After 16 hours of absolutely no trace, the search was escalated to a homicide investigation, which might sound premature, everyone talks about the first 24 hours, blah, blah, blah, but in West Yorkshire, abductions are dealt with by the homicide squad, so that's all that's about. By the next day, Shannon's disappearance was national news,

and Maddie comparisons were made right out of the gate. A young girl had vanished again, but this time it was on home turf. On day three of the search, Karen Matthews spoke to a news crew in what is now infamous footage, and I am going to try very hard to be even-handed because almost nobody is when they're talking about Karen, which is easy to do because she's so awful, but let's try. Even on my nicest day, when I am feeling at my most kind, in this first televised appeal, Karen Matthews looks fucking rough. She's got these massive red rings around her eyes. She clearly hasn't been sleeping, but doing a lot of crying instead.

And I really wasn't sure whether I was going to bring this up. So if we would decide that we shouldn't we can take it out somebody has successfully crowdfunded Shannon Matthews the musical and I wasn't sure whether I should talk about it because I don't want to bring attention to it because I think it is absolutely

appalling. What the fuck? It's awful and it's done that thing where like sometimes Edinburgh shows will do this thing where they put the bad reviews on their flyers because they're like this is funny right and the bad reviews they have on their website is like absolutely appalling jewsbury councillor and i bring this up at this point because the like karen matthews character in this musical has the big red rings around her eyes the whole time like throughout the show okay why i don't know i i'm i'm aghast i don't know why that exists i just not even like why not make a

musical if you're going to and you know who am i to say that this conception exists because hey i'm a true crime podcaster why not at least say it's loosely based on a true story and just write this story as a musical why call it the shannon matthews musical it's that like shock factor thing which is so gcse drama it makes me want to pull my own face off in my opinion like i think the park theater had a jimmy saville musical a few years ago yeah which did cause outrage. I didn't see it, whatever. But something about this makes me feel so much worse than that.

It is worse than that because they're using the name of this child who, look, I'm not a big fan of just being like, oh, everyone's a victim. But Shannon Matthews is a person who is genuinely pretty much as close as it comes to being a victim from day one. And to make a musical and call it that, Jesus fucking Christ. Actually, the book about this case is called Retrayed from Birth. Yeah. I mean, that's a very, very accurate title. Now, I find it despicable that that musical exists.

But the reason it's happened is as you say like this shock whatever like you know let's let's get notoriety by creating something incredibly shocking but it's also because Karen Matthews comes across I have to say as somewhat of a caricature throughout this whole story and again coming back to kind of the elitist sensibilities in this country she is kind of the archetypical bogeyman if you will and i actually think it would be really interesting to listen to that first televised clip of karen matthew speaking shannon if you're out there please darling come home i love you so much me and your dad your brothers your sisters everybody loves. Your dad's missing you so much, Shannon. He's even out looking for you.

Please come home, Shannon. If you're out there, come home. If anybody's got my daughter, my beautiful princess daughter, please bring her home safe. So, yes, a far cry from the composure of Kate McCann. Yeah. However, everyone really felt for Karen. She was clearly beside herself. And the community, led by Julie, banded together behind Karen and her boyfriend, Craig.

So Craig is 10 years younger than Karen, right? And he looks it. Yeah. He looks it. He's a young potato. He's a new potato. But there's this footage of them standing in the doorway. And she, like, she kisses his neck, like, on camera.

And I'm like, that's gross. Don't, no, mm-mm, don't do that. Oh, no. So, you know, feel free to come for me about neck kissing if you want, but, like, I think there are bigger things at play here. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. So Karen told investigators that there was no reason for Shannon to have run away.

Police searched 500 houses. Dogs were brought in, but still nothing. Actually, interestingly, there were 22 dogs in the UK that were specifically trained to find bodies. 18 were used in this search. Because I do think there is a bit of an undertone to this story that comes out retrospectively where people often say nobody cared that Shannon Matthews went missing from having done the research. Do you think that's the case when it comes to law enforcement? Because if they are doing 500 house searches, the homicide team is on it straight away. The dogs are brought in. I'm not getting that feeling that the police weren't interested in this nine-year-old having gone missing.

