Nine-year-old Shannon Matthews has been found alive, more than three weeks after going missing.
Police found her hidden in the base of a divan bed in a house a mile from her home in West Yorkshire.
Her stepfather’s uncle was arrested on suspicion of abduction. He was also hiding inside the bed drawers. People do that a lot. It never works!
The 39-year-old, said locally to use two names (why so few?) Paul Drake and Mick Donovan, remains in police custody.
I’m going to say what many other police officers have been thinking, but can’t say in public.
Almost from the start, it was obvious to those of us who ‘deliver services’ to these kinds of Estates that the investigation would consist of trying to gain an understanding of the complex social and family networks (and I use that term loosely) of those responsible (and I also use that term loosely) for Shannon.
Life in these areas is boring and frugal. The only available joy is based upon the kind of instant gratification which has biological consequences, and is often alcohol and drugs related. The facts published about Shannon being one of seven children by five different fathers is of little surprise, but the answer was always going to be about that situation in some way.
It was interesting to see people from the area being interviewed on the TV, saying “the police have been brilliant” and “the police were fantastic”. I wonder how long this amazing new appreciation of those who sort their lives out for them will last.
Shannon’s disappearance (and again, I use that term loosely) was another one of the inevitable consequences of a chaotic, unchallenged and state-funded life style. And the police probably knew that from the start. To be fair, so did Shannon’s mother, in her own way.
I genuinely thank God that Shannon is safe, all be it under a Police Protection Order.
Note: More than 2,000 houses were checked, including the homes of family members such as Neil Hyett, 36, an uncle of Shannon who lived next door. Up to 1,500 drivers were questioned every day. Forensic samples were taken from 20 different sites, many of them relatives’ homes, and Mrs Matthews’ complicated family life meant police had a huge number of potential relatives to question. The 32-year-old has seven children by five different fathers. Tony, 11, Cameron, 5, and Courtenay, 18 months, live with her.
STOP PRESS: IT’S NOW THE FAULT OF THE POLICE!
Good that the girl is safe and well. Good that the police got a result. Good that the public have praise for us , despite media bias and government efforts.
Bad that such a situation has come to pass as IG so well highlights, this woman has so many children by so many fathers ,and that her fecundity is funded by us. Would be nice to know if the universally useless Social Services have got off their fat arses and are now looking into this chaotic setup. Or are they too busy meeting their adoption targets and removing children from families based on their opinion of what they think might happen in some vague future?
Come on Social Workers ….any comments??
Dont worry , Im sure some media rag will be asking why we took so long or some other such nonsence.
the DAILY AMail rag has come up wth “why did it take so long?! how many of the daly mail scribblers got off their arses to look for this child. I’ delighted she has been found but what does the future hold for this child
A “friend of the family” was on the radio earlier saying that the police should have looked harder as she was only a mile away. Then in the next bulletin the local vicar was on saing “no-one has criticised the police.” So did I imagine it then? And I wander how many houses there are in a one mile radius of the house….
Why do only three of her children live with her? And why are we subsidising this?
On a different note I hadn’t realised that divan drawers were so big.
The best thing that can happen to the poor child now, is to be fostered by a decent family. I sincerely hope she is not returned to her mother, otherwise she will end up on the scrapheap of life!
Then where is the best place to hide from the police?
You must have not found someone somewhere.
To Dave @ 6
Try looking for somone in a funeral parlour. Opening up the coffins one by one………………..
I even search inside washing machines – just like rats, the people we go looking for can squeeze into / under / over anything.
There is no need to hide from the police.
Take your chance in Court; it’s not like they are going to do anything to you is it?
Not unless you have done something really serious, and even then you will only serve half your sentence – if that!
In answer to Dave Hodgson, umm, how is someone supposed to answer that? If the police have now thought of a good hiding place it no longer becomes the best place to hide. Try asking Lord Lucan or Shergar, they seem to have coped pretty well at not being found.
