DEWSBURY

The partner of Shannon Matthews’s mother was remanded in custody charged with possessing 140 pornographic images of children on two computers.

Craig Meehan, 22, of Dewsbury Moor, West Yorkshire, appeared before magistrates in Dewsbury accused of 11 specimen offences and was remanded until April 11.

The images were found on two computers recovered from Mr Meehan’s home, where he has lived with Shannon’s mother, Karen Matthews, for around five years. He was in court on the same day that Mrs Matthews saw her nine-year-old daughter for the first time since she disappeared on February 19. She was found in the base of a bed in a flat in Batley Carr, one mile from her home.

Speaking outside Dewsbury Magistrates’ Court, a neighbour of Mrs Matthews, Julie Bushby, said: “She spent three and a half hours with her, I don’t know where.”

Mr Meehan’s uncle, Michael Donovan, 39, of Batley Carr, has been charged with Shannon’s kidnap and imprisonment.

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