Shannon Matthews' mother charged over disappearance
The mother of Shannon Matthews has been charged by police in connection with the alleged abduction of her daughter.
Karen Matthews will appear before magistrates in Dewsbury on Wednesday charged with perverting the course of justice and child neglect.
Karen and Shannon Matthews
Karen Matthews, Shannon's mother, has been charged
Matthews, 32, was arrested on Sunday and allegedly broke down in tears in front of a police family liaison officer.
Miss Matthews has been accused of knowing her daughter's whereabouts from the start of the £5 million search for her, sources have disclosed.
The Daily Telegraph understands that officers are examining alleged similarities between Shannon's disappearance and a storyline from the Channel 4 drama series Shameless shown in the month before the nine-year-old vanished.
In it, the teenage daughter of Frank Gallagher, the head of a dysfunctional family, staged the fake kidnap of his youngest son, Liam, in an attempt to obtain a £500,000 ransom.
All along, Liam was hidden a few doors away with a friend of his sister.
The episode attracted 2.5 million viewers when it was shown on Jan 22.
Shannon failed to return from school after her a swimming lesson on Feb 19, prompting Britain's biggest ever search for a missing person, involving hundreds of police officers and members of the public.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that police are examining allegations that people claiming to be connected to Shannon's family asked for donations from the fund set up to find Madeleine McCann, the four-year-old who vanished from a Portuguese holiday apartment last May.
A spokesman for her parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, said they had received "a number of approaches" for aid from the Find Madeleine Fund from purported representatives of the Matthews family.
The Daily Telegraph understands that Miss Matthews, who has seven children to five fathers, was arrested on Sunday as she sat in a police car with Det Con Christine Freeman.
Two of Miss Matthews's friends are also thought to have been present when Det Con Freeman asked Miss Matthews about alleged inconsistencies in her account of events.
One of the friends allegedly claimed that Miss Matthews had known where Shannon was throughout the 24-day search.
Miss Matthews allegedly admitted that she had wanted to leave her boyfriend, Craig Meehan, 22, and that his uncle, Michael Donovan - the man charged with abducting Shannon - had offered her a place to stay.
Miss Matthews is alleged to have said she intended to leave home but at the last minute "lost her bottle".
However, sources said she denied having an affair with Mr Donovan, 39, and had not asked him to take Shannon.
Police found Shannon on March 14 in the base of a divan bed in Mr Donovan's first-floor flat, a mile from her home in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.
Mr Donovan, who slit his wrists while on remand at Leeds Prison on Sunday, is awaiting trial charged with kidnap and false imprisonment.
Mr Meehan is in custody charged with 11 counts of possessing child pornography and will appear before Dewsbury magistrates on Friday.
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