Karen Matthews criticises Kate McCann for leaving her children alone

Karen Matthews, who orchestrated the hoax kidnapping of her daughter Shannon Matthews in 2008, has slammed Maddie McCann's mother Kate.

Karen Matthews, who staged her daughter Shannon's 'kidnapping' in order to gain financially from the publicity and claim the reward money offered for her safe return, has called Kate McCann 'a dreadful mother' according to her best friend Julie Bushby. Bushby told the Daily Mail that Matthews had criticised the comparative unfairness of their financial situations, stating that Karen complained it was "one rule for them and another for us",

"Don't get me onto the McCanns, we've all got something to say about them. I've been judged and I'm paying for it but Maddie's mother was bad too. At least my daughter was never left alone. We're too lower class for them but we can still have an opinion. There seems to be one rule for them and another for us but she was a dreadful mum."

Matthews (41), who now goes by the name Kate, served a prison sentence for the false abduction of her then nine-year-old daughter but claimed she never left her child alone,

"She left one, two, three babies alone while she was out eating and drinking with her mates. My Shannon was kept away from her family but she was never left alone."

Shannon's ordeal has been back in the spotlight in recent months following a BBC dramatisation of the infamous events surrounding her 2008 'disappearance' from The Moorside Estate in West Yorkshire. The drama, which starred Sherlock's Sian Brooke and Cilla star Sheridan Smith, followed the story as local police and community mounted a frantic £3.2million search which took on the scale of a high-profile murder enquiry. Shannon was later found in the home of her mother's partner's uncle, Michael Donovan. Last night, Channel 5 aired a documentary looking at those involved in the case and examining the potential for the investigation to be re-opened. Join the conversation on Twitter @HerFamilydotie