Hello readers,
I can’t help but think that the fundamental difference between these 2 unique cases is a difference in the class system.
When Shannon dissapeared, there was such a fuss of attention on the local council estate in Dewsbury (the area I work), the area in which Shannon lives. All fairness to West Yorkshire Police they knew they were dealing with a potential case of child abduction and they did throw themselves in all directions to search for her. In the Dewsbury area, Shannon’s name was plastered all over the prominent areas.
Contrast the media riddled McCann campaign with the brave efforts of a friend of Shannon’s mother, who managed to persuade her local branch of Asda to donate 24 white T-shirts on which the girl’s photograph had been printed. The Dewsbury community can not and did not operate in the same way that the “McCann very well oiled publicity machine” ran. The locals didn’t have the resources nor the know-how to operate that scale of publicity. Shannon’s mother must have known this was the case, otherwise would she really have perverted the court of justice if she thought she wasn’t going to get away with it.
It was always cloak and daggers with Shannon and to some extent the same with little McCann. However a deprived background, a dysfunctional family and a down-on-its-luck Yorkshire mill town: none of this is Shannon Matthews’s fault, yet it seems that she is paying the price.
Quoted from a paper:
“Her family may seem feckless. Neighbors can’t afford to run a PR campaign. How the public spotlight faded on a missing girl.”
A class war? Definitely.
Mike
