Angry dad beats up paedo ex-boyfriend of Shannon Matthews’ kidnap mum after he moved in less than 100 yards from primary school and parents recognised him
SHANNON Matthews’ vile step-dad has gone into hiding after being unmasked living less than 100 yards from a primary school.
Cowering Craig Meehan – convicted of possessing child pornography and on the Sex Offender’s Register – has now found a new home after angry residents discovered the monster in their midst and one dad attacked him.
Meehan moved from Dewsbury after his former partner Karen Matthews, 41, was jailed for eight years for the kidnap and false imprisonment of Shannon.
Matthews was trying to extort £50,000 reward money for her nine-year-old missing daughter, who was found tethered and drugged at accomplice Mick Donovan’s grotty flat a few miles from her home in 2008.
Meehan had been living in a tiny back-to-back terraced house in a quiet street popular with families and just yards from a school.
The house was near the home he shared Matthews and Shannon in Dewsbury.
But he fled after being confronted by an angry dad whose kids go to the school.
Yesterday a parent in the town revealed: “We knew he was living around here but didn’t realise just how close.
“It is crazy that he was put so close to a school. I know he’s got to live somewhere but he is well known around here so you think he’d go somewhere out of the way.
“One of the dad who has kids at the school grabbed him in the street and belted him and told him to get gone. And that’s what he did.
“He was an idiot for thinking he could live around here and not be recognised.”
It is the fifth time he will have found alternative accommodation following his release from prison in 2008.
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Meehan, 30, was sentenced to 20 weeks in jail after being found guilty of viewing indecent images of children, but left court a free man after serving 166 days on remand.
The sick images were found on a computer at the home in Dewsbury.
He was initially found a home in Keighley, West Yorkshire, but was moved after being attacked.
Housing authorities found him alternative accommodation in the town but he was unmasked again and moved 20 miles to a village near Huddersfield.
But his stay in the affluent village was short-lived when horrified residents discovered Meehan was in the area.
One mum added: “We are decent law-abiding residents who believe we have a right to voice our opinion that we have a genuine concern about child safety. We live in a namby-pamby state where political correctness has gone too far."
In December, Matthews, who is now out of prison, had reportedly been moaning that benefit cuts made her life "horrible".
She revealed to a friend: “They’ve completely lowered my money. It’s a horrible life.
“By the time I’ve put money towards running the flat and put £10 a fortnight on the electric and got myself a little bit of food, I have very little to live on. I’ve had to sell things. I haven’t even got any credit on my phone.”
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