Mother went shopping night Shannon vanished

THE mother of Shannon Matthews told a jury yesterday she went shopping at a supermarket on the night her daughter went missing.

Karen Matthews, 33, was giving evidence for a second day at Leeds Crown Court, where she is accused of kidnapping her daughter with her co-defendant Michael Donovan.

The court heard Matthews has told five different versions of what happened to Shannon since the girl went missing from her home in Dewsbury Moor, West Yorkshire, in February.

In cross-examination by Alan Conrad QC, for Donovan, Matthews confirmed she went to help buy a satellite navigation system and to a local supermarket on the evening of February 19. She said it was her partner’s sister Amanda Hyett’s idea to go shopping for the satnav for her husband Neil.

Conrad said to Matthews: “What were you doing going to find a satnav for Neil that night Shannon was missing?”

She said: “At the time Amanda told me it might be a good idea to go there and see if I could see anything of Shannon.”

When asked about going to the supermarket to buy beer and other goods, Matthews said she did not buy beer but bought “things that I needed”.

Conrad said to her: “While your little girl’s missing?”

She answered: “I needed to buy some food for the other kids as well.”

Matthews and Donovan, 40, both deny charges of kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice.

The court has heard Shannon, aged nine at the time, was found in Donovan’s flat 24 days after she went missing from her home in.

The prosecution allege that Donovan kept her drugged and imprisoned in his flat as part of a plan he and Matthews had to claim £50,000 (€60,439) in reward money.

Prosecutor Julian Goose QC told the jury that Matthews had repeatedly changed her story since the night Shannon went missing.

Goose repeatedly asked Matthews why she was crying as she sobbed throughout giving her evidence. At one point, she replied: “Because I’m getting blamed for something I haven’t done.”

Goose put it to her that when she was in a car with two friends and Detective Constable Christine Freeman on April 6, she agreed with a theory put forward by her friend Natalie Brown that she had asked Donovan to take Shannon.

But Matthews told the jury she did not admit to anything.

Matthews told the court she was “confused” about what she was saying during her police interviews.

The trial was adjourned until Monday.