Shannon Matthews: No Portuguese Police, Class And Trial By Media
SHANNON Watch - Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Shannon Matthews
THE SUN: “How could she just vanish?”
The absence of any clues is not for the want of looking. In contrast to the bungling by Portuguese police in the early days of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance, the hunt for Shannon by West Yorkshire police has been textbook.
Good news. The British police are not Portuguese. They have not found Madeleine McCann. The British police have not found Shannon Matthews. Any idea what has happened to Shannon?
Yet someone MUST know something. And fingers have been pointed.
Whispers.
Nearly 1,400 convicted sex criminals live within 25 miles of Shannon’s home and police will be quizzing them all.
And they are the ones the Sun knows of. Are the all paedophiles? The Sun does not say.
Even more attention has focused on Shannon’s fractured and extended family, some of whom have made clear their dislike of stepdad Craig.
Fact: “Mum Karen has seven children by five different men.”
Sons Tony, 11, and Cameron, five, and daughter Courtney, two, live, like Shannon, with her and Craig at their scruffy council semi. Her other sons Ian, ten, and Daniel, seven, and daughter Kelly, six, live with their fathers. Leon Rose, 29, Shannon’s father, lives ten miles away in the village of Kirkburton, near Huddersfield.
Facts. And whispers:
Craig adds: “Basically, it’s all lies. If it was true, why didn’t they come out a couple of days after Shannon went missing and say it? It has taken them three weeks to come out with some rubbish about that.” Asked if he had ever “laid a finger on” Shannon, he said: “No – haven’t done, never will.”
He adds: “All I am focusing on is finding Shannon. Even her real dad has backed me up. He’s even said Shannon looks up to me. We’ve all been checked out and we’re in the clear.”
Watching the parents. Read all about it.
DAILY STAR: “SNATCHER HAS TAKEN SHANNON TO TORTURE ME - I’M TARGET SAYS MUM
Shannon’s dad Leon Rose, 29, from nearby Huddersfield, said: “No-one can imagine the agonies we are going through.”
DAILY MIRROR: “’Someone took her to get at me’ - MUM KAREN YESTERDAY”
“THE HUNT FOR SHANNON”
Says “the mother-of-seven”: “The police say sometimes to prepare for the worse - but we are not going to be doing that at the moment because we know she’s out there somewhere.”
Karen again denied suggestions made by relatives that Shannon’s stepdad, Craig Meehan, 22, had hit her daughter. She said: “No, he hasn’t never touched her - ever. I wouldn’t be with a man who who hit me kids. That’s one thing I wouldn’t do is put my kids in danger. That’s a lie. I don’t know why my parents are saying this.”
DAILY RECORD: “They Took Shannon Simply To Hurt Me”
THE mother of missing Shannon Matthews yesterday revealed her shocking theory behind the youngster’s disappearance.
THE GUARDIAN: “Someone took Shannon to hurt me, says mother of missing girl”
Karen Matthews said Shannon, who was last seen leaving school, had not been unhappy and said she was sure her daughter “was still out there.”
She tells the BBC: “It seems that way because there’s no trace of her at all. There’s no trace of her swimming costume, her towel or anything.”
INDEPENDENT: “Missing children and the media: The wrong kind of family?”
The case of Shannon Matthews, the missing nine-year-old from Dewsbury, has developed a cruel overtone: an unspoken suggestion that, because of their lifestyles, her family deserve not our pity but our censure. By Cahal Milmo
Campaigners yesterday said that the tone – and dwindling quantity – of the coverage devoted to the hunt for Shannon betrays an ugly double standard and class prejudice in the media and society about how Britons respond to the grief and public distress of a family going through the grim limbo of a missing child. As one newspaper columnist put it: “I wonder if our media aren’t just reacting to an unspoken mood in the country, a feeling that a woman who has seven kids by five different men and who isn’t living with any of them, must be a pretty dire mother and so must bear some of the responsibility for her missing daughter.”