Thanks Daily Mail for your usual fair minded and unbiased reporting. Thanks also for publishing a picture of a divan bed, I had no idea what one looked like.
Ta for the hiding tips. You know, always seek advice from experts when considering a new career path.
A washing machine for a hiding place is a lovely image. You could arrest him by slamming the door and then only open it during interview and court appearance. He could avoid adding to prison overcrowding by quietly serving his sentence in a lay-by. Unfortunately this was never an option for me, or anyone else who gets out of breath squeezing into their clothes.
I reckon anyone who can hide in a drawer without the aid of an accomplice is so ingenious they deserve not to be caught.
I‘m glad the girl is alive, but it wasn‘t just the police who reached an opinion on this, as the BBC charmingly put it, ‘extended family‘. Not just father/children numbers: the state of the front gardens round there said a lot. Sadly, this might not be the last contact between members of this family and the police. A very snobbish view, I suppose- but where‘s the distinction between prejudice and experience?
Then again having a touch of Waynetta Slob isn‘t a crime and people don‘t worry over a missing child any less because they don‘t shop at Waitrose.
I have to laugh at the media blaming the police. We all knew it was coming.
Do they not think if we’d known where she was we’d have found her sooner?
Only a mile. Big deal! Someone could be next door but when you’re missing, you’re missing. It wasn’t like the neighbours at the address where she was were ringing the police daily saying they’d seen her was it.
Suppose the media just can’t praise the police can they?
goldstein…no they can’t as that would not be in line with current thinking
The old bed drawer routine! Classic hiding place for scrotes, and the publicity afforded to this gaggle of sh*t bags will only add to the use if this ridiculous hiding place before they catch on and start looking at alternatives
(I heard of a misper hiding in one of these larger style cat litter trays recently, litter & shit in it, the lot!)
Shame that certain corners of the press have heir noses in the trough but it was to be expected whether we found her alive, not alive or not at all.
At the end of the day a good result borne out of coppers grafting as usual!
I am a cynical, long in the tooth detective so obviously I tend to think the worst of everyone in this sort of situation.
I am trying to suspend judgement on the adults involved at the moment but an EPPO is not a very normal response on finding an abducted child. That says most to me.
Either way, the press are going to turn on somebody. Its our turn now but I sense that the attacks on the family are not far off now. “Good” journalists will have sorted out all ends of the story and there’s enough for them to run it out over a week.
http://nightjack.wordpress.com/
Well done West Yorkshire police and well said Inspector Gadget for saying it has it is!
Glad that she is safe and I hope she gets whatever help is in her best interest, but goodness knows where you’d start on that one.
Re hiding places, I am sure I saw some footage on regional TV about some fire-fighters testing the washing machine as a hidey hole, or was it a tumble dryer, I cant remember now, but it all came out in the wash.
I am wondering in an idle moment if she hasn’t been with her real Daddy all the time. No it couldnt be. No chance of that happening at all.
http://nightjack.wordpress.com/
#9: I thought Shergar had been chopped up by the IRA?
EPPO?
Emergency Police Protection order Alix.
I once found someone hiding in one of those trolley dolly suitcases with wheel, having managed to zip himself up in it!!
Very glad she was found alive and I’m sure the street party on her estate went long into the night. Enough white lightning to sink a battleship, sofas burning merrily and the cells nice and full next morning.
The daily mail are famous for this type of hindsight reporting. The indie is even worse.
Byrony Gordon recently commented in the Telegraph that peelers did not give a shit about rape victims. I contacted her as to her starting date in the police depot as she was plainly wasted in journalism and her obvious `Im better than you thick cops` attitude was much needed in todays police. She had the good manners to reply and inform me she was starting the next week.
I can not believe a journalist would tell a lie
That picture of the mom and stepdad kissing is priceless! That’s a real Kodak moment there. The graphic of the bed drawer is just hilarious. I feel like a bad man for laughing, but seriously, how can you not? You sure this stuff didn’t actually happen in West Virginia?
