A 39-year-old man has been charged with the kidnap and false imprisonment of Shannon Matthews.

Michael Donovan, of Lidgate Gardens, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, will appear before Dewsbury Magistrates on Tuesday charged with snatching the nine-year-old schoolgirl on February 19, the Crown Prosecution Service said.

The youngster was discovered less than one mile from her home in Dewsbury 24 days after she went missing.

Donovan, the uncle of her stepfather Craig Meehan, was arrested when Shannon was found on Friday.

West Yorkshire chief constable Sir Norman Bettison has defended his officers after criticism of the time it took them to find Shannon.

He said his force had interviewed 6,000 people and searched 3,000 houses over the past three weeks for the nine-year-old who went missing on February 19.

And he dismissed as "fantasists" those quoted in the press as claiming to have given police vital pieces of the jigsaw days in advance of Shannon's rescue.

The police chief indicated that Shannon is unlikely to return home for some days as specialist officers continue to interview her.

Sir Norman said: "Shannon is safe. She's well. She's in the place where we think that she's safest at the moment. She's away from the flashing lenses and the glare of publicity.

"She's in safe and caring hands. She's in the hands of people who can be trusted to do everything that is possibly needed for Shannon's welfare and care."

Shannon's mother, Karen Matthews, released a statement backing the police's decision to take her daughter into custody, saying: "I fully understand that the police need to keep speaking to Shannon.

"I appreciate that could take some time. I have seen Shannon and I am completely happy that she is being very well looked after and is being given all the care she needs. The most important thing is that Shannon is safe."

But Mrs Matthews has said she thinks some of the press coverage has been unfair to Shannon's family.

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