Shannon Matthews’ kidnapper Michael Donovan dies from cancer

The kidnapper who conspired to snatch schoolgirl Shannon Matthews as part of a fake abduction plot has died of cancer.

Mick Donovan, 54, held Shannon captive in his flat for 24 days after hatching a bogus ransom plot with her mother back in 2008.

The pair cooked up the kidnapping hoax in an attempt to claim a £50,000 reward for her return, and even tried to extort money from the Find Madeline Mcann Fund.

They were eventually rumbled after Shannon, then nine, was found tied-up and heavily drugged in a drawer underneath Donovan’s bed in a grotty council flat just a few miles away from where she first disappeared from.