Julie led the community search for Shannon after she had been reported missing and was played by Sheridan Smith in The Moorside, the recent BBC retelling of the story.
In an upcoming documentary about the case on Channel 5, Julie says she does not believe it was a plot cooked up purely by Karen and her then-boyfriend’s uncle, Michael Donovan.
In a trailer, Julie is heard saying: “I think others were involved. There’s got… others have got to be involved.
“Like I’ve said before, and I’ll say it again, Karen didn’t have the intelligence, and Donovan, from what the cops have said, he didn’t have the intelligence.”
Karen and her accomplice Michael were found to have lied about Shannon’s disappearance in order to claim a £50,000 reward.
The pair were jailed for kidnapping, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice.
Julie continued to visit her friend Karen in prison until she was released in 2012.
The 46-year-old kept diaries of her chats with Karen in a bid to find out the truth.
In the documentary, she explains: “Her story changed each time. I kept a diary, and I would try to compare, you know, one visit… I kept a diary when I went to visit, and I were comparing what she’d told me that last visit, to this visit, and then, you know, and there was just nothing that I could connect.”
However, Julie believes she will never understand what really happened nine years ago.
If she had the opportunity to speak to Karen again, Julie says she would try to find out the truth.
She says: “I probably would still want answers off of her. I tried for four years, so I don’t rate my chances.”
Shannon Matthews: What Happened Next will air tomorrow at 10pm on Channel 5.
Daily Express :: TV and Radio Feed
