UK NEWS
SHANNON MATTHEWS: NOOSE WAS USED IN HER KIDNAP
Shannon Matthews: Tethered
Thursday November 27,2008
By Paul Jeeves
Michael Donovan used a noose to keep kidnap victim Shannon Matthews tethered during her 24 days as a captive, a court heard yesterday.
Fastened to a beam in the loft of Donovan’s first-floor flat, the white elasticated strap ensured that the nine-year-old could not escape while her captor went out to collect his shopping and benefits, it is claimed.
The prosecution say the leash only stretched far enough for her to reach the toilet.
Donovan, 40, denies restraining the youngster in his flat and claims she had been sat in the back of his car while he sauntered around shops in Batley and Dewsbury, West Yorks.
At the time 300 police officers were involved in a £3.2million manhunt to trace the missing girl.
Donovan alleges he was forced into taking Shannon in a hoax kidnap plot instigated by her mother Karen Matthews to claim a £50,000 reward for her safe return.
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STRAP: A police photo of the tether
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Donovan, answering Mr Julian Goose QC, prosecuting at Leeds Crown Court, said he knew nothing about the strap.
He had earlier told the jury he had never even been in his loft and the police discovery of the strap was a “complete surprise”.
Mr Goose suggested Donovan also wrote a list of rules for Shannon to follow while a captive. Donovan denied this. He also denied he had “drugged her to make her sleepy and used the flat to confine her.”
The rules included a demand that she keep quiet and not go to the window. Donovan told the jury: “She could go freely round the flat.”
It was suggested to Donovan that his sister, niece and husband and Shannon’s step-father were all involved. But the jobless father of two insisted the idea came from Karen, 33, of whom he was “terrified.”
Shannon, now 10, was found hidden in the base of a divan bed at Donovan’s flat after she went missing from home in Dewsbury Moor, West Yorkshire, on February 19. Donovan and Matthews deny kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice.The trial continues.