On that estate alone there was a ridiculously large amount of known sex offenders…
Sounds like most of those estates inhabited by the pondlife who share children
I’d put money on there being a set of abuse charges leveled at a minimum of one member of the family aside from the one already arrested.
I agree with IG’s comment about it having been almost certain that it would be related to the 1/7 by different parents issue. This child was found alive. The next one might not be.
Question is – when are we going to stop funding the lifestyle which, if not creates, then at least contributes to these circumstances and these incidents? It’s pretty much a given that these people are drawing every benefit under the sun – taking taking taking and giving back nothing.
I always like these estates at Christmas, when the marvelous outdoor decorations and wedding dressing are on display, all of course paid for by theft, benefit and the good old abstracting electricity.
re the above wedding should be window, IG please be a gent and edit it! many thanks
Wonder which family member will be arrested, mother?, step father?, both? The press are starting to ask why Shannon is now in emergency care and not with her mother, draw your own conclusions. This enquiry never left the area. With a family like this the relatives, friends and possible contacts was endless which is why so many local houses and cars were searched. I firmly believed she was dead, thank goodness I was wrong, but when the truth comes out I wouldn’t mind betting it is the biggest wasting police time bill ever!
Wopsy @ 21 – re: The White Lightning – that was the first thing I thought as well!! Big chuckles here!! What was it, 37 “family” members? That’s 2 x 2 litre bottles each so 148 litres to start with. Then there’s the de rigeur shitty pub on the estate to retire to after (with a bit of fencing thrown in) and the local custody centre closed by the time Night Duty parade.
When oh when are we going to stop funding these parasites?
Re Shergar
As a disappearing tactic, being chopped up for dog food is about as good as it gets.
Not too many of the people who use it come out of hiding afterwards, though.
And what did they do with the posters they ripped up during their beano? Just thrown down and added to the general depressing squalid mess they live in.
How long before they sell their story for an obscene amount and buy some big alloys to stick on their Ford Escort.
Then again, they’ve probably got a brand new motability car. Most Chavs seem to get one easily enough
I was just thinking….
All those coppers, all those man hours and a great result…
But no performance figures to show for it!
I bet there is going to be some bollockings at the Monday morning meeting!
I can hear it now: “I know they were looking for a missing girl, but they could’ve dished out some PND’s whist they were walking from one house to the other!. The figures for the last three weeks are terrible!”
Well done West Yorks!
Rodders, There is one thing that the SMT hate more than not reaching their corrupted figures and that is negative publicity.
the fact that corrupted figures actually creates negative publicity in the long term is completely lost on them…
Quoting Notapecialist “How long before they sell their story for an obscene amount?”
My guess is that this was planned all along by various members of the family in order to be able to sell the ’story’. They created the child, sorry – story – so why can’t they sell it.
Her natural father’s reaction to finding Shannon was a giveaway. He couldn’t have looked more happy than if his £2 each way bet at Kempton had come in.
Why not get the Public to set up a trust fund to pay for extended searches and a legal team – so the family can then use the cash as they see fit. Seemed to work in another recent high profile case…………….
Mere speculation on my part.
Insp Bloke do you work in West Yorks? have you got inside knowledge? I think you are probably very close to the truth here, time will tell of course but the s*** will hit the fan big style in the next few days when the story leaks out I bet.
Sorry to disappoint but no connection at all here with West Yorks and no inside knowledge. Just a cynic’s view of the world we live in……….
Insp Bloke I’m with you mate. Cynical as it is, it will probably happen!!
I am also now waiting with a resigned and weary pessimism for the enquiry to widen into the extended family. Mum has now released a statement that Shannon could be away “for some time.” That’s really not a particularly normal outcome in a child abduction case. I can only begin to imagine the length, detail and evidence recorded in the SIO Policy Log for that one.