For me, it's a yes and a no. I do think the police cared yeah i think jewsbury cared i think the community cared i think the british public at large didn't give a shit and the way the media reported on this story and i remember very clearly when this happened speaking to my friend's mom about it and it was before everything had unfolded and I said I just find it odd that she's being treated so differently to Maddie like she's she's missing and she's a little girl and this person's mum went oh she's a chav no one cares and I remember being shocked by that then and obviously I was having gone to a private school in Hertfordshire I was obviously going to be very exposed to that sort of attitude but like I know for a fact that attitude existed because I saw it yeah yeah and I do think that was overall the

attitude towards Shannon yeah which was just made worse by what happened yes and I think again the white working class is kind of the last acceptable form of prejudice that exists in this country to this day. And anybody who disagrees with me, fight me because I am correct on that. Having gone to a school, also in Hertfordshire, but not a private school, a school that was in fact, when I left was in special measures and had a very deprived intake as well as quite a middle class intake, just because of the town that we were in. So I just think the comments that i heard from parents of more middle class kids that i went to school with about the more deprived kids that i went to school with obviously they didn't register with me at the time i was a fucking child but in hindsight

yes of course nobody would say what your friend's mum said and remove the word chav and insert it with any other minority group she would never have said that. But Chav is acceptable. Exactly. It's like Katie Hopkins being like, I'd never let my daughter be friends with someone called Chardonnay. Like it's that exact attitude that runs through this whole case and also just through Britain, in my opinion. But it's okay, Hannah.

They've got white privilege, so don't worry about it. Okay, so yes, the police cared, the community cared cared i think that's safe to say and comparisons with maddie mccann and kate mccann are abound of course it's natural that we have to make those comparisons i will say you know there were obviously conversations when maddie went missing people being like what the fuck why were they having dinner out in the town pass there were people that were critical of them but there was a lot more empathy for what that family were going through when Maddie went missing. And I think the key difference is, yes, there were, you know, there are still people that think the McCanns did it. You know, there have always been lots of people who haven't been

on the parents' side, but that didn't mean they cared less about Maddie. I feel like people didn't like Karen and they didn't care about Shannon either. Yeah, I think, and maybe I'm not right, you know this case far better than I do, but is it a sense of Maddie McCann, it was like, oh, Kate and Jerry, they made a horrible, stupid mistake, if people didn't believe that they actually did it themselves. And, oh, this horrible thing happened to this child and it never should have happened and it could happen to any of us. And, oh, my God, the fear, the fear, the fear. With Karen and Shannon, it was bound to happen. I think it is that bound to happen thing. And also there is an element of,

and this is very difficult to put delicately, I think the British public looked at Madeleine McCann, they were like, oh, what a waste. Yeah. She could have been, both of her parents are doctors, she's beautiful, she could have been this amazing boon to society. And then they look at Shannon Matthews and be like,

oh, she probably would have got pregnant at 14 anyway, who cares? Yeah. No, I think you're very, very right. And why would we put it delicately when it's an indelicate thing at its core? Okay, so getting back on the story. Journalist Richard Edwards was one of the first to be allowed into the Matthews' home. Craig, Karen's boyfriend, took him upstairs to Shannon's shared bedroom. Karen said that she found it really hard to be in that room and called Craig her rock. Craig started to cry during this, but Karen remained relatively stoic. Shannon's dad, a man named Leon Rose,

also gave TV interviews. He admits that he hadn't seen too much of Shannon recently, but desperately wanted her to be safe. Leon and Karen have like a massive fallout, unsurprisingly. And he lives 10, 15 minutes down the road. It's not far. I don't think he was a disinterested father. I think Karen was a nightmare.

Yeah. Now another note on Shannon's bedroom wall read that she wanted to go and live with her dad Leon and when told this on camera Leon said that if Shannon came home they could sort something out. He's a very quintessential Yorkshireman in that like he doesn't really show that much emotion on his face but I think this is a tricky one because most children of separated parents will be like I want to go and live with the other one you know like that happens I don't think that on its own is evidence of Karen being a poor parent but I think we have enough evidence in other areas to say that she is Leon isn't the most likable man on camera he's not very charismatic I don't

think he's a bad person no and again look we're not going down this road of just being like oh let's ignore the men that leave mothers and their children and then put all the blame on the single mother for having to deal with the children and being a poor mother etc etc but everything we know about Karen Matthews is that she is a vindictive person and Leon Rose once they were no longer together and the falling out they had Karen Matthews is the kind of person that would have done everything she could to keep him out of Shannon's life if for a second she thought that Leon wanted to be in Shannon's life I completely agree which he wanted to so the police investigated Leon obviously they had to but they quickly eliminated him from the investigation all the while however our MVP of this entire episode, Julie Bushby, did not quit.

She printed posters, she made t-shirts and kept looking, really throwing her heart and soul into the search for Shannon. But still, days went by and nothing. And the fact that nothing was found, and I mean nothing, set off alarm bells for another reason. It is incredibly rare for a child to go missing and there to be no trace of them found for days, let alone weeks. Sarah Payne, for example, they found her shoe. So according to the, really can't believe it's called this, but it's the Catchem database. I can't. Just change the name. It's like Operation Wrap It Up with Biggie and Tupac, right? this, but it's the Catchem database. I can't. Just change the name.

It's like Operation Wrap It Up with Biggie and Tupac. It's just... Ha! Catchem. The Catchem database. Oh, my God. All right. So according to the CATCATM database, which holds data relating to every child murder in the UK since 1960, a majority of children who go missing are found dead within six hours.

