Shannon mother: 'Plan went wrong'

Nov 19 2008

Shannon Matthews' mother told shocked friends that she reported her daughter missing when a plan to leave her partner to go and live with her co-accused went wrong, a court has heard.

Her neighbour Natalie Brown told Leeds Crown Court that Matthews, 33, made the admission in a car with a police officer present on April 6 - three weeks after her daughter was found following a huge police hunt.

Mrs Brown said Matthews was in tears and shaking when she said she had been planning to leave her partner Craig Meehan but everything went wrong.

She said the police officer - Detective Constable Christine Freeman - immediately stopped the car and told Matthews she would be arrested on suspicion of abduction.

Matthews and her co-accused Michael Donovan, 40, both deny kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice.

Mrs Brown told the court: "She said that she was planning to leave Craig, that she'd planned to take the children with her but, because Shannon had not turned up on the end of the road, she had to back-track and go home where Craig was waiting."

She went on: "She was in floods of tears, shaking, really scared."

Mrs Brown said Matthews stated she "couldn't go in a cell" and "started babbling".

Julian Goose QC, prosecuting, said Matthews told her friends that she had arranged with Donovan to have Shannon for a couple of days to "keep her safe" while she and Mr Meehan sorted out their problems.

Mrs Brown told the court Matthews then told her and their friend, Julie Bushby, that she did not abduct her own daughter.