Shannon's mother 'lied and lied and lied again'

The mother of Shannon Matthews "lied and lied and lied again" as she told five different versions regarding her daughter's disappearance, a jury was told today.

Summing up the case for the prosecution, Julian Goose QC, told the jurors Karen Matthews was a "consummate liar".

He said from the moment she made a false report claiming her nine-year-old daughter had been abducted, she had repeatedly contradicted herself.

He said: "She has lied and lied and lied again. To the police, various friends and you in this court.

"She has lied so often and so much that she has reached the point where all she can say is I was confused and then blame everybody else except herself," he told the jury at Leeds Crown Court.

Mr Goose said she had told five different versions and he added: "You know, as we all do from life experiences, that people who tell lies have to stick to the lie because if they change it they get found out.

"You may think ladies and gentleman, as you can be sure about it, she has been found out for the dishonest and, we say, wicked liar that she is.

"Ladies and gentlemen this was a plan between Karen Matthews and Michael Donovan.

"It was a plan to take Shannon and keep her captive and make a false complaint, wait for the reward money to grow, pretend to find her and then claim the money. That was the plan between them," he told the jury.

Matthews, 33, and Donovan, 40, are accused of kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice in connection with Shannon's disappearance in February.

Both deny the charges.

The court has heard how Shannon was found in Donovan's flat 24 days after she went missing from her home.

The prosecution allege Donovan kept her drugged and imprisoned in his flat in Lidgate Gardens, Batley Carr, as part of a plan he and Matthews had to claim £50,000 in reward money.

Matthews has denied the abduction and blamed the crime on her former partner and other members of his family.

She said she was "disgusted" by allegations that she was involved in her daughter's abduction.

Donovan claims he was scared of Matthews and only agreed to take her because he feared for his life.