Well, a majority of them are found within the first three hours. Anything longer than that, they're going to be dead. After 12 hours, 96% of missing children are found dead. And after three days, 100% of missing children would either be found or be dead. I'm so very glad that in some sort of Homer Simpson-esque brain meltdown I'm having, that the entire time you were reading all those horrible stats, I was just singing the Pokemon theme tune. Oh my God, that is so miserable.

Yeah, so the point is, it gets more and more suspicious the longer nothing is found. Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wondery Show American Scandal. We bring to light some of the biggest controversies in U.S. history. Presidential lies, environmental disasters, corporate fraud. In our latest series, NASA embarks on an ambitious program to reinvent space exploration with the launch of its first reusable vehicle, the Space Shuttle. And in 1985, they announced they're sending teacher Krista McAuliffe into space aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, along with six other

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As the search for Shannon sailed past every milestone, things were not looking good. The Sun newspaper offered a £20,000 reward to anyone who managed to find Shannon, as time went on it seemed like Craig and Karen were starting to enjoy the spotlight. The red rings around Shannon's eyes were gone and the pair of them were very happy to be front and centre. The couple would watch themselves back on TV and laugh. There's one example that's given in the book where a news reporter is like oh and Karen has seven children and has been married to five different men. And Shannon's like, that's bullshit. I never married any of them.

It's like that kind of levity that's in there. And I remember watching a documentary about this years ago. And it's like, I think in some of the documentary footage, they have footage of her watching herself on TV and laughing and being like, oh, blah, blah, blah. Look at me there. Exactly. yeah. And this I'd completely forgotten about, but is a real kicker. On day nine of the search, Leona Lewis sent a personal message to the family after she heard that Bleeding Love

was Shannon's favourite song. What a moment of its time. I know. So the Sunday after Shannon disappeared, a discovery was made on the mall. But it was nothing to do with Shannon. This is fucking mad. Yeah, so this, I had no idea.

This is absolutely fucking bonkers. So yes, as I said, it's got nothing to do at all with Shannon Matthews. Really not trying to lead you guys up the garden path on this, but it is worth mentioning because on the malls that following week, a 43-year-old man was found to have been crucified. He was found nailed to a wooden cross that had been hammered into the ground. He was quickly whisked away by the police, and we still don't know who he was. But the police have always denied any link to shannon's disappearance i actually think he was never even identified i mean what i know there's a story out

of australia that i've had like on my shorthand list for ages which is like it's called rack man and it's basically that some police force in australia somewhere i can't remember the details found a man who had been crucified and thrown into a river. And I don't even think he'd been like properly crucified. I think his arms were just tied to the cross, not even nailed in. And that is like a huge, huge, huge story that everybody's obsessed with.

Like who was Rackman? Who was Rackman? And I actually think it was just like drug, drug stuff, like gang stuff. But this, how have I never heard about this? This was in the 2000s. So we just don't know anything about this man? Not to my knowledge, no.

That's wild. I don't know what to say. And neither did the people of Dewsbury, because whether it had anything to do with Shannon or not, understandably, everybody there took it as a very bad omen. Yeah, we haven't found the nine-year-old, but a man has been crucified just over the hill. You know what?

This year, one of the things i really want to do is go to the moors go to the yorkshire dales go do all of that like it looks absolutely fucking stunning i'm like imagine if i found a crucified man out there and this true crime game does you know fuck with your head like i found some nice like new wooded areas near my house and i like went on a couple of walks there this weekend a couple on my own and I was like oh my god please don't find anything please don't what like when we were in Canterbury and we saw that man lying on the ground oh my god Hannah and I went on like a little day trip to Canterbury once and there was just a man lying on like the grounds of where was he was it the grounds of the cathedral

or like just some other grounds just on gardens it was along the canal river something and we were like oh my god he is lying in such an uncomfortable position and he hasn't moved in all the time we've been sat here and we were like are we actually going to go over there and are we actually going to find a dead body and we went very very close and then hannah was like no he moved it's fine let's see i saw someone shimmying up a drain pipe last night all right oliver twist i know like the building opposite my building i saw someone it's got those like external concrete corridors like my old poplar house just here and the man just straight up the drain pipe wow and i was like should i call the police? Oh, I know. Grass. Yeah, I know.

I was like, I've seen nothing. And as the days became weeks since Shannon was seen, the police were getting desperate. So they released the CCTV footage

from the swimming pool. And this was when Megan remembered that Shannon had turned the wrong way out of the school gates. I feel for Megan Aldridge so much. They are best friends. I feel for Megan Aldridge so much.

They are best friends. And they don't have any other friends. It's just the two of them. Oh, Megan. So what it meant was that as Shannon had left the school gate, she went the opposite direction to the one she usually went, which actually meant she was walking away from her house. And nobody could figure out why she would have done that.

