Matthews suspect was 'creepy'

London: The niece of a man accused of kidnapping schoolgirl Shannon Matthews agreed he was "a bit creepy", a court heard on Friday.

Michael Donovan, 40, and Shannon's mother Karen Matthews, 33, are accused of kidnapping and falsely imprisoning Shannon who went missing for 24 days in February and March this year when the little girl was nine.

At Leeds Crown Court on Friday, Caroline Meehan, Donovan's niece, was asked by Matthews' lawyer Frances Oldham if she agreed with the description that her uncle was "a loner, a strange character, a bit creepy and a fantasist." "Yes", she replied.

She told the court her uncle had been an almost daily visitor to her house to help her mother, Donovan's sister Alice, but she saw little of him during the time Shannon was missing, the Press Association reported. Matthews and Donovan deny charges of kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice. The trial continues.