Is It Just Me: Who Is Starting to Think Crime Does Pay in the UK?

I am not impressed, in fact, once again I am ashamed of the country I live in.


Unless you lived under a stone in 2008, you couldn't have missed the story of Shannon Matthews. For 24 days, Shannon simply vanished from her home in Yorkshire after going swimming with her school.


We saw her poor Mother cry on TV as everyone in the local area looked for the girl, with hope fading of her ever being found. People started to remark that she was the next Maddie McCann, who also went missing not long before Shannon. Well wishers sent cards and money, and her anxious family looked more and more tired and drawn as the TV cameras followed their every move.


And then, of course, we realised we had all been taken in by her thieving, irresponsible Mother Karen, who had arranged with the Uncle of her partner to hide Shannon and reap the rewards. Police became suspicious after neighbours raised the alarm, and Shannon was found in a hollowed out bed base.


It made me sick that I had joined in with the My Space campaigns and appeals, had donated to the website, only to be told her Mum had set the whole thing up. She, along with her accomplice, was jailed for 9 years in 2009.


Except today, it seems, she has been released after serving under half her sentence.


Its not that that really angers me though. It happens all the time. Not many criminals ever serve their full sentence, most behave reasonably well and, due to our justice system (and lack of prison space), they are allowed out early, albeit on licence and, as with Karen Matthews, certain conditions.


However, Karen is different.


She has joined the likes of Jamie Bulgar's killers, and Maxine Carr, by being seen as notorious enough to need protection.


Which means, basically, new identity, new job, new home, new life, new start. 


Its the tax payers money that pays for this protection, this wiping of the slate as it were, but I am sure I wont be the only one thinking that it's just a little disgraceful.


Crime, apparently, is meant not to pay, but ultimately, this vile person, who used her own child for gain, has gained. No longer will she worry about having a nice home, or a nice life. And before anyone screams about her missing out on her children, please, who are you kidding? This woman lived with a paedophile (her partner was found to have many indecent images of children on his PC), she was more interested in coining it in off the people she fooled than for the safety of her daughter, or the effect it would have on Shannon in the longterm. People like her don't give two hoots for their kids.


I'm often short of funds like many people these days. I know though that the last thing that would cross my mind would be to offload Mini or Littlest on one of her Uncles for a few weeks, and watch the pennies roll in. No one in their right mind would see that as the answer. 


Many people, at the time, felt that Karen had seen a sickening window of opportunity in the Maddie McCann disappearance and decided to try the ruse out. Which must have had an awful effect on the McCanns as they watched events unfold.


This woman, and the others like her given cushy freebies as reward for crimes they have committed, don't deserve any protection whatsoever. Why should any of us, again, many who are struggling with financial hardship due to being penalised in the new Tax Credit rules, be forced to except that her need is greater than their own?


I say we shouldn't. 


It needs to stop, and, frankly, if she's that in danger, keep her where she'll be really safe.


Locked up behind bars where she belongs.