last updated: Thursday 3 April 2008, 00:20am

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Child porn charges for Meehan

Craig Meehan with Karen Matthews

The stepfather of kidnap victim Shannon Matthews has been charged with child pornography offences.

Craig Meehan, 22, was arrested after officers examined a number of computers during the search for the nine-year-old, who went missing for nearly four weeks.

West Yorkshire Police said on Wednesday they had charged Meehan with ten offences of possessing indecent images of children.

The fishmonger has lived with mother-of-seven Karen Matthews, 32, for around five years at Shannon's home in Moorside Road, Dewsbury Moor.

Detectives searched the couple's red-brick home on Wednesday and removed evidence in binbags and boxes.

Neighbours on the street, who had celebrated with Mrs Matthews and her partner when Shannon was found alive on March 14, spoke of their shock at Meehan's arrest.

Petra Jamieson said: 'When I heard, I literally felt sick, sick to my stomach.'

Shannon disappeared on February 19 and was found 24 days later at the house of Meehan's uncle Michael Donovan, 39, in Batley Carr, a mile from her home.

Donovan, of Lidgate Gardens, Dewsbury, has been charged with Shannon's kidnapping and false imprisonment.

His trial has been provisionally set for November 11 at Leeds Crown Court.

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