Ceaseless campaign against Karen Matthews

As the Observer reveals that the suspect in the Madeleine McCann case Robert Murat is considering a legal claim against the media,the new topic for the papers,the case of Shannon Matthews has taken over the tabloids.


Many stories in the papers this morning,led by the News of the World which headlines that

THE brazen mum of Shannon Matthews ABANDONED her first baby in a screaming street bust-up over a fiver for ciggies.
Karen Matthews expected £15 from a pawn shop for her stereo. But when lover John Bretton got just a tenner she stormed off leaving him with their two-week-old son.
Revealing all on his ex's squalid life John said: "Karen's a total slob."

The Express reports that

THE mother of Shannon Matthews is thought to be pregnant with her eighth child.
Karen Matthews, currently in prison accused of child neglect and perverting the course of justice in relation to the hunt for nine-year-old Shannon, already has seven children by five different fathers.
And neighbours on the tough Dewsbury Moor estate in Dewsbury, West Yorks, where she lives are convinced the 32-year-old is expecting once again.

The Mirror meanwhile reports that

Tormented Shannon Matthews is suffering nightmare hallucinations caused by her 24-day abduction.
The little girl is convinced she was taken on a day-trip to the seaside while she was being held.
She is now so disorientated that she believes people came to visit her while she was missing - although there is no actual evidence of it happening.

The Sun in particualar has been waging a relentless campaign against Karen Matthews,yesterday its front page said

THE shameless mum of Shannon Matthews has been raking in nearly £400 a week by cheating on benefits, Karen Matthews, 32 – accused over the abduction of her nine-year-old daughter – told officials she was looking after four of her seven children on her own.
But at the time that Shannon vanished for 24 days in February, she had been living for four years with her supermarket fishmonger boyfriend Craig Meehan, 22. He has been earning around £16,000 a year.

The Mail has also joined the fray reporting earlier in the week

Shannon Matthews's aunt has accused the schoolgirl's mother of having an affair with Mike Donovan, the man charged with her abduction.
Amanda Hyett claims the pair had been having an affair for months and that Karen Matthews was poised to leave her live-in partner Craig Meehan for him.

It is rather a strange world when you consider that at the height of the time when nine year old Shannon was missing,the papers were feeling guilty about their lack of reporting,linking it to the social class of the family.Now it seems that the social class is being highlighted in a charade against the family