Breaking Media, Politicians & Celebrities Since 1995

SHANNON Matthews found alive:

TOM WATSON: “Keeping your kids close”

“Technology makes it easier to keep tabs on your kids. A new GPS device will allow parents to identify where there kids are hanging out at the click of a button. The Spot (satellite personal tracker) has an emergency button and text options. Parents can track where their kids are on Google maps. There’s also mobilelocators.com which can track an individual mobile phone. A search starts at 20p.”

Not that the Labour MP advocates chipping your children. He just wants us to join the debate. It’s the New Labour trick. If you’re an MP and get caught out saying something you believe in but that makes other people pall, all you need do is say you were joining the debate.

THE TIMES: “The Maths Of Shannon Matthews”

Here’s what Geoff Newiss reported to the Home Office in 1999 following a programme of research:

“The majority of ‘vulnerable’ missing persons do not meet with tragic consequences.

“The Police National Missing Persons Bureau (PNMPB) collects vulnerable missing person reports which are still outstanding after 14 days. Of the 2,197 missing persons entered onto their database in 1997/8, 1,561 (71.0%) had been traced by the end of the year.

“Only 938 reports related to missing persons under the age of 18, of which 692 (73.8%) had been traced by the end of the year.”

And:

The Missing People charity broadly concurs:

A Home Office study in 2003 found that the chance of a missing person being the victim of homicide to be around 1 in 7,400.

The risk varies enormously with age. Teenagers faced the lowest risk, simply because of the large numbers going missing relative to the number of cases involving homicide.

Young children, below the age of 10, faced at least twice the risk of being the victim of homicide than the average across all ages.

THE TIMES: “It’s over. Now for the demons.”

“Keenly sensitive to their own family’s anxiety, they also often seek to protect their parents from what they have been through.”

DAILY TELGRAPH: “It is reported that the 39 yr old man who faces charges of abducting her is a relative of Shannons’ stepfather. I wonder what kind of animal can watch the suffering of his own family whilst he continues to hold the child for his own perverted reasons. Whether Shannon has been assaulted or not, this mans actions must be those of someone with a pretty sick mind.”

Nothing reported. No sources given. The writer is given as “Phil Slocombe”. He writes ifor an online section called “My Telegraph”. His grammar is poor as his research. His byline says he’s in China. He may have to stay there.

We report it and do not like it. We will not discuss it. It remains alledged. The important point here is a nine-year-old is still with us and that makes Good News. The remainder is a healing process and we should all help with that.

CRN: “In a bizarre piece of commentary the parents of missing 4 year old Madeleine have been quoted as saying that they are ‘delighted’ that Shannon has been safely returned to her family. It is likely that Shannon’s family will be able to continue their celebrations without the need for other media hungry people to get involved.”

WASTING POLICE TIME: “There’s been a lot of rubbish talked lately about how Shannon’s case hadn’t received the media coverage others have, and lots of insinuation that people don’t really care about kids from less than idyllic homes. I can tell you from personal experience that this is balls, certainly as far as police operations go. The incident room oop north will have been full of lots of ordinary human beings, lots of them mums and dads themselves, going through a range of emotions, from weak hope to black despair.”

ELLEE SEYMOUR: “It will also put an end to the cruel media speculation which the Matthews and McCann families have endured, the comparisons made between coverage of Shannon and Madeleine McCann’s disappearances based on their different backgrounds.”

DAILY TELGRAPH: “Dozens of relatives, friends and neighbours spilled from their homes to gather outside the family house in celebration drinking champagne, beer and wine.”

THE GUARDIAN: “Who do we blame?”

Beatrix Campbell is harping on:

The story of Shannon Matthews’ disappearance - and dramatic reappearance, apparently alive and well, today - has confirmed the degree to which class is still the cultural register in our purportedly classless society.

