Shannon Matthews’s mother was a “Jekyll and Hyde” character who showed public grief over her kidnapped daughter while privately behaving as though she did not have a care in the world, the jury at her trial was told yesterday.

Karen Matthews seemed “upset and withdrawn” with police or when interviewed by journalists, but behind closed doors she was “having a laugh and a joke” like “her usual self”.

While hundreds of police searched for the missing schoolgirl, Ms Matthews, 33, found time to joke about a male officer on duty outside her home, saying that she “wouldn’t mind taking him upstairs” for sex.

She “almost started dancing” to another officer’s mobile phone ringtone, was seen play-fighting with her boyfriend and appeared to be “enjoying the attention” created by her daughter’s disappearance.

When detectives told Ms Matthews that Shannon, 9, had been found alive after being missing for 24 days, they were surprised that she did not ask how she was.

Leeds Crown Court has been told that Shannon was the victim of a “dishonest and wicked” plot devised by her mother and Michael Donovan, who planned to earn a £50,000 reward when the girl was returned.

Shannon was held captive by Mr Donovan, 40, the uncle of her mother’s boyfriend, who lived in a rented flat less than a mile from Shannon’s home on a council estate in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.

The court has been told that Shannon was drugged during her imprisonment and tethered to a strap suspended from an attic roof beam to prevent her from leaving the flat.

Natalie Brown, a friend and neighbour of Ms Matthews and her boyfriend, Craig Meehan, 22, told the court that the couple had stayed with her for five days during the search for Shannon. She said that Ms Matthews had “acted as if it was any normal day . . . laughing and joking”, but became “very quiet and very attentive” when the news came on.

“It was like Jekyll and Hyde. With the police and press she came over as if she was all upset, withdrawn and everything,” she said. “When [they] were not present, she was back to her usual self, having a laugh and a joke and having normal conversations with everybody.”

Mrs Brown described how, during a visit to a community house that was the base for local efforts to find Shannon, a group of women including Ms Matthews shared “a girlie moment . . . all laughing and joking”.

One of the women had talked about the “cute bum” of a policeman on duty outside Ms Matthews’s house.

“Karen was joking about his physique and saying she’d like to have sex with him in a room upstairs,” said Mrs Brown, who added that she “never saw any real tears from Karen”.

Detective Constable Alexander Grummit, who went to Ms Matthews’s house to tell her that Shannon had been found, said that he was surprised by her reaction. During a half-hour car journey to identify Shannon at a police station, Ms Matthews did not ask where Shannon had been kept or what state she was in, he said.

She did show interest, however, when his mobile phone rang. She said she liked the ringtone and asked Mr Grummitt if he would “either Blue-tooth or text it to me”.

The officer told the court that his thoughts at the time were: “We’ve just found your daughter and you ask about the ringtone on the phone. In my opinion it just wasn’t right.”

He said that on an earlier occasion, the day after Shannon disappeared, Ms Matthews had “almost started dancing” when a police colleague’s mobile phone rang.

The court has been told that the £3.2 million operation to find Shannon was one of the largest in the history of West Yorkshire Police. Detective Superintendent Andy Brennan, who led the investigation, told the jury that between ten and fifteen police would usually work on a murder inquiry, but up to 85 had worked on the hunt for Shannon. All had been taken off murder or rape inquiries, he said. In all, 300 officers were involved.

Ms Matthews and Mr Donovan deny joint charges of kidnapping, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice.

The trial continues.

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