And then the police made another discovery that sent shockwaves through Moorside. It turned out that maybe everybody didn't know everybody because 1,400 registered sex offenders lived within a 20-mile radius of Shannon's house. And what's more, several of them had direct links to Shannon's family. So finally, the police had something to work with. And from the 1st of March 2009, the West Yorkshire Police started to work their way through that list. They identified 17 men to interview. Not all of them were sex offenders, but a good few of them were.

The more time Karen and Craig spent in front of the cameras, the more people started to think that something wasn't quite right. The Matthews house was being watched 24-7 and Karen and Craig continued to have their all-night rages and drink themselves half to death on a regular basis. Craig once carried 48 cans of lager back from the offy on his own. And perhaps Karen and Craig could feel this turn in public opinion because by search day 21, they started to retreat from the public eye. They even stopped attending vigils. Instead, they stayed inside watching TV, drinking and smoking.

Karen did go on Radio 4 though, to defend her boyfriend Craig. Some thought that he was violent and could have been the reason that Shannon ran away, which is a very good place to start. I'm not saying that's what happened, but, and look, I'm not, again, trying to vilify women who, you know, end up in new relationships after a marriage breaks down and they have children, but all of the data shows that when there is a non-biologically related male in the house, the risk of sexual abuse and the risk of abuse towards the children goes through the fucking roof. So yes, of course people were sceptical of Craig.

But Karen vehemently denied that Craig had ever hit any of her children. And she seems a lot more bothered about defending him than she was about finding her daughter. But then something changed. Karen gave yet another TV appeal, and this time she looks a lot more put together. And for the first time, she made the suggestion that someone may have abducted Shannon. Karen also, just as the psychic predicted, said that she thought the kidnapper was someone that she and Craig both knew. Karen also told the police that she was sure that Shannon was

somewhere safe and warm, alive and well. It did seem odd that Karen would suddenly point the finger at someone so close to her after weeks of denying any knowledge as the whole community united behind her, was she holding something back? Did Karen Matthews know more about her daughter's disappearance than she was letting on? Was she trying to protect her boyfriend maybe? Some certainly started to think so and rumours started to sweep across the moors. And the McCann comparisons continued. Karen often referred to them as snobs and said that they were fine and had the money and the celebrity. We also know that a call was made to the £1.5 million fine Maddy Fund

from the Matthews house asking for money. Now, we don't know who made that call, but the McCanns denied the request. This is such a weird detail. Like, we genuinely don't know who made that call. We just know it came from that house. So someone is contacting the McCann's and being like, give us your money. Give us your money so we can find Shannon. And the McCann's are like, that doesn't seem right to me. That seems very odd. No, thank you. God, that whole thing is so weird. And again, like, look look we've talked about this at length

before but the amount of money and like look if people want to fundraise to find madeline mccann that's one thing that's your money choose what you want to do with it but the amount of taxpayers money that was spent to find madeline mccann compared to any other child is pretty outrageous but anyway after this happened the son upped their reward money from 20,000 to 50,000. And finally, a worthwhile tip came in. A local man who lived in one of the surrounding villages, sorry, that's all we know, we don't know which village, or who this man was.

Yeah, it's so frustrating. Like, it's such a key point in the case, and everyone's like, a man! Yes, just man. Which, it just sounds so suspicious. I know. It really sounds suspicious. But this man, a man, asked two detective constables, Paul Kettlewell and Nick Townsend,

if they had spoken to a man called Michael Donovan. The detectives had never heard this name, which was odd considering the amount of people they had questioned and the number of houses they'd searched. The man said that Michael Donovan used to come round and see him all the time, but quote, since that little girl went missing, he's not been round once. So the detectives had a little look into Michael Donovan, who lived in Batley Carr, a few miles from Moorside, and they made two very important discoveries. One was that Michael Donovan was not his real name.

The 39-year-old was actually called Paul Drake. He had renamed himself after a television character. And number two, Paul Drake slash Michael Donovan was Craig Meehan's uncle. Pow!

Yeah. I don't know how to make an unravelling noise. That's a house of cards falling down. Pass. Despite the police's thorough investigation of the Meehan and Matthews extremely complicated family tree, no

one had mentioned Michael Donovan. Not once. Even though he was a blood relative who lived five minutes down the road. Six minutes if there were sheep. Being old school policemen, Detective Constables Paul Kettlewell and Nick Townsend got themselves down to Batley Carr to knock on Michael Donovan's door straight away. But there was no answer at the Lydgate Gardens house. But this being Yorkshire, a neighbour stuck her head out of a window

and told the officers that Michael Donovan never answered the door. But his car was outside, so he was probably in, because Donovan never went anywhere without his Peugeot 406. He was obsessed with it. Is that a good car? No. I don't know cars. What colour was it? Silver. Oh Bill, boring. So Detective Constable's kettle will in Townsend asked this lady who'd stuck her head out the

