Mother-of-seven Karen Matthews has been regularly portrayed as the epitome of a benefit-dependent, sink estate slob.

Mother-of-seven Karen Matthews has been regularly portrayed as the epitome of a benefit-dependent, sink estate slob.

Now 33, she was born and brought up in Dewsbury - one of Gordon and June Matthews' seven children.

Her sister, Julie Poskitt, said the two girls had a tough upbringing in the working class West Yorkshire town along with their five brothers.

According to Mrs Poskitt, although the children got on well as youngsters, Matthews' life began to go astray when she became a teenager.

Matthews herself described how her relationship with her mother broke down when she was 14.

"I ended up in a children's home because I couldn't cope with all the stress and lies and stuff," she told a TV documentary.

"After I got over that they took me out of the children's home, I stayed with them for a bit and then I went to live with my boyfriend's mum. I was about 17 or 18."

Matthews had her first child aged 20. She had another six children in the decade which followed as she moved from relationship to relationship.

Asked in court why she had left so many relationships she said it was always the men leaving her.

Shannon was born in September 1998. Her father, Leon Rose, 29, split up with Matthews when Shannon was about two. Mr Rose stood by Matthews during the search for his daughter.

By February this year, Matthews was living with Craig Meehan, 22, who also had a complicated background. Three weeks after Shannon disappeared, detectives had not completely fathomed the family connections. One commentator said it was "not so much a family tree as a genealogical bramble".