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http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20081119/tuk-shannon-drugged-for-20-months-45dbed5.html
Shannon 'Drugged For 20 Months'
Shannon Matthews had been given "potent hypnotic" drugs for 20 months before her disappearance, a court has heard.
Shannon 'Drugged For 20 Months'
A forensic toxicologist said trace amounts of temazepam and the travel sickness medication Melcozine were found in the young girl's urine after she was found by police.
Dr Craig Chatterton told Leeds Crown Court this meant the powerful sleep inducers would have been ingested by her up to 72 hours before the sample was taken.
But he said traces of the drugs found in Shannon's hair showed they had been taken over a much longer period.
He said drugs were detected in all 20cm of her hair indicating "it was ingested over an extended period dating back 20 months."
The girl's mother Karen Matthews, 33, and her co-accused Michael Donovan, 40, are on trial accused of kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice.
The court has heard how Shannon was found in Donovan's flat 24 days after she went missing from her home in Dewsbury Moor, West Yorkshire.
Donovan is said to have kept her drugged and imprisoned in his flat in Batley Carr as part of a plan he and Matthews had to claim £50,000 in reward money.
Earlier, the court heard Matthews had told shocked friends she reported her daughter missing when a plan to leave her partner went wrong.
Her neighbour Natalie Brown said Matthews made the admission in a car with a police officer present, three weeks after her daughter was found following a huge police hunt.
Mrs Brown said Matthews was in tears and shaking. She said she had been planning to leave her partner Craig Meehan to go and live with Donovan but everything went wrong.
Mrs Brown said the police officer - Detective Constable Christine Freeman - immediately stopped the car and told Matthews she would be arrested on suspicion of abduction.
The jury heard transcripts of a police interview Matthews gave on March 18, four days after Shannon found.
She was asked directly if she knew where her daughter was all along.
She told the detectives: "I swear on my life I did not.
"If I knew where she was I would have gone and grabbed her myself. I wouldn't have gone out looking for her, I would have gone straight to the flat ... I wouldn't have wasted police time."
Shannon 'Drugged For 20 Months'
Shannon Matthews had been given "potent hypnotic" drugs for 20 months before her disappearance, a court has heard.
Shannon 'Drugged For 20 Months'
A forensic toxicologist said trace amounts of temazepam and the travel sickness medication Melcozine were found in the young girl's urine after she was found by police.
Dr Craig Chatterton told Leeds Crown Court this meant the powerful sleep inducers would have been ingested by her up to 72 hours before the sample was taken.
But he said traces of the drugs found in Shannon's hair showed they had been taken over a much longer period.
He said drugs were detected in all 20cm of her hair indicating "it was ingested over an extended period dating back 20 months."
The girl's mother Karen Matthews, 33, and her co-accused Michael Donovan, 40, are on trial accused of kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice.
The court has heard how Shannon was found in Donovan's flat 24 days after she went missing from her home in Dewsbury Moor, West Yorkshire.
Donovan is said to have kept her drugged and imprisoned in his flat in Batley Carr as part of a plan he and Matthews had to claim £50,000 in reward money.
Earlier, the court heard Matthews had told shocked friends she reported her daughter missing when a plan to leave her partner went wrong.
Her neighbour Natalie Brown said Matthews made the admission in a car with a police officer present, three weeks after her daughter was found following a huge police hunt.
Mrs Brown said Matthews was in tears and shaking. She said she had been planning to leave her partner Craig Meehan to go and live with Donovan but everything went wrong.
Mrs Brown said the police officer - Detective Constable Christine Freeman - immediately stopped the car and told Matthews she would be arrested on suspicion of abduction.
The jury heard transcripts of a police interview Matthews gave on March 18, four days after Shannon found.
She was asked directly if she knew where her daughter was all along.
She told the detectives: "I swear on my life I did not.
"If I knew where she was I would have gone and grabbed her myself. I wouldn't have gone out looking for her, I would have gone straight to the flat ... I wouldn't have wasted police time."