window if she'd heard anything odd coming from Michael Donovan's house. She said that he heard his footsteps sometimes and sometimes she heard fast little footsteps that sounded like they belonged to a toddler. That was enough for detectives. They were going in. Bangs on the door did nothing, so they called for backup and forced their way in. The house was eerily silent until something more spooky happened. Detective Constable Nick Townsend heard a little girl's voice say, stop it, you're frightening me. But they couldn't work out where it was coming from. Then Townsend

realised that as he moved through the house, the voice sounded like it was coming from inside the base of a double bed. The detective bent down and out of an impossibly small hole in the side of the bed base wriggled out a scruffy, scared, tearful, but very much alive, Shannon Matthews. I'm Shannon, she told Townsend, and he burst into tears and took her out of the house to the police car where Detective Constable Kettlewell was waiting. It was the middle of the day and honestly I cannot explain to you if you weren't in the country at the time how big this case was and for this detective to just go into this house on the off chance on one random little tidbit of information they've been given and to find Shannon Matthews. I'm not

surprised he burst into tears. I cannot imagine what an overwhelming moment that must have been. So both policemen had thought that they would be coming out to that house with a body, and who knows, if they had waited any longer, or if they'd ignored that tip, maybe they would have. Kettlewell asked the nine-year-old where Michael Donovan was, and she said hauntingly, and I hate this sentence so much. The little girl told them, he's where I was. He's under the bed. That's the worst bit of the whole thing. I hate it. Oh my god. News that Shannon had been found alive in Batley Carr spread like wildfire and the Moorside Estate Community House was awash with hugs and tears of joy.

There's amazing footage of Julie Bushby on the phone. She was like, but is she there? Can you tell me? Can you confirm? Because nobody's expecting this. No. Nobody's expecting, none of the statistics back up that this is even remotely a possibility. Karen Matthews, however, did not cry. She was taken to Dewsbury Police Station by 2.30pm. She didn't ask if Shannon was OK. She didn't even ask to see her.

Karen Matthews, whose daughter had been missing for 24 days, was entirely detached. And look, we talk all the time on the show about how people's behaviour doesn't necessarily indicate guilt. This is one of those times where it entirely does. But still, Shannon needed to be officially identified. And because her body was technically a crime scene, that identification would have to be done from behind a one-way mirror. Karen didn't ask if she could touch her daughter. She just confirmed that the girl behind the glass was Shannon. It's the coldest of the cold.

The joyful reunion photograph that everyone was waiting for didn't happen. Karen and Craig did go out of their house to greet press cameras. They didn't say anything, they just kissed each other and went back inside. Julie Bushby had to remind them to smile. And the Saturday after Shannon was discovered, inside a bed, Karen and Craig threw one of their signature rages. Still though, people had questions. Where was Shannon? When was she coming home?

Because for them, they're like, oh my god, they've found her. And then Karen comes home, with no Shannon. And then Karen comes home with no Shannon. And then Shannon doesn't show up in the days after that. And it's like a feeling of like, oh, look, the authorities are keeping this child away from their mother. And it's like they just have no idea what is about to happen, what is about to be unleashed upon them. Because Karen didn't answer any of these questions she told julie bushby that she had seen shannon through a window and she didn't seem that bothered by it this is the thing and this is when like the the public are already against karen and craig

right they don't care they think they're trash this is when jewsbury starts to turn against them because yes there is the argument oh like the police are like holding her and how unkind blah blah but because Karen doesn't seem to be upset that's when people start to think of course this isn't right of course because everyone is thinking what of course they should be thinking which is if my child had been missing for nearly a month with an adult man she's found inside a bed with this person, the one thing I would want is that child to be in my arms as quickly as humanly possible. And Karen's just like, whatever. But the community in Dewsbury who had spent the last three weeks searching for Shannon, out in the cold and in the wet, were extremely bothered.

These are people who have given up, like, who haven't gone into work, they've given up time with their own children. They've sacrificed so much for this that it's totally unsurprising how fucking furious they turned out to be. The whiplash you would have to look at Karen Matthews and not see the desperation of a mother wanting her child back. So suspicions that witnesses to the child neglect in the Matthews house had in the back of their minds quickly started to take over. With a cloud of doubt hanging over the heads of Craig Meehan

and Karen Matthews, Shannon was handed over to social services for her own protection and she was never returned to the house that she had grown up in. Poor Megan Aldridge. She just gets off the coach after swimming and then her best friend never, ever comes back. Yeah. They never speak again. So, what happened to Michael Donovan, the fully grown man,

hiding under the same bed in Batley Carr? Well, he refused to come out from under the bed. He had to be dragged and he was not happy about it at all. He was taken from his house kicking and screaming and then the house was locked down as a crime scene. Under the bed where he had been hiding, police found Travelees, a prescription for the tranquiliser temazepam and a copy of The Sun announcing the £50,000 reward money for Shannon's safe return.ael donovan was taken to halifax police station to be questioned and the first thing he said was get karen down here we've got a plan we're sharing

