A detective told jurors yesterday of the moment when Karen Matthews took “the biggest intake of breath I’ve ever heard” and finally admitted that she had been involved in the disappearance of her daughter.

Shannon Matthews’ mother is said to have made the tearful confession to friends in a car more than three weeks after her missing child was found hidden in the base of a bed at a flat a mile from her home.

Leeds Crown Court has been told that the nine-year-old was drugged and tethered by a strap while being held captive for 24 days by Michael Donovan, the uncle of Ms Matthews’ boyfriend, Craig Meehan.

Craig Chatterton, a forensic toxicologist, told the jury that traces of temazepam and a travel sickness medication called Melcozine were also found in the child’s urine after she was discovered.

The drugs in the urine analysis would have been ingested up to 72 hours before she was found in Mr Donovan’s flat but traces in the hair dated back 20 months.

Mr Donovan, 40, and Ms Matthews, 33, are said to have plotted Shannon’s abduction in February this year, hoping to gain a £50,000 reward when she was returned safely.

The jury was told that in April Ms Matthews was driven by a police family liaison officer, DC Christine Freeman, to meet friends from the Dewsbury Moor estate in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire. In nearby Batley, the two friends — Natalie Brown and Julie Bushby — climbed into the car and began to question Ms Matthews about rumours that were sweeping the estate. DC Freeman said that she made notes as she heard Mrs Brown ask if it was true that Ms Matthews had arranged to stay at Mr Donovan’s flat because she wanted to leave Mr Meehan.

Mrs Brown put the theory that Mr Donovan agreed to pick up Shannon on the day she disappeared but that Ms Matthews had “bottled it” and reported her daughter missing because she could not tell Mr Meehan of her aborted plans.

Finally, Mrs Brown suggested that “it had all got out of hand”.

“Karen took the biggest intake of breath I’ve ever heard in my life and said, ‘Yes, that’s right’,” DC Freeman said.

“She said she’d planned to leave Craig [Meehan] and she’d only asked Mick [Donovan] to take Shannon for a while, and that she’d packed her bags but ended up having to report Shannon missing just to cover her back.” DC Freeman said that she then cautioned Ms Matthews and told her that she was under arrest on suspicion of abduction.

Mrs Brown told the jury that after the admission Ms Matthews “was in floods of tears, shaking, really scared”. She had then “started babbling”, saying that she had not been involved in the abduction and that “all I asked Mick to do was to have Shannon for a couple of nights”.

Mrs Brown said Ms Matthews insisted that she had not known where Mr Donovan lived and did not know his phone number. She then began to backtrack, blaming others for what happened. “She said it was Craig and his mum \ that had arranged it all. Craig had rung Mick’s home and it was arranged through Craig’s mum for Mick to have Shannon.”

The other friend in the car, Mrs Bushby, said Ms Matthews admitted initially that she had packed her bags and arranged for Mr Donovan to pick up Shannon on her way home from school but had “lost her bottle at the last minute and couldn’t go through with it”.

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

The trial continues.

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