Shannon's stepfather remanded in custody

The stepfather of schoolgirl Shannon Matthews was remanded in custody yesterday on charges of possessing indecent images of children, the BBC reported. Craig Meehan, 22, was arrested at the family home on Wednesday and appeared before local magistrates in Dewsbury.

Nine-year-old Shannon's disappearance in February sparked a huge search in West Yorkshire before she was found safe and well last month.

None of the pictures found on computers seized by detectives is of Shannon or her six brothers and sisters, a police source said.

Mr Meehan has lived with Shannon's 32-year-old mother Karen for about five years. Shannon was found hidden in the base of a bed at a house a mile from her family home last month, 24 days after she went missing following a school swimming trip.

Her disappearance prompted one of the biggest police inquiries in the area since the Yorkshire Ripper investigation of the late 1970s.

Police have charged Mr Meehan's uncle, 39-year-old Michael Donovan, with Shannon's abduction and imprisonment.

The girl has not returned home since her rescue and remains in the care of social services.

Shannon's mother was taken on Wednesday to meet her daughter face-to-face for the first time since she disappeared on February 19, the Daily Mirror reported.