The mother of Shannon Matthews, whose 24-day disappearance sparked a massive police hunt and media campaign, faces a ’substantial’ jail sentence after being found guilty yesterday of kidnapping her daughter.

Jurors wept whenever Matthews turned their way

Karen Matthews hatched a plan with Shannon’s uncle, Michael Donovan, to keep the child hidden and get rich off the money donated by the public and newspapers to help find her. Hopeful of bringing in the kind of money that was pledged to Gerry and Kate McCann to find their daughter Maddie the gruesome twosome kept Shannon drugged and locked up until she was found in Donovan’s flat, less than a mile from her home.

At Leeds Crown Court Mr Justice McCombe told the pair they faced a “substantial custodial sentence” and told Karen Matthews he was considering extending her sentence because she was “so goddam ugly she frightens trolls out from under bridges”.

Addressing the court he said “I have witnessed many distressing things in this courtroom over the years but the fact that you have seven children by six different fathers is abhorrent to me. Look at the state of you. I’ve seen better looking abortions.

You’re so ugly you could have been in the canteen scene in the original Star Wars without a screed of make-up. You’re so ugly you make blind children cry.

I have no doubt that the ease of access to your cavernous vagina is attractive to some men, like that downs syndrome boy you were living with at the time of the kidnapping, but I simply will not unleash your hideous visage on the general public. I feel sorry for the workers in the prison and will recommend they be given danger money lest they stare at you too long and turn to stone, but I have to protect society as a whole”.

Sentencing is expected next Monday and it is believed Justice McCombe has sought legal advice on having a cloth sack with eye-holes placed over her head and sewn to her neck.