Squalid bedroom where Shannon Matthews, 9, was found drugged & tied to divan bed in mum Karen’s vile £50k kidnap plot
SHANNON Matthews was the victim of a vile kidnap plot orchestrated by her evil mother.
Karen Matthews drugged and tethered her nine-year-old daughter to a bed in a bid to collect reward money.
In 2008, Shannon vanished on her way home from a swimming lesson in Dewesbury, West Yorkshire, sparking a huge £3.2million search.
Hundreds of neighbours and friends joined the mission with Shannon’s mum Karen seen sobbing on TV as she pleaded for her daughter to come home.
But in a shocking twist, it was revealed the monster was behind a plot that saw her daughter drugged and hidden in a divan bed in a callous bid to claim the £50,000 reward.
The discovery, made 24 days after Shannon vanished, stunned the nation.
The squalid bedroom
Images showing the conditions of the flat Shannon was held in for more than three weeks were revealed.
The disturbing pictures were presented to the jury at the trial of her mum Karen and Mick Donovan in 2008.
They show the rope used to tie Shannon to a bed in Donovan’s dingy flat in Batley Carr, West Yorkshire, which sported threadbare carpets and dirty walls.
An elasticated strap with a noose on the end was found in his loft and may have been used as a method of restraint when he went out shopping.
With it around her waist, Shannon would have been able to use the toilet and certain rooms, but not get out of the flat.
With barely anything in the sparsely furnished home, no one knows how poor Shannon spent the lonely hours of her kidnap.
It is thought Shannon was drugged throughout her captivity in the flat, leaving her with little recall of what had happened to her.
In the images all that can be seen are an electronic keyboard and, bizarrely, a glue gun which lie on top of a metal framed double bunk.
Beds in another room were the former sleeping area for Donovan’s two daughters.
Underneath there was a CD by Busted, one of Shannon’s favourite bands, and a leaflet giving details of a range of Sold Out action PC games.
On a table there was a copy of Arrive Alive – a colourful highway code book for kids that gives tips on how to plan journeys using the safest route.
Also found in the flat was a chilling list of rules Shannon had to follow while she was being held captive.
Chilling list of rules
SHANNON was forced to obey a terrifying list of rules including commands to not make any noise and never go near the windows.
The handwritten note, headed “Rules” and signed off I.P.U, short for “I Promise You”, included strict instructions to keep quiet, stating: “You must not make any noise or bang your feet” as well as “you must not go near the windows”.
Other rules included: “you must not get anything or do anything without me been here”, while the young school girl was also warned to keep the TV volume low.
Cop relives finding Shannon
A cop relived what it was like to find her alive after 24 days of searching for her.
In a BBC Panorama special report, Detective Constable Paul Kettlewell went back to Donovan‘s flat to retrace the moment he found Shannon hiding under a bed, tied up with a rope and drugged.
Walking through the dingy flat, DC Kettlewell said: “When we gained a landing we found a further door that was locked.
We had Shannon and she was alive, I just couldn’t believe it.
Paul Kettlewell
“And then I heard Shannon’s voice from within this bedroom. I clearly heard her say ‘stop it you’re frightening me now’.
“Although I knew I’d heard her, I didn’t know where she was. And then I became aware of movement within the bed.
“As I went across to the far side of the bed, Shannon’s head appeared on that side.
“I reached over, picked Shannon up and carried her out. I couldn’t believe that I’d found her.
“We had Shannon and she was alive, I just couldn’t believe it.”
The policeman added: “I asked her where Mike was. She said: ‘He was where I was.’ I said: ‘In the house?’ And she said: ‘Under the bed.'”
Creep dead
The Sun revealed Shannon’s twisted kidnapper Michael Donovan has died following a short battle with cancer.
Donovan, who changed his name to Aiden Johnson, was pronounced dead at Three Valleys Hospital in Keighley, West Yorkshire, yesterday.
The sicko, 54, collapsed in the courtyard of the secure mental health hospital around mid-afternoon.
He had been there for the past six years – following his 2012 release from prison over his sickening role in Shannon’s kidnapping.
Back in February he was diagnosed with stage 3 throat cancer and given just months to live.
Timeline of the Shannon Matthews kidnap plot
A look at the events that unfolded following the disappearance of schoolgirl Shannon Matthews:
February 19, 2008 – Shannon Matthews disappears and was last spotted outside Westmoor Junior School, Dewsbury.
