[joeysteele]

In spite of all my words on this so far, I do agree with Ammi that a society where vigilantes were more evident would not be a good thing at all.

The point that jf and InOne and myself seem to be making is that the law is thing at fault here. Pyramid* and kazanne too.
Sadly the current likely maximum sentence for kidnap is around 8 years,however for me Shannon was also assaulted, by being given drugs to keep her more sedate shall we say.

Karen Matthews should have made sure that never happened and as to the 8 years max sentence for kidnap, in her case and the others involved for that matter, that 8 years should have meant that, 8 years served.

My main fear now is, can this woman be allowed anywhere near a child again,if as a Mother she could allow to happen to one of her own children, what happened to Shannon then she has to be, at the very least, to be seen to be unfit to be anywhere near a child in the future.

Thankfully,this case didn't result in loss of life to Shannon, but how near may it have been, what if Shannon had tried to run away.
(Little James Bulger,bless him, was mentioned above, that poor little lad, I when I first read that story was horrified).

When is the UK going to learn that children need protecting,in Shannon's case it is beyond belief that it could seem some may even need protecting from their own Mothers too.
That's almost as bad a scenario as vigilantes.