Shannon Matthews documentary suggests case should be reopened as ‘there were others involved’

A new documentary on the abduction of nine-year-old Shannon Matthews suggests police should reopen the case as more people are thought to be involved than first believed.

The programme will claim that mother-of-eight Karen Matthews, who appealed to the public for help to find her “missing” daughter – did not act alone.

Nine years on since her kidnapping, the Channel 5 documentary interviews residents of Dewsbury Moor who insist that neither Karen nor her accomplice, Michael Donovan, were intelligent enough to have organised the plot.

Julie Bushby, who lived on the same Dewsbury estate in West Yorkshire, kept a diary noting her visits to see her friend Karen in prison, which reveal the mother’s story changed every time she visited.

Bushby says: “Her story changed. I kept a diary when I went to visit, and I were comparing what she’d told me that last visit, to this visit.

“There was just nothing that I could connect.”

Ms Bushby also tells of the moment Karen Matthews confessed she knew of Shannon’s whereabouts.

She says: “We just sat it the car and it were like good cop, bad cop. And then when she did it, when she came out with it, it were just woah.”

Ms Bushby claims there may be others involved who have stayed quiet “to protect themselves”.

She explains: “I didn’t know Donovan but from what I can gather from courts, Donovan didn’t have the intelligence, and it certainly had nothing to do with money.

“The amount of envelopes she got through her door, offering her money for her story, and she didn’t take one of them up.

“I think there were others involved. Others have got to be involved, because like I’ve said before, and I’ll say it again, Karen didn’t have the intelligence, and Donovan, from what the cops have said, he didn’t have the intelligence.

“But as for those saying it were for the £50,000 reward, I also don’t think that’s true, because [of] the envelopes.

“The amount of envelopes she got through her door, offering her money for her story, were unbelievable. And she didn’t take one of them up.”

When asked about Karen’s motivations, Ms Bushby insists she is not ‘evil’: “No, stupid but not evil. I’ve always said that. I’ve always said she’s stupid.

“Life’s too short to hold grudges for the rest of your life. Karen’s got nobody.

“Everybody says she deserves nobody. She deserves to have a sad life, she deserves to have mushy peas poured over her head, etc, etc.

“There’s worse people out there than her, and for some reason the press seem to think it’s a barrel of fun chasing her down all the time.

“To me she’s like a child. And a child always needs somebody.”

Shannon Matthews: What Happened Next will air on Tuesday, February 28, at 10pm on Channel 5.