The disappearance of Shannon Matthews in Dewsbury in 2008 is a true crime case that people still seem to be fascinated by. Rarely a year goes past without a new television documentary on the case or a battery of tabloid updates concerning the activities of the disgraced Karen Matthews. The reason why the Shannon Matthews case became so famous is that it didn't end in the way people expected. The missing child was found alive and there was an outrageous twist when it became apparent that the mother was involved and it had all been a strange sort of hoax. The Shannon Matthews case was like a black comedy written by a thriller writer. The fact it was true made it all the more astonishing.

The disappearance of nine year-old Shannon Matthews in 2008 was genuinely one of the strangest crime cases in recent memory. Missing child cases like this are awfully grim because they rarely have a happy ending. The police, media, and everyone who was anxiously looking on and following this case all The disappearance of nine year-old Shannon Matthews in 2008 was genuinely one of the strangest crime cases in recent memory. Missing child cases like this are awfully grim because they rarely have a happy ending. The police, media, and everyone who was anxiously looking on and following this case all feared the worst during the search for Shannon. They had braced themselves for a tragic outcome. When the police actually found Shannon alive there was indescribable relief and jubilation. As soon as the search for Shannon ended though a new criminal case began. To the surprise and genuine bafflement of the watching public, Karen Matthews, who had been a weepy fixture on the nightly news appealing for information about her missing daughter, was now implicated in Shannon's abduction. feared the worst during the search for Shannon. They had braced themselves for a tragic outcome. When the police actually found Shannon alive there was indescribable relief and jubilation. As soon as the search for Shannon ended though a new criminal case began. To the surprise and genuine bafflement of the watching public, Karen Matthews, who had been a weepy fixture on the nightly news appealing for information about her missing daughter, was now implicated in Shannon's abduction.

The full story of one of the most shocking crimes of the twenty-first century, now the subject of a BBC drama, The Moorside, starring Sheridan Smith. On 19 February 2008, a nine-year-old girl disappeared while making her way home from a school swimming trip. The 999 call made by her mother alerted the police to the nine-year-old's disappearance and sparked the search for Shannon Matthews that spread from the Dewsbury estate where she lived across the north of England. The story dominated newspaper headlines and television news for the weeks that followed and there was even an offer of a GBP 50,000 reward for the person who found Shannon. Twenty-four days later, Shannon was found, concealed in the base of a divan bed in a flat about a mile away from her home in West Yorkshire. The truth that unfolded over the subsequent weeks horrified the public, who had sympathised with the seemingly stricken mother and even helped in the search for Shannon. It transpired that the supposed kidnap of the innocent girl had been a wicked hoax dreamed up by her own mother, Karen Matthews, in league with an accomplice, her stepfather's uncle, Michael Donovan. For almost three weeks, she was kept hidden in his home and given temazepam and travel sickness tablets to subdue her. While Shannon suffered this horrendous ordeal, her captors came up with a plan to release her in Dewsbury Market, and for Donovan to find her and claim the reward money. Shannon was finally discovered when neighbours told police that they had heard a child's footsteps coming from Donovan's flat. Shannon Matthews: Betrayed from Birth examines the investigation and its repercussions for an innocent girl caught in the lies and greed of those supposed to be caring for her and the community that they deceived.

This book explores the impact of digital media on young children’s lives and the role that the media and news industries play in the social construction of childhood. It highlights the pressing issues relating to young children’s media use drawing on key research and examines the impact of digital media on their learning, development and socialization. The chapters recognise the challenges digital media presents children and families, but also demonstrate how media use and engagement can have a positive impact on children’s academic attainment, social capital and opportunities to create and curate online content. Covering key areas of concern such as safety, violence and children’s mental health, the authors provide strategies to help children and families reduce the risks that can arise with digital media use and capitalise on the opportunities it can offer. Including case study examples and opportunities for reflective practice, this is an essential text for students on Childhood and Early Childhood Studies courses and Early Years Foundation Degrees as well as practitioners wanting to develop their critical understanding of the role of the media in young children’s lives.

This book explores the ways that council estates have been represented in England across a range of performance forms. Drawing on examples from mainstream, site-specific and resident-led performance works, it considers the political potential of contemporary performance practices concerned with the council estate. Depictions of the council estate are brought into dialogue with global representations of what Chris Richardson and Hans Skott-Myhre call the 'hood', to tease out the specific features of the British context and situate the work globally. Katie Beswick's study provides a timely contribution to the ongoing national and global interest in social housing. As the housing market grows ever more insecure, and estates are charged with political rhetoric, theatre and socially engaged art set or taking place on estates takes on a new potency. Mainstream theatre works examined include Rita, Sue and Bob Too and A State Affair at the Soho Theatre, Port at the National Theatre, and DenMarked at the Battersea Arts Centre. The book also explores the National Youth Theatre's Slick and Roger Hiorns' Seizure, as well as community-based and resident led performances by Fourthland, Jordan McKenzie, Fugitive Images and Jane English.