For what it’s worth I think #37 Insp Bloke is probably on the money regarding the imminent flood of attempted cash ins. Already we have had some very swift work with the NOTW “My ex-husband the potential child abuser.” There’s a good number of ex-partners for Mum who can give their accounts of her worthiness / fecklessness. No doubt the usual platoon of “Retired Senior Detectives” will be prevailed upon for a well compensated comment or two.
Oh what a circus Oh what a show
http://nightjack.wordpress.com/
Just think what all that money will buy from the story. Cheap bling and even cheaper beer.
Insp Bloke – you beat me to it. I’m so cynical that I think these parasites will have been looking in envy at the McCann’s million pound fighting fund and thinking, hide the kid with a family member for a while and watch the money roll in. Much easier work than sueing people through solicitors who advertise during the Jeremy Kyle show. A few of my friends, not cops, had similar thoughts. I hope its true, because that would mean the poor kid, who at 9 is innocent of all of it, hasn’t been violated while missing.
I made a rash comment about Daily Mail readers a few weeks ago. On reflection my comments were directed at the hack journalists who churn out the trash IG has put the link to above. But the readers fuel it by lapping it up in righteous indignation.
Insp Bloke, Do you honestly think the “family” would have the brains or the sheer brass neck to pull it off?
Surely, West Yorks Police would have seen that coming weeks ago.
Get em on Jeremy Kyle’s lie detector.
I’ve just finished reading the updated article on the online Telegraph; and the front page of the Daily Mail was enough. The Telegraph dutifully publishes the names of two ‘witnesses’ who, obligingly, passed on their suspicions regarding the suspect in this case. It then continues by holding them up as some forms of prophet in that they correctly identified the main culprit. HOW MANY HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE CALLED TO PASS ON THEIR SUSPICIONS ABOUT THEIR NEIGHBOUR/FRIENDS/WEIRDO LIVING IN THEIR AREA?! How many people phoned to say they’d seen Shannon from as far flung places as Land’s End up to John o Groats??!! Jesus, do the people who write these rags think that the cops who were looking for the girl were just happy to sit about on their arses and think, ‘yeah, we’ll get round to her in a bit, we know where she is now’ rather than smash the door in and get her?? Yet two people pass on tenuous feelings about a guy who it turned out was the ’suspect’. Hindsight policing and detective work at its best. I’ve had to stop reading it because it’s making my blood boil.
Rant over.
Its hard to look at this case and not linger on the thought of it being one of two things. Staged, as the Insp Bloke says, or as I suspect… Donovan is aware of some abuse the girl was recieving from the immediate family, and clumsily attempted to help, and has taken her out of it for some half assed attempt at protection. The girl is not injured by all accounts, however we have only just found this out some four days later… which is why my stomach churned at the sight of a street full of people quaffing Asti and Red stripe on the night of her finding.
I personally would find no humour or party-boost in a child who’s been missing presumed dead or abused for a month before knowing they hadn’t been hurt. The uncomfortable thought that they may have faced shocking or brutal abuse would weigh way too heavily on me to moonwalk into the night!
the fact that emergency care has been awarded reinforces this. – have you ever heard of an abducted child NOT being returned to the family? (even the dead are produced in all their gory best to the family by request these days, its all part of our transparency) but a live and kicking 9 year old girl? I’d be suing everyone and their tennis coach if it was my kids, but here the family haven’t even raised a concerne yet!!!
I fear we’ll learn the shocking truth soon, and it won’t be pretty. Theres a reason why all of Yorkshire Chavdom is kissing the old bill’s arse at the moment!
oh and I see Donovan’s ex missus has already claimed her 30 peices.
God my bloods boiling!!-F**king MEPs!! What have any of them ever done for us apart from claim thousands of pounds of expenses from the overflowing pig trough in Brussels-they make me sick and then have the f**king nerve to question how the Police do their job….
Sorry but as you can see Im very angry …….having worked on Task Force Teams, search teams and even on HOLMES teams these enquiries get overwhelmed with reports and sightings every day, well done to WYP for finding Shannon in very a difficult Chameleon family situation.
