AFP Photo:
An undated handout picture of schoolgirl Shannon Matthews. The girl went missing for 24 days...
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LONDON (AFP) - The mother of schoolgirl Shannon Matthews, who went missing for 24 days earlier this year until she was found safe and sound, pleaded not guilty to kidnapping charges on Friday.
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Karen Matthews, 32, appeared at Leeds Crown Court alongside Michael Donovan, 40.
Both defendants pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice charges.
No plea was entered for the child neglect charge.
The pair were remanded into custody until their trial on November 11.
Reading out the details of the kidnap charge to Matthews and Donovan, the court clerk said: "On the 19th day of February, 2008, you unlawfully and by force or fraud took or carried away Shannon Matthews against her will."
More than 300 police officers were mobilised alongside the local community to find Shannon after she went missing on February 19 after a school swimming trip.
She was eventually discovered in the base of a bed at Donovan's flat just one mile from her home after a 24-day search. Donovan was arrested at the flat. Shannon's mother was detained shortly after that.
Several members of her extended family were also arrested and bailed in connection to the case, which during Shannon's disappearance drew comparisons to the search for missing toddler Madeleine McCann in Portugal last year.
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