Succinct, accessible, and comprehensive, this book is the first to provide definitions and explanations of key terms and concepts from the expanding field of crime, harm, and victimization. Contributions from a wide range of experts investigate theories, ideas, and case studies relating to victims of conventional crime and victims outside the remit of criminal law. The book explores both the domestic and international nature, extent, and measurement of crime and harm as well as responses to victims and victimization in connection with conventional, corporate, and state crimes and harms. As part of Policy's Companions series, entries are presented in a user-friendly, quick-reference A‒Z format that clearly notes related sections and provides suggestions for further reading.

This ambitious multidisciplinary volume surveys the science, forensics, politics, and ethics involved in responding to missing persons cases. International experts across the physical and social sciences offer data, case examples, and insights on best practices, new methods, and emerging specialties that may be employed in investigations. Topics such as secondary victimization, privacy issues, DNA identification, and the challenges of finding victims of war and genocide highlight the uncertainties and complexities surrounding these cases as well as possibilities for location and recovery. This diverse presentation will assist professionals in accessing new ideas, collaborating with colleagues, and handling missing persons cases with greater efficiency—and potentially greater certainty. Among the Handbook’s topics: ·A profile of missing persons: some key findings for police officers. ·Missing persons investigations and identification: issues of scale, infrastructure, and political will. ·Pregnancy and parenting among runaway and homeless young women. ·Estimating the appearance of the missing: forensic age progression in the search for missing persons. ·The use of trace evidence in missing persons investigations. ·The Investigation of historic missing persons cases: genocide and “conflict time” human rights abuses. The depth and scope of its expertise make the Handbook of Missing Persons useful for criminal justice and forensic professionals, health care and mental health professionals, social scientists, legal professionals, policy leaders, community leaders, and military personnel, as well as for the general public.

The history of true crime in Britain is a long and, as we shall see, often stranger than fiction tale. The book that follows offers an eclectic stew of strange and perplexing British true crime cases. These cases are all disconcertingly odd and in many instances downright bizarre. We have the murder of an elderly famer brutally killed with a pitchfork in what may or may not have been a case involving witchcraft. Then there is a shocking train murder which took place in a closed carriage in broad daylight during an afternoon commuter run to London. We also have the baffling case of a retired spinster who was gruesomely killed for no apparent reason in her own home on Halloween night. We shall also be examining the modern legend of the alleged maniac said to randomly push his victims into Manchester's murky canals. Then we'll take a look at the monstrous Victorian terror known as Spring-Heeled Jack. We shall stop too to consider the unsolved murder of a young man in Sussex who was found dissected inside two abandoned suitcases. We shall also explore the high profile killing of Jill Dando - a case which surely ranks as one of the most shocking and baffling celebrity deaths ever to occur in Britain. As if that wasn't enough we also have grave robbers, cannibals, the Brighton trunk murders, a woman who staged a crackpot hoax abduction of her own daughter, a gruesome murderer who operated at the same time as Jack the Ripper and had the macabre signature of leaving torsos and body parts scattered around London, and a suave post-war con artist who in reality was a depraved sexual serial killer. So, draw the curtains, turn off the lights, make sure the doors are locked, and settle down to explore some of the strangest true crime cases Blighty has to offer...

When Tia Sharp went missing and Stuart Hazell was interviewed by ITV, many viewers were absolutely convinced that Hazell was responsible for Tia's disappearance. The television interview only confirmed the deep suspicions and grave doubts many already had about this ramshackle man they'd seen fleetingly on the nightly news. As far as the police could deduce, Hazell was almost certainly the last person to speak to Tia before she disappeared. It appeared, even at the time, that he was quite probably the last person to see her. And yet, mystifyingly, Stuart Hazell was not treated as a suspect by the police when the investigation began. A trio of factors in this bleak and harrowing case clouded the obvious. These factors all played a pivotal part in prolonging and complicating the investigation. What should have been an open and shut case became something more complex and strange. In the book that follows we will see how trusted Stuart Hazell was by the Sharp family and how was able to develop a close bond with Tia Sharp. This book will also attempt to deduce what happened the fateful and tragic night that Tia lost her life and then somehow make sense of the bizarre situation that Stuart Hazell, thanks to some very basic police mistakes, found himself trapped in. The Tia Sharp case was unbearably sad and at times perplexing. We will attempt to see what, if any, lessons this tragic case ultimately left us with.

Funny, lively and unpredictable, stand-up comedy is above all a medium to be enjoyed. Popular as a good night out and packing the TV schedules, stand-up permeates British society and culture. Ubiquitous though it is, we are generally reluctant to consider comedy's social consequences. When comedians offend we seem ready to consider the potential for stand-up to do some wider harm, yet we rarely consider the good that it might do. This book looks at the social and political impact of stand-up comedy in both its positive and negative forms. Drawing on exclusive interviews with comedians such as Stewart Lee, Josie Long, Joe Wilkinson and Mark Thomas, and examples of comic material on everything from revolution, terrorism and homosexuality, to knitting and the inefficiency of the home shower, it explores comedy's role in determining our attitudes and opinions. While revealing the conventions comics use to manage audience response, Sophie Quirk demonstrates how comedy audiences allow themselves to be manipulated, and the potential harm – and real benefits – that may arise from 'just' being funny.