The man accused of kidnapping Shannon Matthews was beaten up when he returned to prison after the second day of his trial, a court heard yesterday.

Michael Donovan, 40, was punched twice in the face by another prisoner at Armley jail, in Leeds, on Thursday evening.

The attack followed a week in which "a number of things have happened to him" inside the prison, his barrister told Leeds Crown Court.

Alan Conrad QC said that Mr Donovan received "facial injuries" in the assault.

Since the trial started on Tuesday, he had also been "verbally threatened and his prison identity card has been stolen in mysterious circumstances", said Mr Conrad.

A red mark was visible on Mr Donovan's face yesterday as he sat in the dock alongside Shannon's mother, Karen Matthews.

They are accused of a "dishonest and wicked" plot which led to the nine-year-old being kidnapped and held captive for 24 days by Mr Donovan at his flat, less than a mile from Ms Matthews' home in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.

Shannon is said to have been drugged and tethered to a strap suspended from a roof beam. The couple allegedly hoped to earn a £50,000 reward by eventually "finding" the schoolgirl.

The Prison Service later confirmed that Mr Donovan was assaulted by another Armley inmate at 7pm on Thursday as a result of which he "sustained minor cuts and was treated by prison staff". West Yorkshire Police said they were investigating the incident.

Mr Justice McCombe told the court that he had been informed of the attack yesterday morning in a memo sent by the prison's governor.

Giving evidence yesterday, Mr Donovan's niece, Caroline Meehan, told the court that he suddenly stopped seeing his family after Shannon went missing in February.

He had previously been a regular visitor to Ms Meehan's house, a five-minute walk from Shannon's home, because his sister - Ms Meehan's mother - had moved to live there after she was widowed in November last year.

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