Last updated 12:49, Friday, 05 December 2008

IN February Karen Matthews shed crocodile tears as she made a desperate 999 call to say her then nine-year-old daughter was missing.

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Her disappearance sparked a 24-day nationwide hunt, led by West Yorkshire Police, costing almost £3.2m.

All the time little Shannon was being kept less than a mile away drugged, tethered and imprisoned in a flat by 40-year-old Michael Donovan after he and the girl’s mother concocted an evil plot to claim £50,000 in reward money from The Sun.

It was alleged Donovan used an elastic strap attached to a roof beam in his loft to tether the youngster while he kept her imprisoned.

Brazen Matthews even blamed the crime on her ex, Craig Meehan, and other members of his family.

Yesterday jurors sitting at Leeds Crown Court found 33-year-old Matthews and Donovan of West Yorkshire, guilty of kidnap, false imprisonment, and perverting the course of justice.

Both had denied all charges.

They were warned to expect substantial jail sentences.

South Cumbria’s area commander, Chief Superintendent Paul Kennedy, was heading the Homicide and Major Inquiry Team in Bradford and Leeds when Shannon went missing.

Since 2005 he had been tirelessly carrying out critical research and on how police should deal with child kidnap cases.

His hard work was rewarded when his Force Plan into Abduction and how police should respond was implemented, not just in Yorkshire, but by police forces nationally and in Australia.

The Shannon Matthews case was the first time it was used in this country.

Ch Supt Kennedy explained: “I was involved in the Shannon Matthews case from the first day, but because I was taking the post in South Cumbria I wasn’t in charge of the investigation but second in command and led and coordinated the search teams.

“I had looked at 40 years of research into child abductions.

“What I put together was initial guidance on how police respond to a call about a missing child. First of all it’s important to get the search teams as quickly as possible.

“Research showed that if a child is not found in six hours there’s a 76 per cent chance they are dead and in 12 hours rises to 90 per cent.

“Then we look at sex offenders living in the area and also look at the possibility that the offender may be a family member.

“In 26 per cent of cases the offender is connected to the family network.

“My policy was first implemented in West Yorkshire, then nationally and even in Australia.

“We initially got the call that Shannon was missing after her mother rang saying she hadn’t come home. The last sighting of her was leaving school at 3.30pm by 8am the following day it had become a full-blown inquiry.

“I set up a coordinated search covering a mile-and-a-half radius from where she was last seen to her home.

“We searched the school and carried out door-to-door inquiries and identified any sex offenders in the area.

“This area was extended as time went on.

“Within 24 hours we had a 400-strong search team looking for Shannon.”

Mr Kennedy explained how fingertip searches were carried out, leaving no stone unturned.

He continued: “We were looking for any evidence we could find, like her clothing, her school bag or swimming kit that may have been discarded. This meant searching every wheelie bin and shed.

“Initially when she wasn’t found, we were concerned that this was a genuine abduction.

“The police were under so much pressure to find Shannon and we began looking at all possibilities – even that it was a family member.

“Right from the outset we had our suspicions but we had to keep an open mind.

“It helped that the abduction policy was in place, because the force knew what to do right from the very beginning.

“It had been practised before but this was the first time it was used and it was great to see all my work come to fruition and it certainly helped in the early stages of the investigation.

“There was a massive amount to do in a short amount of time.

“We were being asked some very difficult questions by the media, because it wasn’t that long after the Soham murders. There were a lot of questions asked about that police investigation and we were really under the media spotlight.

“We were under national and international scrutiny.

“Obviously we had a duty to let the public know about where the investigation was going but we were also trying to find Shannon.”

Days after leaving his Yorkshire post to take charge of policing in Barrow, Ulverston and the South Lakes, Shannon was found hidden in a drawer under Donovan’s bed.

It emerged that Matthews and Donovan had kept the youngster drugged and tethered as they plotted to get £50,000 reward money by hiding Shannon until her accomplice “found” her wandering in a nearby market.

Speaking about the verdict, Ch Supt Kennedy said: “This is a fantastic result and send out a clear message how seriously we take these type of crimes.

“It was a sinister plot and the public can see from this how people can brazenly tell lies and not thetruth.

“There are about one or two child abductions a year and my policy may just help save someone’s life someday.”

Senior investigating officer Detective Chief Supt Andy Brennan, described Matthews as “pure evil”.

“Shannon Matthews was reported as missing by the very person she should have been able to trust above all of us.

“Karen Matthews is pure evil. She started deceiving those closest to her the very moment Shannon was kidnapped.”

Police believe at least one other individual was involved and further arrests have not been ruled out.