the money oh my fucking god how does he still think he's getting the money i know are you okay how long were you under that bed and how much fucking tamazapam have you been taking jesus christ and i know like look i haven't seen the series but i am gonna go watch it i'm gonna go watch the dramatization of this because there are so many points in this story that you are like you couldn't write this can you imagine the police's face after a month of looking for this child to have finally found this man and he's like get karen down here we're sharing the money we had a plan. Can you even imagine? Yeah he's not the brightest pixie in the forest. No no no no no. Anyway get Karen down to the police station they most certainly did. But first here is what Michael Donovan had to say. He said that Karen

had hatched a plan to fake one of her children's abduction and claim the reward money. And Karen had decided that Shannon was the best bet because she would fetch more money than one of the boys. I mean, she knows something. The things she knows are few and far between, but she knows that. And again, this is absolutely inspired. This is like a child abuse gone girl.

That's what this is. She's completely inspired by Madeleine McCann going missing. And she thinks, I will rack up the same amount of money as the McCann family have, but instead of spending it looking for my child because she won't actually be missing, I'll just spend it on myself. So the plan was that Shannon would stay with Michael Donovan until the reward money reached £50,000. Oh my fucking...

That's what her child is worth to her. And once the reward money had hit that magic number, Karen and Michael would stage a recovery of Shannon in Dewsbury, claim the money and split it. In my opinion, that is where the plan falls down. Because their plan was that there's a shopping centre or a big Asda or something nearby with lots of CCTV. So they're like, oh, well, we'll just plant her there and then Michael can find her and it'll all be caught on CCTV. And then we'll just somehow explain why he's related to her and why it happened so soon after the 50 grand.

And also keep her quiet. Yeah, right. so soon after the 50 grand like that's and also keep her quiet yeah right because they didn't like keep shannon blindfolded in a room with no idea who her captor was what was the plan for making sure this nine-year-old didn't just tell the police as soon as they spoke to her exactly what happened yeah over promising and under delivering i think oh yes so it is likely that Shannon had been told she would be staying with her uncle Mike. And again, the fact that Karen Matthews is willing to take such a phenomenal risk in leaving her nine-year-old daughter with her boyfriend's uncle, it just makes you sick.

But anyway, this is presumably what Shannon was told. And that is probably why she turned the wrong way out of the school gates the day that she went missing. To meet Donovan in his Peugeot 406. Shannon had been told that he was taking her to a fun fair as a special treat. But, of course, she was instead taken to the Batley car residence. Karen was supposed to call Michael at 10 that night, but she didn't. Instead, she called him off someone else's phone to ask if Shannon had settled down, but she didn't speak to her daughter. Donovan insisted that he didn't want anything to

do with any of it. Karen told him that she would send men after him to batter him if he didn't help with her plan. Now, I don't doubt that some of that story is true, but I also think motive-wise there was a bit more to it. For now, let's have a look at Lydgate Gardens and the conditions that Shannon was kept in whilst the whole country was looking for her. A large elastic strap was found hanging from a loft door. It was clear that this had been used as some sort of harness to restrict Shannon to certain parts of the house whilst Michael Donovan was out. Also a list of rules were found on a piece of paper and here they are. You must not make any noise or bang your feet. You must not go near the windows. You must not get anything or do anything without me being here.

Keep the TV volume up to 8 or lower. You can play the Super Mario games. You can play some DVDs. And you can play the CD music. Then at the bottom of this list of rules, in big letters, was written IPU. It was later discovered that this was a code often used between Shannon and her mum Karen, and it stood for I promise you.

Michael Donovan claimed that he never hurt Shannon and that she actually had a much better time there than she ever had at home. And it does seem that Shannon didn't suffer any physical abuse at Lydgate Gardens, apart from the elastic tether. However, there are questions about what she may have seen there, because detectives found drawings in the house, one of which was a penis with a hand around it,

entitled Mum and Mike. Ugh, that just makes me feel so sick. Yeah, it's bad stuff. It's real bad stuff. 48 hours after Shannon was found, Michael Donovan was charged with kidnapping and false imprisonment, and Karen Matthews was brought in again to be interviewed under caution. Karen was insistent that Michael was lying, and with no further evidence against her,

Karen was actually allowed to leave the station. But don't worry, she'd be back. Naturally, the news that a relative of Craig's had been the one harbouring Shannon turned the community against Karen. Something wasn't right, and it was looking more and more likely that Karen had known all along. And also, I I just want to say just because it seems that Michael Donovan didn't physically harm Shannon Matthews that's just fucking by the grace of God that that didn't yeah exactly it wasn't because any precautions were taken to make sure that didn't happen I think he makes a point of it because he thinks that it means he's going to get a lesser sentence or something yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But that's not how abduction charges work. It's also neither fucking here nor there, that that didn't happen. Oh, it makes me think of, I saw over Christmas, I rewatched Gone Baby Gone. Is that what that movie's called? The one with Ben Affleck's little twerpy brother. That's what this is. That's what this feels like. And the house that Karen shared with her 22-year-old boyfriend Craig had even more to give.

