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| Mother jailed over Shannon kidnap | Mother jailed over Shannon kidnap |
| (10 minutes later) | |
| The mother of Shannon Matthews has been jailed for eight years for kidnapping her own daughter in an attempt to claim thousands of pounds in reward money. | The mother of Shannon Matthews has been jailed for eight years for kidnapping her own daughter in an attempt to claim thousands of pounds in reward money. |
| Karen Matthews, 33, and her co-accused Michael Donovan, 40, were earlier found guilty of kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice. | Karen Matthews, 33, and her co-accused Michael Donovan, 40, were earlier found guilty of kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice. |
| Both were jailed for eight years, at Leeds Crown Court. | |
| Shannon was held at Donovan's flat in Batley Carr, West Yorkshire, for 24 days. | Shannon was held at Donovan's flat in Batley Carr, West Yorkshire, for 24 days. |
| The judge, Mr Justice McCombe, said: "The offences that you committed were truly 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. | |
| 'Truly unique' | |
| "It is incomprehensible that you could have permitted your friends, neighbours and in your case, Matthews, even your children to sacrifice time and energy in extensive searches for the supposedly missing child." | |
| In mitigation for Donovan, Alan Conrad QC, told Leeds Crown Court the barristers in the case had a combined legal experience of more than 100 years but none had come across a case like it. | |
| He said: "Nobody concerned has ever come across a case remotely like this before. The case here is truly unique." | |
| Shannon Matthews went missing on her way from school in February | |
| During the three-week trial at Leeds Crown Court, the jury heard that Shannon, now 10, went missing on 19 February as she walked home from school. | |
| The pair kept Shannon "drugged, subdued and hidden from the public" so they could claim £50,000 in reward money, the court was told. | |
| After a huge search operation by West Yorkshire Police costing almost £3.2m, she was found by police in Donovan's flat, hidden in in the base of a divan bed, less than a mile from her home, on 14 March. | |
| The police search was one of the largest ever conducted by the West Yorkshire force. |