Shannon Matthews’ kidnapper Michael Donovan dies from cancer
The kidnapper who conspired to snatch schoolgirl Shannon Matthews as part of a fake abduction plot has died of cancer.
Mick Donovan, 54, held Matthews captive in his flat for 24 days after hatching a bogus ransom plot with her mother back in 2008.
The pair cooked up the kidnapping hoax in an attempt to claim a £50,000 reward for her return, and even tried to extort money from the Find Madeline Mcann Fund.
They were eventually rumbled after Matthews, then nine, was found tied-up and heavily drugged in a drawer underneath Donovan’s bed in a grotty council flat just a few miles away from where she first disappeared from.
Back in February he was diagnosed with Stage 3 throat cancer and given just months to live, the Sun reports.
He was pronounced dead after collapsing in the courtyard at Three Valleys Hospital in Keighley, where he had resided for the past six years following his release from prison in 2012, according to the publication.
Dovonan was jailed for eight years and was disowned by his family following the plot, and reportedly did not have a single visitor in the last few months of his life.
Last Christmas he was investigated by police for allegedly possessing indecent images of children on his phone, and was said to be a ‘very unpleasent bloke’ by those who knew him.
During his stint at the hospital he changed his name to Aiden Johnson in an attempt to escape his past, but reportedly bragged to inmates about his role in the Matthews kidnapping after it was dramatised in the 2017 ITV series Moorside.
A source told the Sun: ‘He wouldn’t interact with the other patients much other than to talk about that series.
‘He seemed to think it made him some sort of celebrity.’
The source said Donovan ‘would not be missed’ at the secure unit and added: ‘Nobody really liked him – he was a very unpleasant bloke.
‘He kept to himself but he had a horrible temper if he wasn’t happy with something – usually the food.
‘He liked his cheese sandwiches and that was about it.’
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