All the computers in the house were seized, and on the one belonging to Craig, 140 images of child sexual abuse were found. Oh, wonderful. Wonderful. There were 653 recorded references on the hard drive to Lolita. Craig was arrested and charged with 11 counts of possessing child pornography, and Dewsbury well and truly turned on him. They felt entirely betrayed. Once he went to court, Craig Meehan claimed that he didn't even know what the word Lolita meant, let alone how to spell it.

He actually says that like it's a defense fucking hell just because you didn't know what it meant yeah what about all of the fucking images of child abuse yeah and again just to be clear for anybody comes for us like we've said on this podcast before calling it child pornography is not a good idea but that is what the legal term is that is what you get charged with we know that it is sexually explicit child abuse images but fuck you craig yeah the argument he makes is like yeah i downloaded porn and it was just in the same fucking zip folder how many times are people going to say that when it is so categorically proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that that is next to impossible that that happens people that are making indecent images of children like that don't just like

chuck it around willy-nilly they actually will say things like you need to show me something so that there's mutually assured destruction before i will share something with you you don't just accidentally download it fuck off craigeehan was found guilty and whisked away from Leeds Crown Court in an unmarked car. He served 20 months inside and he never returned to Dewsbury. Horrific as this is, I do think it is a bit of a red herring. Yeah, it just goes to further illustrate the dangerous living conditions that Shannon was in. But this is not the cause of her disappearance. Of course, it's natural to assume that Craig was involved in Shannon's abduction. They live together. He's not her biological father. There's rumors that he has

been violent. Maybe the abduction was his idea. And then you've got the child abuse images on top of all of that. That makes sense. It's a logical argument. But I do not think he was responsible. I think he probably knew, but I don't think he was the instigator. That role, in my opinion, falls squarely in Karen Matthews's lap. And eventually, Julie Bushby, the community hero, started to think the same thing. So her and her friend, Natalie, requested a meeting with Karen and her police liaison, Christine Freeman. It was agreed and all four of them sat in a car one afternoon. It wasn't long before Natalie blurted out, Karen, I don't believe you. You're hiding something from me. You wanted to leave Craig, so you told Michael to take care of Shannon, but you bottled it, so you reported her missing.

To this, Karen replied, yes, that's right. And possibly for the first time, let out real tears. The floodgates well and truly opened after this, and Karen babbled on and on, giving lots of different versions of the same story. She said that it had been Mike's idea. She said that she'd been too afraid of Craig. She also said that she only called the police so that no one would suspect anything and that it was only supposed to be a few days. She also said she didn't really want anyone to have a go at her

but that it all got out of hand etc etc etc. But all of these stories didn't do her any good. Christine Freeman, the liaison officer who had been working with Karen from the beginning, turned to her and said, Karen, you are under arrest for abduction. And Karen Matthews was taken to a safe house, a female prison being totally out of the question. Later, Karen would be slapped with a further charge of perverting the course of justice. And whether Karen was having an affair with Michael Donovan or not, they were tried as co-defendants. They didn't look at each other once throughout the whole thing.

People do seem to think that there was something going on between them. I don't care, basically. I'm like, it's really neither here nor there, I feel like. Surprisingly, both Michael Donovan and Karen Matthews took the stand in their own defence. Michael Donovan claimed that he had been blackmailed into keeping Shannon at his house until Karen said that she could be let free.

And he said that he was just too afraid of Karen to disobey. Which, maybe. But why would Karen split the money with him if she was just bullying him into the whole thing? That's a partnership. Like, if Karen had this complete hold over him and he was so terrified, literally, why would she go 50-50? That makes no sense. I think the words out of Michael Donovan's mouth, the first words out of his mouth when he's at the police station are the most accurate.

Get Karen down here. We had a plan. We're splitting this 50-50. Now, Karen told a very different story to the one that Michael told. She claimed that she had told Michael that she wanted to leave Craig and that he had offered to take Shannon for a few days to keep her safe in case Craig kicked off. Problem there? Yeah. There are six other children in that house.

I was going to say. There are six other children- that house. I was gonna say. There are six other children shaped problems with that little story. But it was very difficult to argue that there had been no premeditation and that Karen hadn't been involved. Firstly, the IPU code in the rules notes. Yeah, the IPU is like, that's something that Karen and Shannon said to each other. So it's not something that Michael Donovan has said to Shannon. Shannon's like, oh, I'll go along with this because my mum has specifically told me that this is going to be okay. And those are the notes that they find in the bedroom at Michael Donovan's house where Shannon is found. And then secondly, the real bombshell. Shannon's hair was tested and revealed that she had been fed tranquilizers for 20 months in the lead up to her disappearance.