The comparison between Madeleine McCann and Shannon Matthews is saturated by class. It isn’t just a matter of resources, and which children attract our attention. The comparison registers class as a courier of moral tales. Both stories dramatise the distribution of virtue and blame that fixes the working class and the middle class in moral hierarchies.

And on:

No one thought Karen Matthews had abducted or killed her daughter - and yet she has been judged. Some commentators think they can say anything they like about this woman and even to her. She has spoken with reticent dignity, yet her class makes her available for blame. The McCanns are official suspects. And yet - unlike Karen Matthews - they are presumed innocent.

Matthews. McCann. Bingo!

THE TIMES: “Who’s who in the extended family of Shannon Matthews”

Craig Meehan, 22

It has been reported that Shannon was found in the flat of one of Mr Meehan’s relatives.

THE TIMES: “Shannon’s happy ending ‘offers hope to others’”

An estimated 210,000 reports of missing people are made to British police forces each year. Around two-thirds of these concern young people under the age of 18. Most missing people return safe and well within 72 hours of going missing.

The parents of Madeleine McCann, who has been missing for 10 months after disappearing from their Algarve holiday apartment, said the discovery of Shannon had given them fresh hope.

EVENING TIMES: “Man held after missing Shannon found alive”

Kate and Gerry McCann, the parents of missing four-year-old Madeleine McCann, were among the first to welcome the news. Their spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, said the news gave them hope.

He said: “Kate and Gerry are aware that she has been found alive. They feel that is excellent news, they are delighted that she is alive. They will not comment more until they know the full circumstances. Suffice to say that they will keep on looking until they have a happy resolution in Madeleine’s case.

“It proves that children can go missing for whatever reason and still be found alive. Until Kate and Gerry know what has happened to Madeleine, there will always be hope for them that she too will be found alive. They will keep on looking as long as there is hope.”

SPENBOROUGH GUARDIAN: “Shannon Matthews latest”

5.04pm - A banner has been put up in the street where Shannon lives welcoming her home. It has been signed by her friends and family.
Family, friends and neighbours who are celebrating the news in the street said they hoped to see the youngster back home tonight.

THE GUARDIAN: “The troubled times of the Matthews family”

While West Yorkshire police was carrying out its biggest missing person investigation since the Yorkshire Ripper, the family of Shannon Matthews have been involved in a remarkable series of claims and counter-claims.

Watching the parents.

YORKSHIRE EVENING POST: “MISSING Shannon Matthews has been found safe and well.”

Police confirmed the news today - 24 days since she went missing in Dewsbury. Her disappearance sparked the biggest manhunt in West Yorkshire since the Yorkshire Ripper inquiry.

Unofficial reports suggested the nine-year-old had been found at a house believed in the neighbouring town of Batley Carr in Lidgate Gardens.

Police officially confirmed that a man had been arrested in connection with the discovery of Shannon.

AFP: “A resident in the neighbouring town of Batley Carr told the Yorkshire Evening Post: “I have just seen Shannon being taken out of a house in Batley Carr. She is safe and well.”

INDEPENDENT: “A local resident, who did not want to give her name, said: “One of my neighbours heard banging.”

“When he went outside, police were breaking the door down - the man wouldn’t come out so they broke in.

“Apparently they found her in bed. He said she was quite calm. Police carried her out.

“My neighbour asked, ‘is it Shannon?” and the policeman just said, ‘yes’ and said she was OK.”

The neighbour said rumours in the street suggested that the man who occupied the flat where Shannon was found lived alone and had children who had been taken into care.

She added: “We haven’t seen him for two or three years. But apparently he’s come back.”

The woman who lives downstairs from him tipped off police after hearing footsteps, she said.

POLICE: Shannon found in base of diven bed. A 39-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of abduction.

EVENING COURIER: Leon Rose, who grew up in Mixenden, Halifax, before moving to Huddersfield, said: “I’m buzzing at her being found obviously but need to wait for everything to sink in.”

LEON ROSE: “Like winning the lottery.”

Posted: 14th, March 2008 | In: Tabloids. Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0