Family of Shannon Matthews' kidnapper say they tipped off cops on day one of search

dailyrecord.co.uk:

The family of the man who kidnapped Shannon Matthews say if cops had listened to them they would have found her right away.

Mick Donovan's sister, who wished to remain anonymous, alleges that she asked police to "check my brother" on the very first day of their £3.2 million search operation, reports the Mirror.

The force have denied her accusations. Shannon, 9, disappeared in 2008 and prompted one of the biggest such search parties in UK history.Eventually cops discovered the girl after hunting for 24 days.

She was hidden under Donovan’s bed in Batley Carr, West Yorks.Subsequently in 2009, Donovan and Shannon’s mother, Karen Matthews, were jailed for eight years.In a new documentary, The Man Who Took Shannon, which will air on Channel 5 on Thursday, Donovan's sister says: “Not one of them believed me when I said, ‘Go to his house’.”“The day Shannon went missing, I was listening to the radio and it said a child’s gone missing, named her.