'I DIDN'T KILL ANYONE'
KAREN Matthews has denied being "Britain's worst mum" despite kidnapping daughter Shannon in a bid for £50,000 reward cash.
Ten years on from the sick abduction, the 43-year-old has insisted she knew nothing about the plot that shocked the nation.
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The mum-of-seven was found guilty of kidnapping her nine-year-old daughter Shannon Matthews from their home in Dewsbury Moor, West Yorks.
Police discovered the child drugged and tethered in the base of a bed in nearby Batley Kerr a month after the manhunt was sparked.
Matthews was seen shamelessly making public appeals for information on her daughter's whereabouts - despite knowing where she was all along.
But she told the she was made a "scapegoat", saying: “From the start I didn’t know where she was. Others were involved. I didn’t have a clue.
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“You can’t kidnap your own child. I know the truth and I wasn’t involved in it. I still have nightmares thinking that it’s all going to happen again."
Shannon was found at a flat belonging to Michael Donovan - the uncle of Karen's then-boyfriend Craig Meehan, who had nothing do with the snatch.
Matthews and Donovan devised the elaborate plot in a bid to claim the £50,000 reward money for finding Shannon.
Donovan was also jailed as Matthews' accomplice - but the mum maintains she had nothing to do with it.
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She protested: “I’m not Britain’s worst mum. I didn’t kill anybody.
“Baby P’s mum and Maxine Carr don’t get the abuse that I do.
“None of it’s true. I’m on the edge. It makes me want to kill myself but I’d never do that.
"I’m scared I’ll die lonely and alone.”
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The child snatcher was released from prison after serving just half of her eight year sentence and is now living under a new identity in the South of England.
The born-again Christian now works in a Christian charity shop, where she says she doesn't feel judged
She denied claims she was selling sandwiches to the homeless that had been handed out free by Pret A Manger shops.
She said: “I never sold them I gave them to the homeless.
“This woman that’s a church person was handing them out.
“It was getting dark earlier and I used to go to help pick them up and take them to the homeless around the station. Sometimes I’d take them to the Salvation Army."
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She added: "It makes me sick what was said, that’s not me. I was doing it out of the goodness of my heart.”
Shannon Matthews was given a new identity and is now living with a new family.
Karen's six other children were taken into care and have also been given new identities for protection.
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