Karen Matthews had public meltdown after coronavirus shut McDonald’s sobbing ‘everything I love is taken from me’
BRITAIN’S worst mum Karen Matthews had a “massive tantrum” after learning McDonald’s will shut during the coronavirus crisis – before rushing to her local branch to gorge on two meals.
Matthews – jailed in 2008 for plotting to profit from the staged disappearance of her daughter Shannon – was seen with ‘tears in her eyes’ in her local corner shop.
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She had to be calmed by a fellow shopper after blurting out: “Everything I love has been taken away from me. Now I can’t even get a Big Mac.
“I had more freedom when I was banged up.”
Matthews then marched off to her local branch to join queues of people waiting to buy food.
McDonald’s has closed all of its stores during the pandemic.
The decision sparked chaos at several branches as thousands of Brits rushed to get the last burgers before the shutdown.
And Matthews was among those to join the crush at her local branch.
‘MORE FREEDOM IN JAIL’
When she got to the counter, she ordered a Big Mac meal and a Fillet-O-Fish meal for herself, eating both meals on a bench outside.
Matthews is now living in a town in the south of England after being freed from an eight-year jail sentence for kidnap in 2012.
A pal of Matthews, 44, told us: “She had a massive tantrum.
“She didn’t seem to care who heard her and when a man tried to explain why McDonald’s was shutting, she said it was all stupid and people should stop exaggerating and just carry on as normal as she wasn’t going to stop going out or change her life.
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“She said there was more freedom in prison than Boris Johnson was letting her have now.
“To hear her talk, you’d think she was the only one in this situation with the coronavirus pandemic.”
Matthews – from Dewsbury, West Yorks – infamously asked cops to buy her family food from the restaurant chain as friends and neighbours joined the search for Shannon.
The wicked mum allowed police and the community in Dewsbury to search for Shannon, nine, for 24 days in 2008.
But all the time, little Shannon was being held in a flat owned by the uncle of Matthews’ then lover.
The mum now lives almost 200 miles from the West Yorkshire town and under the terms of her release she is not allowed to set foot in the district.
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McDonald’s branches are among the eateries deemed non-essential under new government guidelines.
While supermarkets, pharmacies, post offices and corner shops can remain open, many other businesses have closed down in a bid to tackle the spread of Covid-19.
The deadly virus has claimed 578 lives in the UK and 23,500 worldwide.
Last night, Brits across the country joined a round of applause to thanks NHS heroes battling the virus.
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