Shannon Matthews: Man behind kidnapping plot dies

By Alex Moss & David Spereall

BBC News

The man behind a fake kidnap plot involving West Yorkshire girl Shannon Matthews has died aged 54.

Michael Donovan and Shannon’s mother Karen Matthews staged the nine-year-old’s disappearance in February 2008 in a scheme to claim a £50,000 reward.

The 24-day search for Shannon ended when she was found in a bed drawer a few miles from her Dewsbury Moor home.

Matthews and Donovan were jailed for kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice.

A spokesperson for West Yorkshire Police said: “Police were contacted on Tuesday 16 April and made aware of the death of a man in hospital in the Steeton area.

“The death is not being treated as suspicious and enquiries will be conducted on behalf of the coroner.”

The Press Association said it understood Donovan died after collapsing at a mental health unit.

Shannon went missing as she walked home on 19 February, sparking one of the largest searches ever conducted by West Yorkshire Police.

Her mother later issued an emotional appeal as more than 300 police officers became involved in the search.

However, Shannon was eventually found by police in Donovan’s flat, in nearby Batley Carr on 14 March.

During their trial at Leeds Crown Court, prosecutors said Donovan kept Shannon drugged and imprisoned in his property as part of a plan he and Matthews hatched to claim the reward money.

The pair were each jailed for eight years.

When he was sentenced, the judge, Mr Justice McCombie, told Donovan and Matthews that what they had done was “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,” he said.

The judge suggested others may have been involved in the plot due to the pair’s “low intellect”. However, the police said they had no evidence to charge anyone else.

Shannon’s disappearance led to a huge nationwide effort to find her, as police appeals were shared far and wide and volunteers from across the community in Dewsbury joined in the search.

This was later dramatised in a 2017 BBC mini-series, called The Moorside, starring Sheridan Smith.

The police investigation alone was later revealed to have cost £3.2m.

During the court case, it was revealed that Donovan and Matthews had planned to release Shannon at Dewsbury Market and then “find” her, so they could claim the reward.

But the plot was foiled when Shannon, who had been restrained by a homemade leash during her captivity, was was found hidden in the bottom of a divan bed frame at Donovan’s home.

The pair’s sentencing hearing was told that while Shannon had not been physically harmed during the kidnap, she had experienced frequent nightmares afterwards.

The police’s lead investigating officer in the case, Det Supt Andy Brennan described Matthews as “pure evil”.

Reporter Richard Edwards followed the story from initial missing alert to the sentencing of Donovan and Matthews and beyond. Here’s what stuck with the BBC journalist about the search for Shannon.

Determination. That was the only way to describe the atmosphere on the Moorside estate on the icy day it was confirmed Shannon had vanished.

Determination to come together – regardless of background, or whether or not they had got on in the past – to bring one of their own home, safe.

And they did this – putting their own families second, and, on an estate that isn’t rolling in money, chucking whatever cash they could spare towards the cause.

Once the volunteers stopped physically searching – only after being asked to leave it to the police – they set up an efficient and effective Search for Shannon campaign. They operated a shift system to deliver leaflets and posters, keeping the tea urn steaming away in the community house, putting an arm around collective shoulders when – as was often – it felt like the trail had gone cold.

And then when it was confirmed the answer lay within the Moorside community the locals came through again.

No cheap calls for retribution. Instead, a recognition – however it had happened – that Shannon was home safe. Heads were held high, together.

They remain that way to this day.

Donovan was released from prison in 2012, halfway through his sentence, though he was reportedly recalled to prison on licence later that year after he was deemed to have breached his parole conditions during an incident at Leeds Market.

On Wednesday, the Ministry of Justice told the BBC that their involvement with Donovan ended in 2016 when his sentence for abducting Shannon expired.

Matthews was given a new identity upon her release from prison, halfway through her sentence in 2012, and moved away from West Yorkshire.

Shannon and Matthews’ other children were all placed into care.

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