KAREN MATTHEWS
Kate McCann is a bad mother
KATE McCann has come under a new attack – from the woman infamous for faking her own daughter’s abduction.
Karen Matthews, who was the subject of a recent TV drama, is alleged to have hit out at the parents of missing toddler Madeleine McCann from her prison cell.
Matthews, 41, was jailed for her role in the staged kidnap of nine-year-old Shannon.
But it is claimed she told pal Julie Bushby: “I’ve been judged and I’m paying for it but Maddie’s mother was bad too. At least my daughter was never left alone.
“Don’t get me on to the McCanns, we’ve all got something to say about them.
“We’re too lower class for them but we can still have an opinion. There seems to be one rule for them and another for us but she was a dreadful mum.
“She left one, two, three babies alone while she was out eating and drinking with her mates.”
Madeleine, three, disappeared from a holiday apartment rented by parents Kate and Gerry in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in May 2007.
The following February, Shannon vanished from her mum’s home in Dewsbury, Yorkshire.
She was found 24 days later at the home of Matthews’ ex-boyfriend Craig Meehan, where she had been hidden inside a divan bed.
Matthews, who had seven children with five fathers, and accomplice Michael Donovan were sentenced to eight years for the plot.
They are alleged to have been inspired by Madeleine’s story and invented the scheme to claim a reward for finding Shannon.
Matthews’ best friend and former neighbour Julie, who kept diaries of her prison visits, said: “Karen talked about Maddie and her family, the difference and unfairness of their social situations.
“She’s never understood why British and Portuguese police haven’t taken it any further and asks in her simple, almost child-like state if it’s because ‘they’re rich and posh and she’s poor and common’.”
Mother-of-three Julie, 46, who led the search for Shannon, believes Matthews was not clever enough to come up with the kidnap plot.
She added: “I want to sit her down and ask ‘Why?’ I wonder if she was coerced into doing something she didn’t want to do.
“I’m not excusing her in any way but I and the rest of the neighbourhood want to know the real reason for what happened.”
Matthews served just four years of her sentence, and was freed in April 2012. She is now living at a secret location in the south of England.
We’re too lower class for them but we have an opinion KAREN MATTHEWS