Man charged with kidnapping schoolgirl Shannon appears in court by videolink

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A 39-year-old man accused of the kidnap and false imprisonment of nine-year-old Shannon Matthews was due to appear in a videolink from prison today for his first Crown Court hearing.

Michael Donovan appeared last week before magistrates in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, charged with taking the schoolgirl.

Shannon disappeared on February 19 after going on a swimming trip and was eventually discovered less than a mile from her home in Dewsbury Moor, 24 days later.

West Yorkshire Police mounted a massive investigation involving hundreds of officers and a team of 60 detectives to try to find the girl, a pupil at Westmoor Junior School.

Donovan was arrested on March 14 after Shannon was found in Batley Carr.

Donovan, formerly known as Paul Drake, is the uncle of Shannon's stepfather, Craig Meehan.

He is charged with two offences.

The first is that on February 19, in Dewsbury, he "unlawfully and by force or fraud took away Shannon Matthews against her will".

The second is that between February 18 and March 15, he "at 26 Lidgate Gardens, Dewsbury, unlawfully and injuriously imprisoned Shannon Matthews and detained her against her will".

Donovan, who lives in a first-floor flat in Lidgate Gardens, was due to appear today for a preliminary hearing before a judge at Leeds Crown Court via a video link from Leeds Prison.

Shannon's mother Karen, 32, stepfather Craig, 22, and siblings Tony, 11, Cameron, five, and Courtney, two, spent Easter without her.

She remains in the care of social workers from Kirklees Family Services while police painstakingly continue to question her about her ordeal, talking to her in short sessions lasting no more than 10 or 15 minutes.