Karen Matthews smokes a cigarette 15 years after she staged her daughter’s kidnapping

Standing outside a supermarket smoking a cigarette, one of the country’s most notorious criminals now lives in quiet anonymity.

Karen Matthews, 47, became a household name exactly 15 years ago when her nine-year-old daughter Shannon went missing and a massive police investigation was launched to find her.

The tearful mother of seven appealed to the kidnapper on TV to release her daughter. But it was all a nasty scam.

Matthews knew where the schoolgirl was and who was holding her at all times.

Shannon was found by police 24 days later, hiding in the base of a divan bed in a flat in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.

Karen Matthews, 47, became a household name exactly 15 years ago when her nine-year-old daughter Shannon went missing and a massive police investigation was launched to find her.

She was recently pictured out shopping with boyfriend Paul Saunders, 60, who is himself a convicted pedophile

The crime had been a conspiracy between Matthews and Michael Donovan, her then-boyfriend’s uncle, to claim £50,000 in reward money.

Both were sentenced to eight years in prison, and Matthews – convicted of kidnapping, false imprisonment and perverting justice – has been dubbed “Britain’s worst mother”.

After completing her sentence, Matthews dyed her hair black and moved to southern England.

She has lost contact with Shannon and her six other children. Matthews also reportedly found God in 2020, hit health and lost weight.

She was recently pictured out shopping with boyfriend Paul Saunders, 60, who is himself a convicted pedophile.

The tearful mother of seven appealed to the kidnapper on TV to release her daughter. But it was all a nasty scam

Matthews knew where the schoolgirl was and who was holding her at all times

Saunders was sentenced to five years in prison by Oxford Crown Court in 2010 for sexual activity with a child and sexual assault. He has to put himself on the sex offender register for life.

However, it seems that they have established a long-term relationship.

Matthews, whose story was the subject of high-profile TV drama and a documentary, still cuts a distinctive figure.

She has always maintained that she was not responsible for Shannon’s kidnapping, but it is the February 2008 crime that she will always remember.

Shannon was found by detectives at Donovan’s flat, about a mile from her home in Dewsbury, 24 days after her disappearance.

Prosecutors said the schoolgirl was drugged and likely kept on a leash during her detention.

Raised in a new family under a new identity, Shannon is now an adult

Police described Matthews as “purely evil” after being found guilty of kidnapping, false detention and perverting the course of justice.

Her then-boyfriend, Craig Meehan, was not involved in the kidnapping plot. However, he was convicted separately for possessing 49 indecent pictures of children on a home computer.

Matthews and Donovan were both sentenced to eight years in prison in January 2009 and were released in 2012 after serving half of their sentences.

Raised in a new family under a new identity, Shannon is now an adult.

The crime had been a conspiracy between Matthews and Michael Donovan, her then-boyfriend’s uncle, to claim £50,000 in reward money

Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk