Shannon Matthews was taken on a series of outings during the 24 days she was missing from home while hundreds of police officers searched for her, a court was told yesterday.

Michael Donovan, the man accused of kidnapping the girl, drugging her and holding her as a tethered captive in his flat, said he drove Shannon, 9, to two parks, took her for an evening car ride “to give her a break . . . and some fresh air” and even took her on trips to the supermarket.

He had bought food, clothes, toys, games and DVDs for the child, who had told him that he was “kind and generous”, unlike her parents.

When she was rescued – and Mr Donovan arrested – after detectives entered his flat a mile from her home in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, and found them inside the base of a divan bed, he said that the child had begged police to “leave us alone”.

A jury at Leeds Crown Court was told that Shannon’s alleged abductor made the claims in a detailed statement after his arrest in March.

Mr Donovan, 40, said that he had taken the girl at the request of her mother, Karen Matthews, 33. He was said to have told police: “She threatened, if I didn’t do it, to get three lads on to me. I knew one of the people she mentioned had stabbed a man and killed him. She said if I told anyone or went to anyone I would be dead.”

Mr Donovan said that he met Ms Matthews at a café and was given written instructions to wait in his car and to collect Shannon as she walked home from school. He did as he was told, and gave the child his bedroom. He had slept in another room.

Ms Matthews’s plan was to wait until the reward for Shannon’s safe return reached £50,000. He was then to release her in Dewsbury market.

Mr Donovan said that he knew that Ms Matthews’s partner Craig Meehan, his nephew, was a heavy drinker and could be violent towards her. He also knew that the couple had money problems and “possibly problems with bailiffs”. In police interviews, Ms Matthews said initially that she had asked Mr Donovan to keep Shannon “for a while”, the jury was told.

She had intended to leave Mr Meehan, and then changed her mind. She reported Shannon missing “to cover my own back”.

Ms Matthews and Mr Donovan deny kidnapping, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice. The case continues

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