TWISTED Karen Matthews' friend Julie Bushby has claimed her pal "wasn't intelligent enough" to mastermind the fake kidnapping of her daughter Shannon.
Julie - played by Sheridan Smith in hit BBC drama The Moorside - believes there is a "horrible conspiracy of silence" and wants police to re-open and investigate the shocking case.
The shop worker, who mounted searches for nine-year-old Shannon in 2008 when she vanished, told the Mirror there are three others involved in the plot that saw Matthews locked up for eight years.
But Julie has disputed this theory, and has said Karen was trying to get away from Craig.
She told the Radio Times that the key to understanding Karen is she is "a child in an adult's body".
Even after Karen was found guilty and sent to prison, Julie was the one person to visit her.
She says she did so as although she wanted answers, Karen was "a mate" and because Julie felt she "must be so lonely".