73

Karen Matthews now calls herself ‘Katy Parker’ Now living in a basement flat in Queens Road in Reading In 2008, Karen Matthews was locked up for four years after abducting and drugging her own 9-year-old daughter in a sick bid for a £50,000 cash reward. Her then boyfriend Craig Meehan was jailed for 20 weeks after police found child sexual abuse material, images and movies on his computer She claims she is now a born again Christian. She currently works in charity shop in the area All seven of Matthew’s children are now living under new identities and are not believed to have had contact with their kidnapper mum since the scandal in 2008. Background on case —- A huge police operation was launched when nine-year-old Shannon failed to return home from a school swimming trip. Matthews made emotional TV appeals for the return of her daughter which led to a £50,000 reward being put up. The local community pulled together to raise publicity in the desperate search for the youngster. But after almost a month, the charade began to fall apart and Matthews confessed she had arranged for her daughter to be kidnapped to get the reward money for “finding” her. Shannon was discovered drugged and imprisoned in the base of a divan bed less than a mile away at the flat of Michael Donovan. He is the uncle of Craig, who was Matthews’ boyfriend at the time. Matthews and Donovan were jailed for eight years for kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice. Pic UK Database