Karen Matthews: Mother-of-seven portrayed as 'sink estate slob'

Mother-of-seven Karen Matthews has been regularly portrayed by the media as the epitome of a benefit-dependent, sink estate slob.

Now 33, she was born and brought up in Dewsbury - one of Gordon and June Matthews' seven children.

Her sister, Julie Poskitt, said the two girls had a tough upbringing in the working class West Yorkshire town along with their five brothers.

But, according to Mrs Poskitt, although the children got on well as youngsters, Matthews' life began to go astray when she became a teenager.

Matthews herself described how her relationship with her mother broke down when she was 14.

"I ended up in a children's home because I couldn't cope with all the stress and lies and stuff," she told a TV documentary.

"After I got over that they took me out of the children's home, I stayed with them for a bit and then I went to live with my boyfriend's mum. I was about 17 or 18."

Matthews had her first child aged 20.

She had another six children in the decade which followed as she moved from relationship to relationship.

Asked in court why she had left so many relationships she said it was always the men leaving her.

Shannon was born in September 1998. Her father, Leon Rose, 29, split up with Matthews when Shannon was about two. Mr Rose stood by Matthews during the search for his daughter but refused to elaborate on what went wrong in the relationship.

By February this year, Matthews was living at 24 Moorside Road, Dewsbury Moor - a standard council brick-built semi which backs on to a grassy playing field.

She lived with 22-year-old Craig Meehan (pictured), who worked on the fishmonger's stall at the Morrisons supermarket in nearby Heckmondwike.

Matthews and Mr Meehan each have vast, complicated families which detectives had not completely fathomed three weeks after Shannon vanished. One commentator said it was "not so much a family tree as a genealogical bramble".

Matthews has seven children, her parents have seven children, her sister has six children. And Mr Meehan has nine aunts and uncles - one of whom is Donovan.

Also living at Moorside Road were four of Matthews' children. Mr Meehan was said to be the father of the youngest girl, who was two.

The others - boys aged 11 and five and Shannon, then aged nine - all have different fathers.

Matthews' other children - two boys, aged 10 and seven and a girl aged six - all lived away from Moorside Road.

Matthews described an average day in her household as getting her children ready for school, watching Mr Meehan play on his games, surfing the net and catching up on Jeremy Kyle on TV.

Tory councillor John Ward was forced to resign from Medway Council, in Kent, after he used Matthews as an example of "breakdown Britain" while advocating compulsory sterilisation for parents on benefits.

But not everything about Matthews lived up to the Waynetta Slob stereotype. She may have had seven children in a decade but she was not a schoolgirl mother, having her first child at the age of 20.

And, leaving aside various accusations about her benefits claims, her long-standing live-in partner had a full-time job and was bringing a regular wage into the family.

Her then friend, Petra Jamieson, said: "Whose family's perfect anyway? I know mine isn't and a lot of other people's isn't. Karen's not the first person in the world to have kids by different blokes - not the first person and she won't be the last person."

Matthews' relationship with Mr Meehan began when he was not much more than a boy. He was one of the youths who would hang out in the street outside her home while she was a mother of six in her late 20s.

After Shannon was found, Mr Meehan was convicted of possessing child pornography on his computer.

At his trial he professed his continuing love for Matthews, saying they had had a "pretty good relationship" but would argue over her suspicions he was not being faithful.

Matthews originally said they had a good relationship. She even said they had been thinking of getting married, but the death of Mr Meehan's father at the end of last year brought a halt to their plans.

Then, after she was arrested, she changed her account completely, portraying Meehan as a violent monster who even raped her and blamed him for Shannon's abduction.