One of the police officers who found Shannon Matthews has told a court the girl was frightened and crying when she emerged from the bed base where she was hidden.

Michael Donovan, 40, and Shannon's mother Karen Matthews, 33, are accused of kidnapping and falsely imprisoning Shannon who went missing from her home in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.

Detective constable Paul Kettlewell told a jury at Leeds Crown Court that the girl was found during a search of Donovan's flat about a mile away in Batley Carr.

Detective constable Kettlewell and four other officers had forced their way into the flat after neighbours assured them Donovan was inside but no one answered the door.

They thought the flat was empty until they heard a child's voice coming from the bedroom.

The officer believed he heard a voice which said: "Stop it, you're frightening me."

The officer added: "Then I went into the bedroom. My colleague turned towards me and, as I was beginning to think perhaps the voice came from inside the bed, there was a noise inside the bed as a small girl started to emerge.

"She was frightened and she was crying."

Another officer, Police constable Matthew Troake, said he found Donovan in the bed after Shannon had been removed.

He said: "I looked down into the hole where she'd come from and I saw a man, who I now know to be Michael Donovan, looking back at me."

The officer told the jury that later in the police van Donovan said: "Get Karen down here, we've got a plan. We're sharing the money -- 50,000 pounds."

The court has been told that Shannon was drugged and probably kept captive on a leash in a kidnap plot hatched by her mother and Donovan to claim a newspaper reward for her recovery.

Her mother had reported Shannon missing on Feburary 19, sparking a massive police hunt that cost some £3 million.

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