Driver ‘sorry’ for hit & run on crossing
Anger of pal who appears in The Moorside
A MOTORIST who was high on vodka and cannabis when he drove into a woman then fled later traced her on Facebook to apologise.
Aaron Swift, 29, was jailed for 54 weeks after a court heard how he hit Sophie Shaw, 21, as she walked across a safe crossing.
Swift, who had no licence or insurance, left her lying injured in the road. The car was later found burnt out.
About a week later he sent Sophie a private message that said: “It was a stupid mistake which I will regret for the rest of my life.”
Swift, of Sowerby Bridge, West Yorks, admitted dangerous driving, failing to stop and other offences.
Sophie, who suffered leg and facial injuries, said: “He is feeling sorry for himself and the thought of being in a cell. He sent the message because he is a coward.”
SHANNON Matthews’s best friend has said she wanted to punch her pal’s mum Karen when it was revealed she had faked the nine-year-old’s kidnap.
Callie Brown, now 17, said she has been left with a “hole in her heart” by the loss of her friend, who was given a new home and identity after the crime was revealed.
Mum-of-seven Karen reported her daughter missing in February 2008, sparking a massive three-week police hunt.
Shannon of Dewsbury, West Yorks was eventually found hidden under a specially adapted divan bed, where she was held by Karen’s accomplice Michael Donovan.
Matthews, now 40, finally confessed her part in the plot to Callie’s mum Natalie Brown, another neighbour Julie Bushby and a police officer.
On learning the truth about what had happened to her friend, Callie said she felt “angry”, adding: “I wanted to really punch Karen. How can your own mother do something so cruel to your own daughter?
“It’s not natural, it’s unreal, it’s disgusting really. We took Karen into our own home and took her in as one of us, and for her to do something like that and for the truth to come out… “It was just horrible.” Callie – who appears as an extra in The Moorside, the hit BBC1 drama based on the scandal – said it had broken her heart to lose her friend after Shannon was given a new home and identity.
She described schoolgirl Shannon as a “kind and caring” girl who was “friends with everyone”, adding: “I couldn’t ask for a better best friend when I was younger, she made my childhood.”
Speaking to ITV’s This Morning, she said: “If she is watching today I’d like to say, ‘Shannon I really love ya, and I wish I could get to see you.’...” She added: “It’s like there’s a hole in my heart.
“I wish I could see her, I wish I could meet her to see how she is and how she feels and see what she’s doing and how well she actually is, but until that day comes I won’t know.
“If there’s an opportunity to see her I would definitely take it.”
Telling of the moment she heard Shannon was missing, she said: “A policeman came into school assembly and said, ‘We’ve got some news…’
“We were all anxious and scared about what it was, and when he said Shannon’s missing we all burst into tears – literally everyone in the whole school was crying.
“We didn’t know what to do or how to feel… we just cried and cried and cried. “Everyone was scared and worried.” She praised drama The Moorside, which pulled in 7.2 million viewers, saying: “I think the programme is absolutely amazing.
“How the whole community, and outside the community, came in together to help find this little girl.
“They all put their differences aside and got along with each other.
“It was the first time I’d ever seen anything like this happen. Everyone coming together was absolutely amazing.
“And the drama got it on point, the actors were amazing. I couldn’t fault it at all.”
Both Matthews and Donovan served four years of their eight-year jail sentences.
The Mirror told on Thursday how Karen Matthews was bombarded with death threats as the first episode of The Moorside was aired on Tuesday night.
She is still protesting that the truth is yet to come out over the kidnap plot and insists “others” were involved.