Karen Matthews jailed for 8 years

[daffy654]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_yorksh ire/7846696.stm

[mrs_overall]

8 years, is that all?

[daffy654]

I thought she might get less than that,she will probably be out in half that time though :(

[webbo3]

she will serve half outside of prison on license and with time already in custody she has 3 years to serve.




Dave.

[devil99]

scum of the earth, hope she gets a good hiding where ever she goes for the rest of her miserable life, i would'nt pi$$ on her if she was on fire.

[wolf63]

She should be sterilised whilst in prison. Not only did she commit an evil crime against her daughter but she seems oblivious to the effect this will have on her daughter's life in the future.

[andres]

Apparently when questioned, Shannon herself said that. whilst imprisoned in the flat she had seen other members of the family. Could she not have screamed her head off when left alone ( when the so called kidnapper went shopping). She looked like a very streetwise kid!! The whole business stinks

[Bathsheba]

Looking on the bright side though- that kid will have a better life now as a result of the whole sordid business x

[gordyagusta]

while i'm not condoning what happened here and I do believe that the punishment just about covers the crime, but I'm struggling to interpret the defination of the press headlines claiming that it was done to for the �50,000 reward... How would she/they know that there would be a reward on offer before anything happened in the first place..??

Just an observation... any thoughts?

[Ethel]

Because of all the rewards that was put up in the Madeleine case, they took a gamble

[aims1202]

there is not necessarily a bright side for Shannon, this will affect her for a long time i am sure and the stories you hear growing up in care is not always a happy time. lets hope they find her a lovely family who will adopt her.

[B00]

I'm assuming all the children will be fostered (adopted?) out. Will they be kept together?

Also, it always amuses me- ok 'amuse' not the correct word here- how the rest of Karen's family are now condemning her as being a bad mother and that she always was etc- where the hell were they then, previous to the kidnapping if they were so concerned about the children?

[carrust]

Aims. It could also be the making of her. I only hope she gets adopted/fostered by a decent family, who'll send her to school & show some interest in her.

[Ethel]

In the light of other sentences, this one does seem harsh.

I'm not saying for one second that she should have got a lighter sentence, but other criminals should have got much longer - such as these chaps:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/4291462 /Gang-jailed-for-caustic-soda-rape-of-girl-wit h-learning-difficulties.html

[flip_flop]

Ignoring the fact that it is chav scum, and ignoring the fact the it managed to find at least five men to breed with it, it is just me or has it got one of those very very smackable faces?

[DaisyMae]

Men tend not to be too interested in the face, smackable or otherwise. :)

[jno]

she doesn't sound a very nice person, but as her lawyer said, she's not Myra Hindley, she's not Rose West. People have done very much worse things than Karen Matthews did. I think the sentence is about right.

[LoftyLottie2]

I agree with Ethel and jno. You have to compare her sentence to others who have commited much worse crimes.

Would it serve any purpose to keep her locked up for longer. I don't think she will do anything like it again. I do hope though that she is never allowed to look after her children again - either those already existing or any others that she will probably have!

[andres]

Consider the kids feelings in all of this . I bet they would far rather stay with their mother than the family be split up and they be shipped off to strangers. Surely some of their assorted families would take them.After all there must be dozens of aunts/uncles and grandparents. Karen Matthews did a stupid,senseless thing with money and greed as the motive. Some sentences for rape are not as long as hers.

[jno]

I suppose they would, andres, but if the mother is going to periodically drug them, tie them up and hide them in the base of a bed, it's probably better if the court overrules their interests. I don't usually favour taking children from their parents, but this is one case where it probably would do more good than harm.

[ELVIS68]

8 years seems good enough, as long she serves 8 years and is not let out after 5, considering some of the sentences handed out for much worse crimes justice has been done