With access to family, neighbours and professionals who knew Michael Donovan, this is the story of the man who abducted 9-year-old Shannon Matthews in 2008 and kept her in his flat for 24 days before she was found in a dramatic rescue by the police.

Self (Archive)
Self (Daily Mirror Reporter)
Self (Detective W.Yorkshire Police)

With access to family, neighbours and professionals who knew Michael Donovan, this is the story of the man who abducted 9-year-old Shannon Matthews in 2008 and kept her in his flat for 24 days before she was found in a dramatic rescue by the police.
2022-12-08
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7.3In 1994, a 13-year-old boy disappeared without a trace from his home in San Antonio, Texas. Three-and-a-half years later, he is found alive in a village in southern Spain with a horrifying story of kidnap and torture. His family is overjoyed to bring him home. But all is not quite as it seems.
6.5A family falls prey to the manipulative charms of a neighbor, who abducts their adolescent daughter. Twice.
5.9Set within the stark Icelandic landscape, OUT OF THIN AIR examines the 1976 police investigation into the disappearance of two men in the early 1970s.
5.9Legendary journalist Gay Talese unmasks a motel owner who spied on his guests for decades. But his bombshell story soon becomes a scandal of its own.
6.1One clear summer day in a Baltimore suburb, a baby goes missing from her front porch. Two young girls serve seven years for the crime and are released into a town that hasn't fully forgiven or forgotten. Soon, another child is missing, and two detectives are called in to investigate the mystery in a community where everyone seems to have a secret.
7.1A young mother’s mysterious death and her son’s subsequent kidnapping blow open a decades-long mystery about the woman’s true identity, and the murderous federal fugitive at the center of it all.
7.1Elizabeth Smart's harrowing abduction at 14 from her family's Utah home unfolds through her own words and never-before-seen material in this documentary.
7.0Newly released from prison and marked for death by unrelenting enemies, Nate must now protect his estranged 9-year-old daughter, Polly, at all costs. With scant resources and no one to trust, Nate and Polly forge a bond under fire as he shows her how to fight and survive—and she teaches him the true meaning of unconditional love.
7.3Using raw, firsthand footage, this documentary examines the disappearance of Shanann Watts and her children, and the terrible events that followed.
7.2A woman reports that her young daughter is missing, but there seems to be no evidence that she ever existed.
6.2A mother (in her Minivan) stops at nothing to recover her kidnapped son.
6.4A tight-knit team of FBI investigators, along with their District Attorney supervisor, is suddenly torn apart when they discover that one of their own teenage daughters has been brutally murdered.
6.8A chef's life is upended when a jet-setting, champagne-sipping, hotel-hopping woman claims to be his long-lost mother. This documentary reveals the untold story.
6.7Philip Hannon, a blind playwright living in London, overhears part of a conversation , that leads him into a desperate race, to find a kidnapped child. When he gets no help from the police, he along with his butler, and his ex fiancée, attempt to track down the crooks.
6.5After an innocent man is executed in a case he was responsible for, a Scotland Yard superintendent finds himself investigating the murder of his key witness.
6.2A group of five mountaineers are hiking and climbing in the Scottish Highlands when they discover a young Serbian girl buried in a small chamber in the wilderness. They become caught up in a terrifying game of cat and mouse with the kidnappers as they try to get the girl to safety.
7.2While searching for her missing mother, intrepid teen Enola Holmes uses her sleuthing skills to outsmart big brother Sherlock and help a runaway lord.
6.5This documentary examines the 1999 London bombings that targeted Black, Bangladeshi and gay communities, and the race to find the far-right perpetrator. He terrorized a city, seeking to ignite a race war but justice was served by those who wouldn't let his hate win.
7.2When Juan Catalan is arrested for a murder he insists he didn't commit, he builds his case for innocence around unexpected raw footage.
7.8Interviews with the detectives involved in investigating the global star, Michael Jackson’s, death. They reveal fascinating insights into the events surrounding the day he died.
6.8A burned-out British police detective finally snaps while interrogating a suspected child molester.
8.0Occurring from the mid-1970s to 1981, the Ripper committed 13 murders. Viewed as ritualistic in nature, they were done with extreme brutality as he mocked the police during their desperate hunt for him. The victims were primiarly prostitutes or poor girls, with a few working girls tossed in. Generally he would hit a victim on the head with a hammer, sexually assault the lady, mutilate her, and then redress/re-arrangement the clothing and cover the corpse with her own coat.
0.0Jack the Ripper was a prince, a pauper, a mason, a madman... A host of more and more bizarre theories have surrounded the unexplained killings in Whitechapel since they hit the headlines in 1888. This film dispels the grisly fiction, revealing for the first time the true contents of the police and Home Office files on the case, drawing on the expertise of historians and of those who have encountered today's killers - on the street or behind bars.
