Police 'ignored' crucial clues in Shannon hunt
Detectives were alerted very quickly to suspicions about Mick Donovan, the uncle of the missing girl's stepfather. Yet locals say they failed to act on the tip for weeks. David Smith and Andrew Russell examine a case that could have far-reaching effects on future investigations
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Shannon was found on Friday concealed in the base of a divan bed in Donovan's first-floor flat in Batley Carr, just a mile from her home on an estate in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire. Donovan, the uncle of Shannon's stepfather Craig Meehan, was being questioned by detectives last night. Residents in the tightly knit community claimed they tipped off police about him but he was not confronted until last Friday, more than three weeks after Shannon went missing, despite the force mounting its biggest investigation since the hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper 30 years ago.
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Local residents said they had warned police about Donovan - who was born Paul Drake but changed his name for unknown reasons - but nothing was done. Melvyn Glew, 62, who lives 50 yards from Donovan's home, said he thought it strange three weeks ago when lights in the flat went off.
'Before that they were on night and day,' he said. 'They went off soon after Shannon went missing and I didn't often see them on again.'
Glew, a factory worker, became more suspicious when a man went to Donovan's flat and knocked on the door but got no answer. 'I don't know who the man was, but I knew there was someone in the flat and they just weren't answering the door. That's when I decided to call the helpline number on the Shannon posters. I told them that I thought he had something to do with the girl's disappearance, but no one ever got back in touch again.'
He added: 'I know that other people have rung the helpline saying who they thought was involved, but I was convinced I was right. I have seen him go out to do some shopping in the last three weeks but there was never any little girl with him. She must have been in the flat all the time. How he could keep her in there all this time without someone knowing she was there is beyond me.'
Another witness, Ryan Baynes, recalled how last year Donovan had attended a funeral for Craig Meehan's father and bounced Shannon on his knee, paying her 'far too much attention'.
He told the Sun newpaper that within days of Shannon's disappearance he had suspected Donovan may have taken her and called Wakefield police station to provide a name and address. But he grew frustrated when they failed to investigate. 'I was expecting a call back from the police to say they had either arrested him or discounted him,' he said. 'But each time I called I was told it was being "looked into".'
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The charity Missing People also claimed that it passed information to West Yorkshire Police after receiving information suggesting that Shannon might have been at Lidgate Gardens, where Donovan lives.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/mar/16/ukcrime
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