So it couldn't have just been the travellees that had been found under the bed that was being used to sedate poor Shannon while she was being held captive. Someone had been feeding medication to Shannon for a very long time before that. That means that Karen had been drugging her daughter since she was just seven years old. It was also revealed that before Karen called the police the day her daughter vanished, she went shopping for three hours. She goes to buy a sat-nav before she calls the police. Now, Karen had changed her story too many times for anyone to believe a word that she said. Neither her or Michael admitted that they were having an affair.

People claimed that they were all over each other at various parties, which is probably true. But again, either way, like, I just don't care. What that has to do with what actually happened is very minimal. Let's say for a second that they weren't having an affair. Michael Donovan still did it and if Michael Donovan hadn't been in the picture I'm sure Karen would have found another way to make this plot happen. Karen Matthews and Michael Donovan were both found guilty and they were sentenced to eight years each.

But there are still a lot of questions that have remained unanswered. Karen has always maintained her innocence, claiming that another person close to her, probably a family member, had been the real ringleader. Maybe Craig was involved. Maybe Karen did want to leave him, but the real question is, how did Karen Matthews fall in a state full of people who had known her all her life for 24 whole days? And in the end, we'll never know, because Karen never budges. She never once gives anything away. She just says, nope, nope, nope, nothing to do with me. And she actually only served four years. Michael Donovan did four as well.

All of Karen's children went into the childcare system and were given new identities, and it's doubtful that she ever saw them again. Apparently, Karen Matthews has been spotted working in a charity shop down south somewhere after finding Jesus in prison, but we now believe that she's changed her identity completely. Michael Donovan got out in 2012, and we know even less about him. And this case is miserable, and we know even less about him.

And this case is miserable, but we can't leave it without talking about the classism that runs through the country's response to it. Dewsbury was consistently described in the press as a run-down slum. Was it hit by the decline of the textile industry like the rest of the North? Yes. Was it associated with Muslim fundamentalism in the 90s because of a mosque centre? Yes. Has it been reported to be divided on racial lines? Yes. In fact, 7-7 ringleader Mahanad Sadiq Khan lived in Dewsbury, and Nick Griffin described it as the jewel in the BNP crown because it has the most BNP voters in the country. But none of those things should have coloured our judgement of the Matthews family.

Julie Bushby said it best when she told the press that she has two children by two different men. That doesn't make her a bad person. When middle-class women do it, they just have a second family. Or a blended family. That's the hot one, isn't it? The term du jour. The working-class background of the Matthews family

definitely made people not as bothered as they had been about Maddie. And when it was found out to be a hoax, a lot of people felt like they had known all along. That's what really gets me about it is that like people use this case as affirmation of the prejudice that we have against the white working class. Oh, a hundred percent. And again, it was like, look, I told you all along, they were scum, they're not to be believed. And it's like, my God, there was a child. There's a whole group of children at the centre of this story

who are not to blame in any way, shape or form, who are nothing but victims of this horrendous woman. Now, Julie Bushby still writes to Karen. She said that she felt sorry for her then and that she still feels sorry for her now. And the irony of all the shameless comparisons is that the month before Shannon vanished, the Channel 4 programme ran a storyline where a child was held captive at a friend's house just a few doors down to see if a ransom would be paid by an alleged lottery winner. Now we don't know if Karen Matthews watched Shameless

but she sure as shit kept an eye on the McCanns. And yeah you're right again it was like when this was revealed it was revealed as a hoax it really affirmed everything that people thought they had believed all along. But one of the things that I think this story highlights that everybody wasn't expecting was the response of the community. This wasn't just a bunch of people who were like, oh, whatever, this kid's gone missing. Who gives a fuck? They rallied what little resources they had into finding this child. And they were betrayed more than anybody else by the reality of this hoax and what it then made their community look like again to a wider public that already thought so

little of them so yeah fuck you karen matthews i think julie bushby i understand why she feels pity for karen can i get myself to the same place only insofar as what you said at the start is that karen matthews is not a woman who's had an easy life but there are a lot of people in jewsbury who haven't had an easy life, who don't willingly victimise their children for money. So there you go. Yeah, I know. Miserable.

Well, I never have to think about it again. Exactly. And you can also do the same if you want to. Don't go watch Shannon Matthews' musical if it ever happens. Oh my God, yeah. And yes, go listen to something else now. Goodbye. Bye. whether texting them back so soon was the best decision. Get on board. Via Rail, love the way.

He was hip-hop's biggest mogul, the man who redefined fame, fortune, and the music industry. The first male rapper to be honored on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Sean Diddy Cone. Diddy built an empire and lived a life most people only dream about. Everybody know ain't no party like a Diddy party, so. Yeah, that's what's up. But just as quickly as his empire rose, it came crashing down. Today I'm announcing the unsealing of a three-count indictment, charging Sean Combs with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking,

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