Even Michael Donovan's barrister described his client as a "pathetic inadequate" and an "oddball".
Even Michael Donovan's barrister described his client as a "pathetic inadequate" and an "oddball".
Throughout his trial Donovan came across as a loner and a misfit.
Physically he looked frail and weak, with no teeth, thinning hair and bulging eyes. He appeared unable to look after himself, let alone a nine-year-old girl.
As an adult he struggled to live independently, and at one point one of his daughters was caring for him, the court was told. A highly impressionable figure, he has been bullied throughout his life.
While on remand at Leeds Prison he was fearful of his cell mates and had to be moved by prison staff after one of them used him as a servant. It emerged he washed the feet of his cell mate, and when asked why he had agreed to do so, reportedly replied: "Because he asked me to."
A double fracture to his jaw, inflicted by a prison inmate, helped reinforce this downtrodden image.
The evidence he gave portrayed a pathetic figure who was picked on throughout his life.
Donovan was the youngest of nine children - three boys and six girls. He was said to have had a "good and happy" childhood on an estate in Dewsbury, but at an early age began telling stories and fantasising about being someone else.
He went to a special school, where he was bullied, but when he was 16 he ran away from home and never went back. As a juvenile he picked up a string of convictions for arson, shoplifting and criminal damage.
Donovan married Susan Bird but the relationship later broke down and they divorced. It seems the divorce and subsequent custody battle over his two daughters was a pivotal point in his life.
Fifteen months before Shannon was kidnapped he was charged with the abduction of one of his daughters after it emerged he took her on a trip to Blackpool after picking her up from school.
He appeared at Bolton Crown Court but the prosecution offered no evidence on the alleged kidnapping and the matter was dropped.
