Legal question about Shannon Mathews case, not a rant?

Michael Donovan, 39, from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, is charged with Kidnapp and false inpisioment, does that mean he didnt do anything (god forbid) ';worse'; to her, as he was not also charged with any sexual offences ? or would that information not have been released with the other charges.Legal question about Shannon Mathews case, not a rant?
The police have already stated that they are reasonably confident that ';no harm'; came to Shannon.





I would think if new finding contradict this, then additional charges will be brought.Legal question about Shannon Mathews case, not a rant?
this suggests that up to now the only things the police are CERTAIN of are the charges brought ( IE they found her in his flat, he was there so obviously knew she was)


the police can however bring more charges against him as new evidence comes to light. their investigation is far from over yet so, they could find something else to charge him with.


lets hope your right and he hasn't done anything else to her.
This also is not a rant, just watch the parents, this is a totally dysfunctional family, and this story has only just begun,
Yes that is exactly what it means.
Until the police have finished interviewing Shannon Mathews, and found out exactly what, if anything of a sexual nature took place, they will not to place charges against her abductor as they will want to be sure that the evidence against him will stand up to scrutiny in court.
They have to interview the girl to find out exactly what happened before they can charge him with sexual offences, I dont think that it would take very long to investigate so im expecting by the end of the week they will either charge him with something or not
In cases where the victim is a minor, it's best to allow them to tell the story in their own time. There's no hurry. He's not getting bail for kidnap and imprisonment of a child, and it will probably take a year for the case to go to trial. The prosecutor can file additional charges after the girl can talk to them about her ordeal. This usually takes some counseling, since children have a hard time talking to strangers about anything at all, even without trauma.
No it just means that at present the Police do not have sufficient evidence to charge him with any other offences. They do have sufficient to charge with kidnap and false imprisonment (fairly easy to prove) and these give them sufficient grounds to place him before a court to be held in custody for up to a further 72 hours to be asked further questions about any other offences. Should the police obtain enough evidence they then have to charge him for those and place hime before court. There is never a question of charges not being made public. Once a person is charged to court it is part of the public record.