Council Orders Review Of Shannon Matthews Case

Kirklees Council said it would commission an independently chaired serious case review to look at the involvement social services.

An independent review is to examine contact between Karen Matthews and social services in the run-up to the kidnap of her daughter, her local council announced on Friday.

Kirklees Council said it would commission an independently chaired serious case review to look at the involvement social services and other agencies had had with the Matthews family.

It follows reports in a BBC documentary that there had been concerns about Matthews' ability to care for her children, some of whom had been on a child protection register.

Matthews, 33, and Michael Donovan, 40, the uncle of her then boyfriend, were convicted at Leeds Crown Court on Thursday of kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice.

Prosecutors said the West Yorkshire schoolgirl was drugged and probably kept captive on a leash for 24 days earlier this year as part of a plot to claim a large newspaper reward for the girl's recovery.

"Matters surrounding the Karen Matthews trial are among issues that have put child care and safeguarding in the public eye this week," said Kirklees Council Leader Robert Light.

"I think it is important that there is an independent review of the history and records of all agencies' dealings with the family."

He said the aim was to reassure themselves, their partners, and the public that the local authority had "the very best child protection and safeguarding systems possible".

"People will be rightly concerned to be reassured that those professionals working in the field of child care and safeguarding acted properly and professionally in their dealings with the family," he said.

The BBC documentary said that more than four years ago social services had expressed concerns about the welfare of Matthews' seven children. It said social workers had advised that Matthews needed "constant monitoring".

Earlier Shahid Malik, MP for Dewsbury, had called for an independent review. But he added there did not appear to be the same failings as those made by social services in the London borough of Haringey whose actions failed to prevent the death of 17-month-old toddler Baby P from domestic abuse.

"My gut instinct is that this is not a case like Baby P," Malik was quoted as saying by media reports.

"But the truth is that we don't know what this actually is. I think the sensible thing is to have an independent review."

Matthews, who was branded "pure evil" by police, and Donovan have been told they face a "substantial custodial sentence" for the kidnapping.

Shannon was nine when she disappeared on Feb. 19 as she walked home from school in freezing weather. She was found more than three weeks later at Donovan's flat.

"At the end of the day it's Karen's fault, not social services, not the police, not friends or family, it's Karen's fault," Petra Jamieson, one of Matthews' friends, told BBC TV.