'Britain's worst mum' Karen Matthews 'dumps paedo fiancé' one week after engagement

4 January 2020, 15:25

Karen Matthews has reportedly dumped her paedophile fiancé a week after he proposed.

Paul Saunders, 57, is said to have popped the question to 44-year-old Matthews on Christmas Day, just six weeks after meeting her when he fixed her bathroom.

But soon after the news was made public, it was revealed that Saunders had been jailed in 2010 after admitting to having sexual activity with a teenage girl.

During the three years he abused his teenage victim, he worked as a driver for disabled and elderly people.

His crimes were only discovered when his victim's mum found indecent images on his mobile phone of her daughter.

A friend of Matthews told The Mirror that she "didn't have a clue" about his criminal past and has ended the relationship since finding out.

Saunders was understood to have been staying with Matthews at her home, which she has since kicked him out of.

According to the The Sun, Saunders was arrested as her house is close to a school.

Police confirmed: "A 57-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of a breach to his notification requirements.

"He has now been released under investigation."

Matthews was labelled "Britain's worst mother" in 2008 after sparking one of the biggest missing persons hunt after she faking the kidnap of her daughter Shannon Matthews.

Shannon, then nine, was drugged and hid in the base of a divan bed in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, for 24 days.

Matthew's had planned the crime with her ex-boyfriend's uncle Michael Donovan, to try and claim a £50,000 reward for "finding" her.

For her part in the crime, Matthews was jailed for eight years, but was released in 2012 after serving half her sentence.

Matthews has no contact with any of her seven children.