Shannon Matthews Mum got 8 years

[Maclaren]

I say good

i also dont agree with the poor eneducated argument, due to the number of kids she has she probably took home about £450 per week. (thats after her rent/council tax ix paid) i am sure there are plenty of women on here who dont have that kind of money to spend just on food and utility bills, as far as i know none of them have resorted to staging a kidnap.

how many kids did she have?

£450 a week doesn't do you much good if you don't know how to manage it.

faq i think she had 7 kids

ahh - just found a newsapper article - yes she had 7 children, 3 of them lived with their fathers though, so would have been getting money for 4 children.

I tell you what - if she was getting £450 (after rent/council) a week for 4 kids think I'll have another one

I actually pity her. What she did was dispicable and she should be punished. Why she did it is beyond me. However, she did not kill Shannon and should have been sentenced accordingly.

I can't help feeling that her sentence is excessive when you consider what someone gets for killing a person when they are drunk behind the wheel of a car or as someone mentioned earlier, those beasts who raped and scarred the disabled young girl. I think the judge was swayed by the media's and public's thirst for revenge when he should have been focused on exacting justice.

I personally think the sentence reflected that she tried to extort money rather than kidnap her own daughter.

Anyway, she will have a lonely, isolated and quite fearful time in prison. I just hope the authorities can help her to rehabilitate, learn some life skills as well as skills to help her do something useful with her life when he is finally released.

And her defence team has tried to claim that she is not evil. Alright, her crime cannot be compared to those committed by somebody like Myra Hindley, but if attempting to use your nine-year-old daughter to obtain money by false pretences is not evil, then I don't know what is.

not a harsh sentence imo, esp with conspiracy charges too. and putting the child's life at risk (high doses of adult drugs which could have harmed/killed her)

I think its on the harsh side - the feminist in me is screaming about rape sentences

I think it's fair, & agree that hopefully she'll learn some skills in prison.

& agree that it highlights the lenience of sentencing gang rapists to less.

Sentences generally are based on previous sentences with similar facts, however even her barristers admitted there was almost zero as far as guidelines as a mother kidnapping her own child is a one off.

In other words, she was punished for the crime itself as some sentences have an element of deterrent in them...

Think 8 years is about right. Also taking into account that she will not have a good time in prison as almost certainly she will be a target.

hasn't she already been told that only 4 years of the sentence will be served in custody?

thats just standard for any sentence bundle

unless your Myra hindley whereupon you never get out

women will always get a shit deal from society

i thought that was with "good behaviour" whereas this was specified by the court

(and I don't think this is about women, her codefendant got the same sentence)

bundle 'yes' but she will be vilified forever

her co defendant will probably be less so

was she remanded in custody whilst awaiting trial?

if so she may get additional credit for time served.

Yes, but she's Shannon's Mum so I think she's the worst of the two. Not that it's saying much.

As far as the lawyers and journalists can tell, nothing like this has ever happened before.

ria i think it was such a notorious crime that anyone associated with it will be labelled with it forever. and it's very unusual for a parent to be involved in their own child's kidnap (though I understand that she learning difficulties, so I wonder how "culpable" she really is)

I don't think it's harsh at all....
Lower intelligence doesn't have to mean that instinctive desire to love and protect your child isn't there does it? There are plenty of parents who aren't the brightest cookies in the jar who would never in a million years dream of harming their child.

The initial crime itelf was horrendous enough, and then compounded by lying over and over again publicly, watching a huge amount of time/resources being ploughed into searching (which meant resources would have been directed away from other areas).... she bloody deserves at least 8 years IMO

She'll have a tough time in jail no doubt and also will be branded for the rest of her life.

What do you think of what the judge said about there possibly being another person or people involved given the low intellect of the two?

"There are plenty of parents who aren't the brightest cookies in the jar who would never in a million years dream of harming their child."

Agree totally with that, I know 2 lovely children, with 2 lovely parents (friends of mine and their children friends with my oldest 2 DS's). They both have quite severe learning difficulties, can't possibly imagine then doing anything like that. Especially given the dicussions I've had with the woman at toddler groups about it.

Definitely not a harsh sentence IMO.

I agree some other sentences given out recently are not as harsh or as long - but that is a totally different issue. They should be higher and harsh. However, the fact that they weren't doesn't mean that this woman should be given an easier ride as a result.

She used her 9yo daughter in an applalling way. She has made a right mess of that little girl's life so far, terrified her, the one person Shannon should have been able to trust betrayed her...that child had her life turned upsdide down my her mother, as did all her siblings. What she did wqs very very wrong - she needs to go to prison for a long time to be reprimanded for what she did to her own little girl.