Karen Matthews accused of leaving baby for $10

The News of the World, British tabloid journal alleges that Shannon’s mother, Karen Matthews abandoned her first child for £5 ($10).

John Bretton, the father of Karen’s first baby, accused Karen of child neglect and abandoning her first child. Karen Matthews wanted money to feed her smoking habit of 60 cigarettes a day, so she asked John to pawn her stuff, stereo equipment for £15 ($30). When John came back with only £10 ($20), she got very upset and abandoned her child, two week old son. He also said that she smoked frequently during her pregnancy, never cooked a meal once and was lazy even to order takeaways. He told News of the World:

"She was stood there screaming and bawling how she needed the extra fiver for smokes. Then she just turned her back on me and disappeared off down the road and went AWOL for days...Karen just goes from one bloke to the next, uses them to have a kid, grabs all the child benefit and moves on…That's all she wants out of it. She's had seven kids with five men and I was her first victim."

Karen’s daughter Shannon was finally rescued from the home of her stepfather’s uncle only two kilometers away from her home in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire. Read more about the poor Shannon's story from the article here. Five members of her family have since been arrested in connection with her abduction. Matthews, 32, has been charged with child neglect and perverting the course of justice. The Sunday Express claimed that Karen Matthews, who is being held in custody, was pregnant again with her eighth child. A neighbor of Karen told the paper:

People keep saying that Karen is in the family way again. Given what's happened already that would be no surprise. She is a bit of a baby factory. It's rare for her not to be expecting, whichever man she is with."

She is only 32 years old and more babies (or rather more victims) to follow. Her children are the real victims in this case, I hope they get better foster parents.