The squalid bedroom where nine-year-old Shannon Matthews was found tied to a bed by mum Karen and Michael Donovan
THESE chilling pictures show the horrendous conditions nine-year-old Shannon Matthews was subjected to after being "kidnapped" by her mother Karen and her accomplice Michael Donovan.
Shannon disappeared on her way home from a swimming lesson at Westmoor primary school in 2008, in a case that shocked the nation.
Hundreds of neighbours joined the search which cost West Yorkshire Police £3.2million and lasted 24 days.
The nine-year-old was found tethered and drugged inside the base of a double bed at relative Michael Donovan’s grotty flat almost a month after she disappeared.
It later emerged Karen Matthews, Shannon’s mum, who was going out with Donovan’s nephew Craig Meehan at the time – had devised the elaborate plot with her accomplice in a bid to claim the £50,000 reward money for finding Shannon.
They had planned to release the schoolgirl, "discover her" then take her to a police station and claim the reward before splitting.
She is said to be convinced she was taken on a day-trip to the seaside while she was being held.
These images show the disturbing, basic conditions of the flat Shannon was held in for more than three weeks while the local community in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, desperately searched for her.
The disturbing pictures, presented to the jury at the trial of her mum Karen and Mick Donovan in 2008, show the rope used to tie Shannon to a bed in Donovan's dingy flat in Lidgate Gardens, Batley Carr, West Yorkshire, which sported threadbare carpets and dirty walls.
An elasticated strap with a noose on the end was found in his loft and may have been used as a method of restraint when he went out shopping.
With it around her waist, Shannon would have been able to use the toilet and certain rooms, but not get out of the flat.
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With barely anything in the sparsely furnished home, no one knows how poor Shannon spent the lonely hours of her alleged kidnap although it is thought Shannon was drugged throughout her captivity in the flat, leaving her with little recall of what had happened to her.
In the images all that can be seen are an electronic keyboard and, bizarrely, a glue gun which lie on top of a metal framed double bunk.
Beds in another room were the former sleeping area for Donovan's two daughters who are now in care.
Underneath there is a CD by Busted, one of Shannon's favourite bands, and a leaflet giving details of a range of Sold Out action PC games.
On a table there is a copy of Arrive Alive - a colourful highway code book for kids that gives tips on how to plan journeys using the safest route.
Also found in the flat was a chilling list of rules Shannon had to follow while she was being held captive.
Shannon's ordeal, and the massive search involving the whole of the local community when she disappeared, is now the subject of BBC drama The Moorside, the first part of which aired on Tuesday February 7.
When is The Moorside next on BBC and what is it about?
Episode two of The Moorside will air on Tuesday 14 February at 9pm.
For anyone who missed the first part of the show, you can catch up now using BBC's iPlayer.
The Moorside retells the story of the manhunt from the perspective of the friends of Karen Matthews.
Sheridan Smith plays neighbour Julie Bushby, the chair of the Moorside residents and tenants association that helped trace Shannon.
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