How Shannon Matthews' kidnap became the crime which shocked the nation

The man who kidnapped schoolgirl Shannon Matthews as part of a plot hatched with her mother has died of cancer.

Michael Donovan, 54, kept Shannon for 24 days in his council flat, just a few miles from her home in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.

Police eventually discovered the nine-year-old in a bed drawer at the property on 14 March 2008. Donovan and Shannon’s mother, Karen Matthews, went on to be jailed for her kidnap.

Donovan, who was suffering from stage 3 throat cancer, died on Tuesday after collapsing in the courtyard at Three Valleys Hospital in Keighley, West Yorkshire, according to the Sun newspaper.

He had changed his name to Aiden Johnson, and had been held at the secure mental health hospital for six years. Donovan was released from prison in 2012.

What happened to Shannon Matthews?

Shannon disappeared on 19 February 2008 as she walked home from school after returning from a swimming trip.

The next day, West Yorkshire Police launched what was to become one of the biggest manhunts in Britain.

At its height, it involved 200 police officers and 60 detectives, costing an estimated £3.2 million.

Shannon's mother, Karen Matthews, then 32, made a series of tearful TV appeals, with locals and neighbours joining the search for the missing girl.

On 26 February, police said they feared the girl may have "fallen into the wrong hands."

However, on 14 March, 24 days after she vanished, Shannon was found alive and well, hidden in the base of a divan bed at a house in Batley Carr.

Donovan, then 39, was also found under the bed. She was taken into care while Donovan, the uncle of her mother's boyfriend Craig Meehan, was charged with kidnapping and false imprisonment.

On 2 April, Meehan, then 22, was charged with possessing child pornography. He was eventually convicted of the charge but it had nothing to do with Shannon’s case.

Two days later, police arrested Meehan's sister Amanda Hyett and mother Alice Meehan. Hyett, 25, was held on suspicion of assisting an offender while 49-year-old Meehan was detained on suspicion of attempting to pervert the course of justice. They were both later released without charge.

On 7 April, Matthews was arrested and subsequently charged with child neglect and perverting the course of justice. She was remanded in custody for her own safety to appear on 16 April via videolink at Leeds Crown Court.

Click below to see the latest Yorkshire headlines

Matthews and Donovan were then remanded to face trial in November 2008 and were convicted at Leeds Crown Court in December of kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice.

Prosecutors had said the schoolgirl was drugged and probably kept captive on a leash during her incarceration as Matthews and Michael Donovan plotted to collect a £50,000 reward.

Both were jailed for eight years in January 2009.

What has happened to Karen Matthews?

Matthews was initially sent to Peterborough prison before being transferred to Foston Hall jail in Derbyshire.

During her time in prison, Matthews' former neighbour Julie Bushby visited her and revealed that Matthews would frequently show up with black eyes, claiming to have been attacked by other inmates.

After her release from prison in 2012, Matthews moved to the south of England and was given a new identity.

She was strictly prohibited from going near Dewsbury or contacting Shannon or her other six children, who were placed in care during her imprisonment. Shannon was given a new identity and raised by another family.

In an interview with the Mirror in 2018, Matthews appeared to show little remorse and still denied any involvement in the kidnapping plot.

In 2019, a Daily Star source revealed that the mother only had one friend left—her pet budgie, Bobby.

They said she treated the bird like her child, even calling him her "baby boy".

• Evil mother Karen Matthews 'has no friends left except a pet budgie' (Yahoo News)

• Kidnapped girl Shannon Matthews granted lifelong anonymity (Evening Standard)