TWO women arrested in connection with the alleged abduction of nine-year-old Shannon Matthews have been released on police bail.

Alice Meehan, 49, the mother of Shannon’s stepfather, Craig Meehan, was held yesterday on suspicion of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Her daughter — Craig’s sister — Amanda Hyett, 25, was arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender.

A West Yorkshire police spokesman said: “The two women, aged 25 and 49, arrested earlier in connection with the kidnap of Shannon Matthews have both been granted police bail pending further inquiries. They are required to reattend [a police station] in May.”

Shannon went missing from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, on February 19 and was discovered hiding in the base of a bed at an address just one mile from her home after a police search lasting 24 days.

Alice Meehan is the sister of Michael Donovan, 39, the man charged with the kidnap and false imprisonment of Shannon who vanished after a school swimming trip.

Craig Meehan, the 22-year-old partner of Shannon’s mother Karen Matthews, has separately been charged with possessing 130 indecent images of children.

The supermarket fishmonger was remanded in custody last Thursday for “his own protection" at the end of an 11-minute court hearing, having declined to make a bail application.

Detectives found the images after seizing two computers from the home Meehan shared with Shannon and her mother in Dewsbury Moor, West Yorkshire, on February 20, the court heard.

The pictures are not believed to be of Shannon or her siblings.

Meehan, who has a two-year-old daughter from his relationship with Matthews, is charged with ten specimen counts relating to possession of child pornography and one all-encompassing charge.

Friends of Matthews said they believed she had ended her relationship with Meehan.

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