The disappearance of Shannon Matthews.

[Pebbledashery]

Is anyone watching this on c5 shortly? I'm fascinated by how brazen her Mother was. Poor, poor child :(

[quote rc22]@x2boys My dad is now retired but worked in social services. He always told me that child neglect and abuse was as common in middle class, affluent areas as on sink estates but educated parents were much more adept at covering it up and keeping it secret.[/quote]
@x2boys I teach in a boarding school, whilst there are generally a smaller proportion of safeguarding referrals compared to state schools, middle and upper class families are by no means any better in terms of what goes on behind closed doors than so called "sink estates".

Sorry I should have tagged @rc22 🤦🏼‍♀️

I don't doubt that @JamesMiddletonsMarshmallows bad parents are everywhere ,but if you are middle class it might not be so apparent as someone living on a so called sink estate , I live on one of those so called sink estates and I don't doubt there are problem families and neglect but I would say it's the norm

Wouldn't *

@Itstheprinciple

Is this a new programme?

2 episodes on channel 5 at the moment. You can get them on catch up.

@x2boys well quite, I've had (and aired) frustrations with various colleagues in the past who are in awe of the richer parents at the school because of their job/status, parents of children who they know have had safeguarding referrals for reasons to do with failures on the parents' part. I always remind people to picture our parents living a council estate and ask them if they'd regard them any differently. (It's probably a reason I'm unpopular at work 😆)

This is so very wrong as I'm sure your aware @JamesMiddletonsMarshmallows ,there is an assumption people living on council estate,s care less for their children ,but obviously it happens everywhere ,it's just that those who can throw money at the problem probably so than those who.cant

I remember my very middle class friend wondering why peaches geldof got away with her heroin addiction compared to someone on a council estate
It's obvious really untill peaches died of her addiction ,her kids would have nannies ,they wouldn't have gone without food because their mother was an addict there was enough money for both

It is wrong, which is why I call them out on it. Sadly in a similar vein, having worked with wealthy families, I find social services staff in local authorities are very classist too when it comes to dealing with safeguarding issues I mean they do a great job, but for example I've known wealthy families to be referred due to regular parties in the house with wandering strangers and class A drugs. Social services got involved but nothing really was done. If that had taken place in Batley Carr, kids upstairs while adults snorted cocaine off each other downstairs, then I bet my bottom dollar the kids would have been taken off them.

When she called the police to report her daughter missing she sounded like she was calling to order a takeaway ! I would have been going frantic on the phone.

Same when she identified her through the glass and just accepted she couldn’t see her.

I’d have smashed the glass if I was told I couldn’t see her after she’d been missing for so many weeks

@DollyParton2 I agree, I don't think she's the 'worst mother in Britain' or pure evil,
just subnormal. What she did was despicable but her plan obviously backfired and went too far. I didn't like the snooty journalists either especially the female one. Already vilifying her before she was found guilty because she came from a council estate.

Well apparently she was tested and she had a low Iq but no learning disabilities so I assume she knew what she was doing ,and as she was sentenced to a jail sentence rather than a hospital order ,there also must have been no significant mental illness either

I do not get why my posts are being deleted on here mumsnet is Karen Matthews the convicted mother reporting them herself makes no sense

Yes I'm not quite sure why your posts were deleted @Shalalalablabla? I read them and I didn't particularly agree with some of your first post but I didn't find it offensive 🤷

I remember this vividly. My DC are just a little older than Shannon and her disappearance made me feel sick to my stomach. To find out that her mother was behind it was shocking. Thought the programme was well done. Must be hard for Shannon to watch it but I wonder also if it might be helpful for her as an adult to understand exactly what happened? Felt so sorry for her friend.