February 19, 2008 – Police announce that they have started a massive search involving more than 200 officers as concern grows for the missing girl.
March 1, 2008 – Karen Matthews issues an emotional appeal for Shannon’s return on the eve of Mother’s Day.
March 5, 2008 – Police release a recording of part of the 999 call Matthews made reporting Shannon missing.
March 14, 2008 – Shannon is found alive and hidden in the base of a divan bed at a house at Michael Donovan’s house in Batley Carr, West Yorkshire.
April 9, 2008 – Karen Matthews is charged with child neglect and perverting the course of justice over her daughter’s disappearance – new charges of Kidnap and false imprisonment were later added.
December 4, 2008 – Matthews and Donovan are found guilty of kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice and both sentenced to eight years behind bars.
He had gone to hospital for a routine check-up when medics discovered the massive tumour.
Donovan – whose family disowned him in 2022 – did not have a single visitor in the final months of his life.
Shannon was found at Donovan’s flat after a neighbour’s tip off about “little footsteps” from upstairs.
Officers found her in the drawer of one side of a divan bed. Donovan was hiding in the other.
An officer scooped Shannon up in his arms and ran out of the property, telling colleagues “She’s ok.”
Donovan was arrested for abduction.
Twisted crime that shocked the nation
By PAUL SIMS
FOR 24 days, the nation held its breath as police and volunteers searched day and night for Shannon Matthews.
She vanished into thin air on February 19, 2008 – having last been seen on CCTV leaving school.
Hours later, her feckless mum, Karen Matthews, voice trembling in a thick West Yorkshire accent, made a television appeal for help.
Over the next three weeks she appeared before the cameras repeatedly – wearing a white t-shirt bearing Shannon’s school photo and the words: “Have you seen Shannon Matthews.”
In reality, she knew exactly where Shannon was – and she’d known right from the very start.
Shannon, then nine, had been taken to Mick Donovan’s grotty council flat a little over a mile away from the council estate she grew up on in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, after being promised a trip to the seaside.
There, Shannon was drugged, bound and tethered – and handed a list of rules written out by her shameless mum, who warned at the end: “IPU (I promise u).”
It was a threat of reprisals should she think to break them, not comforting assurance.
They included: “You must not go near the windows. You must not get anything or do anything without me been here.
“Keep the TV volume (low) only up to 8 or lower. You can play the Super Mario games and you can play some DVDs and you can play the CD music.”
The TV appeals continued as the nation – and the world – prayed for news. Most had given up hope and feared the worst.
An offer of reward money soon followed. It was what Matthews and Donovan – uncle to her then boyfriend Craig Meehan – had been waiting for all along.
Shannon was being used to make money: the victim of an evil plot hatched after Matthews watched an episode of the TV drama featuring the Gallaghers.
They had even reached out to the Find Madeleine McCann Fund for cash.
But suspicion was growing. Not just among the hardened cops of a West Yorkshire’s Homicide and Major Enquiry Unit but among the locals and even the friends of Matthews.
The dragnet that followed saw Meehan charged with possessing child sexual abuse images. Others were convicted of benefit fraud.
Finally, Shannon was found at Donovan’s flat after a neighbour’s tip off about “little footsteps” from upstairs.
Officers found her in the drawer of one side of a divan bed. Donovan was hiding in the other.
An officer scooped Shannon up in his arms and ran out of the property, telling colleagues “She’s ok.”
Donovan was arrested for abduction.
There was a party on the Dewsbury Hall estate long into the night. Residents played music and danced into the street as they downed wine and beer. They were jubilant.
But there was unfinished business.
As the net closed in and cops pieced together the evidence, Matthews finally crumbled.
She was being driven in a car with a highly experienced family liaison officer assigned to prise out the truth and a small number of pals when it came to a stop at a red light.
One of her pals then blurted the question on everyone’s lips: “did you know?”
In that moment of high drama, Matthews confessed everything.
For 24 days, she had been lying through her teeth and – with the help of Donovan – had traumatised her own daughter.
It was nothing more than a cruel and evil hoax.
I remember clearly the night Matthews was charged by police. We’d been assembled by the Crown Prosecution Service for the announcement.
Andy Brennan, then the senior investigating officer and how head of the National Crime Agency, appeared in the background.
I asked him how Shannon was doing and he replied: “Her life’s just beginning.”