6.1In The Family I Had, a mother recalls how her brilliant teenage son came to shatter their idyllic family through one horribly violent and shocking act. Now, left to pick up the pieces, the survivors test the boundaries of their newly defined reality in this moving true crime exploration of the nature and limits of familial love.
0.0A gruesome look into the infamous and seemingly neverending 1991 Vizconde murder case in the Philippines where a woman, her teen daughter, and a 6-year-old were all viciously stabbed to death while the husband was away in America on business.
7.1A young mother’s mysterious death and her son’s subsequent kidnapping blow open a decades-long mystery about the woman’s true identity, and the murderous federal fugitive at the center of it all.
7.5After a botched robbery results in the brutal murder of a rural family, two drifters elude police, in the end coming to terms with their own mortality and the repercussions of their vile atrocity.
0.0A documentary that follows one man who attempts to live on the street, while interviewing the homeless people of Southampton and recounting his own experience.
10.0Spy Capital is a documentary exploring Vienna's deep-rooted espionage history, establishing the city as a key hub for international spy operations over the past 150 years. Directed by espionage expert Boris Volodarsky and produced by Dennis Dewall, the film spans from Vienna's 1873 World Exhibition to espionage tied to the 2023 Russia-Ukraine conflict. Featuring interviews with prominent figures like Christo Grozev and Gert Polli, it also includes dramatic reenactments of historical events. Notorious cases such as Colonel Alfred Redl, a Russian double agent, are highlighted. The film delves into Vienna's pivotal role in intelligence during the World Wars and the Cold War. With striking visuals and advanced technology, Spy Capital: Vienna immerses viewers in a blend of history and drama, offering a thorough look into the covert world of spies that has shaped the city.
6.4Officer Blanca Bravo arrives in Juarez, Mexico — a grim nexus of corporate colonialism and sexual tourism — to investigate a rash of killings targeting female migrant workers. But with no help from the locals, bringing the responsible parties to justice becomes a frustrating exercise. As Bravo rails against indifference and local corruption, she finds herself on a collision course with Mickey Santos, a Mexican mogul with a taste for young prostitutes.
5.0The Last Sacrifice delves into the real-life 1945 witchcraft killing of Charles Walton—the terrifying event that inspired The Wicker Man and birthed the folk horror genre. This unsettling true-crime interrogation probes into the eerie, enigmatic cultural undercurrents that shaped 1970's folk horror genre, leaving an indelible mark on cinema and public psyche.
6.6After a shoot-out kills five FBI agents in Kansas City the Bureau target John Dillinger as one of the men to hunt down. Waiting for him to break Federal law they sort out several other mobsters, while Dillinger's bank robbing exploits make him something of a folk hero. Escaping from jail he finds Pretty Boy Floyd and Baby Face Nelson have joined the gang and pretty soon he is Public Enemy Number One. Now the G-men really are after him.
6.4This documentary delves into the unanswered questions surrounding the trial of Jessica Wongso — years after the death of her best friend, Mirna Salihin.
Based on the true story of the Whittington brothers—three historically famous race car drivers, two of whom were part of the 1980s IMSA scandal in which a number of drivers were charged with financing their racing activities with proceeds from drug smuggling, money laundering, or tax evasion.
Peter Moore, the murderer known as the 'man in black', has now served 25 years in prison. Back in 1995, he terrorised communities along the north Wales coastline, killing four men and allegedly attacking many more. By day he was a well-respected shopkeeper and cinema owner in Kinmel Bay, and by night he was a sadistic killer who seemed to target gay men. In this special edition of Dark Land, former chief constable Jackie Roberts returns to re-examine the hunt for the man who would go down in history as Wales’s worst serial killer. Moore is revealed as a man with a violent secret life, hiding in plain sight. Beneath the façade of a respectable businessman was a mind warped by a dysfunctional upbringing; a man who seized upon a climate of gay prejudice to embark upon a 20-year spree of savage attacks, confident his victims wouldn’t feel able to come forward to complain. The ultimate question is, could Moore have been stopped before he went on to kill and kill again?
6.8A star goalkeeper threatens a woman who is pregnant with his child. Her pleas for help go unanswered in the shadow of his fame — then tragedy strikes.
6.7A young man's dramatic rescue at sea spirals into accusations he murdered two members of his wealthy New England family.
5.9The line between justice and revenge blurs when a devastated family uses social media to track down the people who killed 24-year-old Crystal Theobald.
5.03 real life stories taken from the Mexican police archive.