The case of Shannon Matthews, the schoolgirl who prompted a huge search when she disappeared early this year for almost a month, comes before a jury this morning.

Ten-year-old Shannon's mother, Karen, is accused of kidnapping, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice by pretending to West Yorkshire police she had no idea where her daughter was.

Alongside her in the dock will be 40-year-old Michael Donovan, who faces the same charges. Donovan is the uncle of her partner. Both defendants will plead not guilty in a trial that is expected to last four weeks.

Separated by a security guard at Leeds crown court, they watched throughout the afternoon yesterday as a jury of seven men and five women was sworn in from a panel of 50. Before the random selection, all potential jurors were asked if they had links with Dewsbury or the surrounding area, where Matthews and Donovan both live.

Potential jurors were checked for connections with the search that engulfed the West Yorkshire town when Shannon went missing after a school swimming trip on February 19. Many of the residents of the Dewsbury Moor estate, where the child lived with her 33-year-old mother and her mother's partner, Craig Meehan, scoured the immediate area and took appeal leaflets all over the north.

Donovan, who lives in the neighbouring area of Batley Carr, was arrested on March 14, the day Shannon was found safe and well, hidden in a drawer below a bed, less than a mile from her home.

Donovan, formerly known as Paul Drake, sat quietly in the dock wearing a dark blue sweater and blue jeans.

Matthews wore a beige jacket over a white blouse with her long red hair untied over her shoulders. Neither spoke during the two-hour proceedings.

Mr Justice McCombe checked that the jury had no links with the police, court service or social services in the Kirklees council area, which includes Dewsbury.

The hunt for Shannon was one of the largest missing person inquiries in Britain in the last decade. Sixty detectives deployed hundreds of officers and coordinated several thousand volunteers.