The Hunt for Shannon Matthews: Ex-friend of Karen Matthew claims possible motive for sick kidnap plot in new documentary

The Hunt For Shannon Matthews follows the shocking story of the nine-year-old schoolgirl who went missing in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire in 2008, which prompted a major police operation. The nation was gripped during the ordeal, which resulted in the young girl being found at the home of Michael Donovan, the uncle of mum Karen’s boyfriend Craig Meehan.

Karen Matthews and Michael Donovan concocted the plan in a plot to claim money from publicity generated by the case, including a £50,000 reward. Donovan had planned to release Shannon at Dewsbury Market, before pretending to discover her and take her to the police station to claim the reward to be split between him and Matthews.

After their plan was uncovered, Donovan and Matthews were found guilty of kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice. They both served an eight-year prison sentence.

During the course of the investigation, Craig Meehan found to be in possession of child pornography on his computer after it was seized in the investigation, however the images were not in relation to the kidnapping. He was convicted on 11 counts of possessing child pornography at level one, two and three. He was sentenced to 20 weeks in prison but was subsequently released early.

Early sneak-peaks at the new show have shed new light on the Shannon Matthews case, with The Sun reporting that Petra Jamieson, a former friend of Karen, offered up a possible motive for the astonishing plot.

She can be seen in the documentary saying: “Did Karen know that Craig [Shannon's stepdad] had all those images of his computer? Maybe she did. Maybe that's the reason she did what she did. To get Shannon away from him.”

Petra, who lived on the Moorside Estate during the search for Shannon, adds: “She wasn’t allowed back on the estate by the police, so I never got to speak to Karen. Did I want to strangle her doing it? Did I want to punch her? Hug her? All of the above. The children. What mum could do that to their own child?”

Daily Mail has also reported that the documentary will put focus on some of the people impacted by the fraudulent plan, with another former friend of Shannon saying that they were “taken for a ride”. Julie Bushby says: “There was a lot of anger. Everybody felt betrayed.

“Everybody felt used and abused because we were all taken for a ride. It was everybody that went out searching that was taken for a ride. It was everybody that was putting posters up... taken for a ride.”

The new two-part documentary The Hunt For Shannon Matthews will be released on Amazon Prime Video on Sunday, August 17.