Lyn Costello, co-founder of Mothers Against Murder and Aggression (Mamaa), which campaigns on behalf of victims of violence, said: “It is a truth that few people want to admit to but the amount of publicity and sympathy you get if you are the victim of a terrible crime in this country depends on your social status. The question asked of Karen Matthews about the numbers of her children and their fathers is very typical. How is that in any sense relevant to what has happened to Shannon?…
Is there a Mother For Murder And Aggression group?
Trial by the ‘Today’ programme
Excerpt from an interview by Sarah Montague with Karen Matthews on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Today’ programme:
SM: It has been suggested that she could have run away because of a lot of reports… that she was unhappy?
KM: No, she was not unhappy at all, she was fine on the Tuesday morning, and the Monday she were absolutely fine.
SM: Perhaps we should explain. It’s a slightly complicated family picture you have, isn’t it? You’ve got seven children, by six fathers?
KM: Five.
SM: And four children live with you?
KM: Yeah.
SM: It has been suggested Shannon was unhappy and she had run away.
KM: She’s not the kind of girl who would run away.
SM: But have you considered if she was unhappy there?
KM: She wasn’t.
SM: Karen, you’ll know the reason I ask is because there’s been a lot of coverage, not least from … your parents and brothers, talking about how your children have a difficult relationship with Craig.
KM: No, that’s untrue.
SM: I’m quoting your parents. “We’ve never seen him, Craig, beating Shannon with our own eyes. But the kids have said it has happened. They’ve suggested Craig was hitting Shannon.”
KM: No. He hasn’t. Never ever touched her. Never. I wouldn’t be with a man who hit my kids. That’s one thing I wouldn’t do, is put my kids in danger.
SM: So when they say things like when they’ve gone round, one of the children on the stairs is crying, “I’ve asked the child what happened, and the child said ‘Craig. Punch, punch punch. He punched my belly.’ The child was shaking and crying.”
KM: That’s a lie.
SM: So why are your parents saying this?
KM: I don’t know.
SM: What do you think happened to Shannon?
KM: She’s got abducted, that’s all I can say.
THE INDEPENDENT: Janet Street-Porter: Not every mother is from Middle England”
Yesterday, Today interrogated another young mother, Karen Matthews, whose nine-year-old daughter Shannon has been missing from home in Leeds for three weeks. Mrs Matthews was asked, “So you have seven children by five fathers?” as if that somehow implied that she was a deficient parent or implicated in her daughter’s disappearance. Her distress was palpable.
Her distress at the question?
Why on earth should this woman have to discuss allegations made by her relatives about her partner of four years, a fishmonger a decade younger than her, which hinted that he might have had a difficult relationship with the missing girl?
Same reason a columnist in the Independent would write about it: human interest.
Posted: 13th, March 2008 | In: Tabloids Comments (19) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
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March 14th, 2008 at 11:59 am
When this first hit the headlines, and before we all knew the facts we know now (however small). I believed an apartment had been broken into a child had been snatched whilst sleeping in her bed. I assumed her parents had been in the next room asleep. My gut reaction was ‘I hope she’s dead’ not because I wanted her dead, but because I wanted her pain and suffering to be over with and as short lived as possible, and my heart ached for the pain and torment her parents must be going through.
As time went on and more and more facts (I mean facts) came out my compassion for them ceased. I could not / cannot be compassionate for parents who left 3 children in the circumstances they did. Nether can I be compassionate for parents whose stories differ conflict with others etc etc, which could ultimately be because they are in some way involved. This could be the case, itis possible and statistics back up this possibility.
I did not like peoples assumptions of “they didn’t act like I would if it was me” simply because we don’t know how we would react. However Rhys Jones’s mum brought me back to reality. Yes I do know how I would react I would react how she and many many - other parents would react. As for the fact that Rhys is dead making a diference - no not if we are realistic about what an abductor of a 3/4 year old little girl wanted her for. I would be off my head and round the twist by now and I certainly couldn’t go on with life as before, maybe in small doses for the sake of my other children with a heck of a lot of help, but I mean very short moments of time. The rest I would be screaming and pleading certainly at the media as a way of speaking to the abductor.