I posted the other week as Daily Mail Reader in response to spitting feathers remarks about Daily Mail Readers.
Now its a bit unfair to just pick on the Daily Mail, have you read the Guardian or the BBC website, they are all saying the same things. I’m sure other papers are too.
I do not lap anything up in righteous indignation, I make my own mind up. If I want the truth about police issues I come on blogs like this and listen to the people who know the way it is and tell it the way it is.
Newspapers are good for one thing nowadays anyway and thats lining the cat litter tray!!
Guzz Matelot @ 44: “Insp Bloke, Do you honestly think the “family” would have the brains or the sheer brass neck to pull it off?”
No I don’t. But there again, they didn’t pull it off. They might have had the brass neck, but brains, I suspect, are lacking. Hence being where we are now.
Now, had they been a professional couple with the good sense to go abroad, where you can baffle / blame the local police – all while topping up the tan – the story might have been a winner.
“Theres a reason why all of Yorkshire Chavdom is kissing the old bill’s arse at the moment!”
All the negative press comments about the police are made by people who don’t seem to have learned an important lesson: If you don’t have anything intelligent to say, shut up.
My old man put it better 20+ years ago: “You have two ears and one mouth, so shut up and listen THEN speak.” That must go against the basics of modern journalism thought i suppose.
Ye God the press just love to rake over these types of stories, yet how many journalists fess up to saying that West Yorks. Police know a lot more than they are actually telling. Sometimes a nice little thank you from the journos would not come amiss.
Thank God for honest hard working coppering, and thank the Lord that Shannon is safe and well.
West Yorkshire police have seroius concerns about the mother and physical and emotional abuse Shannon has been suffering prior to her disappearing. That is the reason she has been PPO’d.
I’ve no idea if her uncle has taken her to protect her from this, but for her to stay undetected for 3 weeks suggests she wasn’t completely unhappy with the situation.
I don’t work for W.Yorks but know a few who do and it is a huge complex case that will be dragging on for months. There is far more to this than a simple missing.
TUPC at 46 and 47 excellent points.
Guv not sure if you found me but new addy is http://etchingsonmyheart.blogspot.com…..cheers Em!xx
Apart from Paul Daniels, could someone explain how I can get into my divan draw, and my boy in the other, and then close the damn things. I have one of those beds, when I put something heavy in it, the bottom collapsed. The mother told one of the reporters that she had twins, albeit 2 yrs apart, She thought because they had the same father, they were twins, god help us.
A country police sergeant in Australia told me a great story about hiding places a few years ago. They’d gone to a house to arrest a bloke, searched it thoroughly, searched the bush around the house, checked the outbuildings and looked in the outhouse, which had a thunderbox toilet over a pit in the ground. No sign of their man.
The police were about to leave when they heard a shriek followed by a squelchy thud from the outhouse, followed by muffled cursing. They returned to the outhouse where the sergeant opened the lid of the thunderbox and shone his torch down the pit, revealing their man up to this armpits in years and years of crap. He’d been hanging from the wooden frame of the thunderbox, but his fingers had given out, well and truly dropping him in it.
When I asked the sergeant how they’d got the bloke out, he laughed and said “it was a job for the fireys”.
Good work by the West Yorks, but I often feel that the Police are always ‘Damned if they do, and damned if they don’t’ by the mainstream media in these situations. Especially with the semi incestuous web of familial interrelationships the girl seems to have had the misfortune to be born into.
I’m sensing that full moderation may be coming back soon!
WT?
Who is Mr Jones?
We’re Doomed @ 58 – love it! “The mother told one of the reporters that she had twins, albeit 2 yrs apart, She thought because they had the same father, they were twins, god help us.”
And these people have the vote.
Not that they use it Bryan!
Greetings from across the pond. Love the blog gadget, I’ve been reading for a long time but didn’t feel compelled to post until now.
I was just bopping around the Net and came across an amazingly inspirational story of Mike Kralicek. He was shot in the line of duty, became a quadriplegic, and now is a motivational speaker.
http://www.policeone.com/policeonetv/clip/1670391/
I just wanted to get the word out because I think his is a story of valor and hope that needs to be shared.
Thanks
@63, yes but take all the sane intelligent people who do use their vote and just look how they are rewarded with the rubbish who end up running the country, I think we have lost all hope with politicians. Not voting is now as valid as voting for either party. The country just gets worse.
May a humble non-police person who’s dropping by just say that even lots of us on the outside feel how preposterous it is when you cops get the blame by the tabloids’ mindless journalists.
My workplace has been getting a lot of abuse too from some tabloids in recent times and it has certainly opened my eyes to the ignorant rubbish they peddle and how folk just unquestioningly believe it.
Well done to all concerned for their efforts over little Shannon.
Well done to all who do what is such a grim, thankless, impossible job.
I know it’s a cliche, but, honestly, please keep up the good work. Those of us with a brain really do know we need you!!
TUPC @68.
I enjoy reading IG‘s blog, but not so much it makes me do that afterwards.
This guy‘s admiration is clearly on a higher plane.
AnneDroid #69
Great comments.
Will you marry me?
OOOH, the first blog wedding!
Can we all come?
Do you mean the load of tosh (her version of affirmative action aka positive discrimination) from Harriet Harpieman?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/17/njobs117.xml
How positive or affirmative will depend on what sort of white man you are of course.
You might just need that job!
Keith Vaz was going on about Positive Action on the radio the other day, and how different it is to (currently illegal) Positive Discrimination. He wasn’t very convincing but it didn’t seem to worry him.
The same Mr Vaz was suspended from the Commons for corruption, following an enquiry he deliberately obstructed.
He’s admirably qualified to be Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee. They oversee the police of course, and you wouldn’t want anyone dishonest doing that, would you?
Vaz is an evil Toe Rag. He doesn’t like people like me and my chums
Vaz is an evil Toe Rag. He doesn’t like people like me and my chums
A close relation works for the press and has been sitting around the Dewsbury hell estate quite a lot. Channel 4’s team filmed inside the family house for quite a few days, before Shannon was found. The end of the documentary displayed a `no money was paid to the Matthews’ bit on the credits. In fact the relative revealed that in fact filming stopped at that point, because the Matthews then demanded a significant amount of money.
Hope the police manage to dredge the truth out of this situation. The poor little girl would be a 1,000 times better off with a good foster family. I’m sick of working all the hours god sends just to pay taxes to keep these people in fags and beer. So many of my younger colleagues can’t afford to start a family because of high tax, mortgages and household bills. It’s ironic that decent people can’t afford to have more than one or two children!!!
[...] mainstream Press is what the police themselves know about this sorry tale. Inspector Gadget has it HERE. Note the “seven children” part in particular, and the implicit reasons for [...]
I like many here am a cynic of some age and like many in civi street said from the start there was something not ringing true about this “missing” child and like totally un pc thought it was the money and when found felt the “relative” who had her may have done so for a good reason and now with two more arrests the cesspit liquid thickens,.
Sadly the police are an easy target for the red tops which are now circulating with cheque books in hand to feed the jeremy kyle star wanna bes of this sordid sorry affair.
Well done to all the police in this case in finding the poor girl and have the professionlism to hold their peace in what to many across the country is the fishiest smelling case that has seen the light of day in years.
cynical woman
I just wish the press would stop calling that Meehan character her ’stepfather’. He’s not married to her mother, he’s just the person she was currently sleeping with!!!!
I read an article which stated that she called 2 of her kids ‘the twins’. They aren’t the same age, they just shared the same father. How sweet!
[...] is what the police themselves know about this sorry tale. “Inspector Gadget” has it HERE. Note the “seven children” part in particular, and the implicit reasons for [...]