If they are innocent of everything other than their serious neglect of their children and they really do not know where she is or what is happening to her, then I do have COMPASSION for them in their plight of not knowing her fate and knowing they were to blame. I think her being missing and not knowing if she suffered or is still suffering would be worse even than knowing she was dead and at peace.
March 13th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
14 Nicola - “Leave Karen Matthews alone- she has done nothing wrong” -
sorry, she let a parade of men into her daughter’s life which placed her in danger, according to family members.
and it must be recognised that when the rich kill it is always more interesting than when the poor do it, if that is what has happened!
March 13th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
1 Dave
hello
I agree - I would like to see McCanns being grilled like that
March 13th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
KB
And I haven’t a doubt that if Shannon’s parents had the same money and connections that make the McCanns capable of funding that search, they would use it all to find their missing child.
Yeh instead of paying their mortgage with it perhaps?
Shannon is just as important as Madeleine..and the police seem to be taking her case very seriously which is encouraging..therefore i dont give a rats fcuk what the media says about it..or doesnt say…the police are the ones who will solve Shannon’s case..media coverage is of no importance..it has been covered so that near enough anyone in Britain will know her if they see her..which in my opinion is enough..I feel the most important thing is that the police take it seriously..and if she has been abducted perhaps too much media coverage would be counter-productive..?
March 13th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
I am sick and tired of working class people getting the short straw when it comes to sympathy from the media in missing children cases. Does it matter that the woman has seven children? No. Does it bear relevance on the story of Shannon going missing? No. Absolutely not. Why has the press pounced on the words “council estate”, “run down”, “dysfunctional”, “complicated”, “scruffy”? Is this a sensible, non-bias way of reporting? No. It is a disgrace to the profession of journalism that these people actually have jobs. Running down people because they are of a certain class. When did the McCanns get quizzed on live radio by the BBC? Asked about their family live- was Gerry ever asked did he lash out at Madeleine or shout at her? Were they interogated for hte whole world to witness? No. Leave Karen Matthews alone- she has done nothing wrong, only the person who is with holding information or keeping Shannon has done wrong.
Mods and Admin
Nicola, what you say is very true. Here on Anorak the anomolies have been recognised and discussed, if you check our archives? There should be no difference whatsoever.
March 13th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
oh, rubbish. you don’t give a hoot about the two girls. you don’t know them and you are only reacting the way you think you should react - for public consumption. there are millions of children dying daily of malnutrition and war and you probably dont spend a second thinking about them.
no, we care about the maddy story because supposedly nice parents who kill their own and then lie about it (believed) are always more interesting than low class brutes who kill and lie. simple.
March 13th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
WTG DAVE, my first thought exactly. Too bad they were not in the UK at the time….
I know exactly what you mean.
I find the mothers comments of thinking someone has done this to spite her, interesting at best. This isnt about her. She shouldnt be thinking of herself, she should be only thinking of her child. They also did not use the audio intv as an oppt to shout out to Shannon and say, “We Love you Shannon come home to us please, if you can hear this….no matter what happened we love you, we need you to come home”
I needed to hear that from them both. And, I didnt.
CT
March 13th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
People sympathise with Madeleine more because she is 4 years old, and yes, she is exceptionally pretty. Which means we can only imagine what she is going through, and she is too young to understand.
But so is Shannon.
Its not fair, no, but I think we also love Madeleine because we know more about her. Her personal life, home videos of her with her family. Pictures that show a happy little girl. Heartbroken parents that don’t beg teary-eyed for her return day and night in front of the camera, but instead go out and head a massive global campaign to find her, refusing to give up hope for her return.
And I haven’t a doubt that if Shannon’s parents had the same money and connections that make the McCanns capable of funding that search, they would use it all to find their missing child.
But the thing is, there are differences that make the media less interested. 1) Madeleine was taken from a family friendly holiday resort. Shannon disappeared walking home from swimming in a neighbourhood, that, as the media tells us, has 1400 sex offenders surrounding it. Not quite as shocking. 2) Madeleine was sleeping. Shannon was walking.
3) Unfortunately, Madeleine has a bit more of a camera face. Shannon is beautiful, but Maddie is 4. 4) Madeleine has that mark in her eye. Easier to look for.
And all the media ever says in the Shannon case is that we should shun the McCanns and look for her instead because her family doesn’t have the same kind of money. The thing is, we’re tired of hearing them just complain about that. We want news.
But I beg you not to get me wrong, Madeleine and Shannon are equally important.
oh, and i-dont-believe-them, that would be because Madeleine has been missing for eight months. Much longer than Shannon. Much more news. And it really is easier to laugh at the Portuguese police because as far as I know the British did everything right. The Portuguese didn’t even seal off the crime scene or recognise a picture of Madeleine.
March 13th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Still only 10 posts and Maddie over 300.
March 13th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
8
JuneJohnson
But But . Your name end in ‘N’ …..Yampster is my surname
March 13th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
poor shannon, she has only 8 posts so far and Madeleine has 96.
are the posters of Anorak are exercising class bias?
March 13th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Yampster
It could be an academic fact that the difference in parental love and care is down to an ‘e’, Kylie has one, Dannii does not.
Kylie also got to snog a lot with Jason ( Dreamcoat) Donovan, again Dannii didn’t.
So, does having your name end in ‘e’ up all the ante’s?
Yours ends in ‘r’, mine ends in drumroll….. wait for it …an ‘e’
March 13th, 2008 at 11:28 am
6
Karen
Kyliiii and Daniiiii both born in Australia - Fact
Walsall North Labour MP John Stonehouse fakes his own death and flees - Fact
John Stonehouse turns up in 1974 in Australia - Fact
John Stonehouse come back to the UK leaving Kyliiiiii (aged 6) and Daniii (Aged 3) behind in Australia - Fact
Stone Houses are built by Masons!!!!!!! - Fact
March 13th, 2008 at 11:11 am
Yampster
We should, but we wont, it’s a conspiracy.
March 13th, 2008 at 11:07 am
What a very sad story. Maybe she was abducted, maybe she runned away.
Very sad indeed but somehow I’m glad the British police are as incapable as the Portuguese PJ.
It is very difficult to find a child who disappeared.
How are the British media reacting on the capacity of the Scotland Yard?
As furious as they were about the PJ?
March 13th, 2008 at 11:02 am
Kylie more loved than Danii??
That sound like child neglect to me!!! How come the parents of both allowed this to happen. Do they have the same parents? Does one of them perhaps, (twirls moustache and waits for drum roll at this point), have a step parent. We should be told
March 13th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Sammy J
I agree but the harsh fact is - the McCann lifestyle is aspirational, the Karen Matthews lifestyle isn’t - so people weep over Madeleine and we gripe over Shannon (why should she be less important… - she just is - like Kylie Minogue will always be more loved than Danni).
March 13th, 2008 at 10:25 am
typical! Working class mother with loads of kids gets bad press and little help, whilst other rich doctor types who misplace their 3 year old get thousands of pounds in support.
Maybe her husband did do something to Shannon, maybe the doctors did something to their little one but why is one family so deserving of help whilst another is condemned as guilty based purely upon thier housing status?
That would make me more likely to ‘off’ my kids as I rent my house, as opposed to the people who own the house next door.
And although some mornings they tempt me, renting my house does not give me murderous tendencies toward the little blighters!
Well done Janet Street Porter. Well said!
March 13th, 2008 at 10:18 am
If only others were put through such intensive interview…