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More than two decades ago, the brutal murder of two schoolgirls who were driven to their deaths by the school janitor shocked the entire country.
In December 2003, Ian Huntley was jailed for life after killing ten-year-old Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman at his Cambridgeshire home, before dumping their bodies in a ditch near RAF Lakenheath.
Following the disappearance of the childhood friends in August 2002, more than 400 police officers descended on the quiet town of Soham, and Huntley attempted to evade capture by getting his fiancée Maxine Carr to provide him with an alibi.
Carr, an assistant teacher at the girls’ school, ultimately received three and a half years after being found guilty of conspiring with Huntley, 50, to pervert the course of justice.
Huntley’s sickening crimes are the focus of a Channel 5 documentary, The Soham Murder Trial, which airs tonight at 9pm
As the documentary delves into the prosecution’s strategy to prove Huntley was guilty, we explore what role Maxine Carr played in Huntley’s crimes and where she is now.
In December 2003, Ian Huntley was jailed for life after killing ten-year-olds Holly Wells (left) and Jessica Chapman (right) at their Cambridgeshire home (file image).
Carr, an assistant teacher at the girls’ school, was eventually sentenced to three-and-a-half years after being found guilty of conspiring with Huntley, 50, to pervert the course of justice.
Who is Maxine Carr?
Maxine Carr was born on February 16, 1977 in Grimsby, Lincolnshire.
The court was told she had met Ian Huntley at a nightclub in Grimsby in 1999, when she was 22 and he was 25, according to Sun.
Huntley was reported to have been emotionally abusive during their relationship, which later led to the couple getting engaged.
Carr and Huntley moved in together just four weeks after meeting each other, moving from Grimsby to Soham when Huntley got a job at a local college.
Meanwhile, Carr became a teaching assistant at St Andrew’s Primary School, where she met Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.
Carr (pictured) met Ian Huntley at a nightclub in Grimsby in 1999, when she was 22 and he was 25 (file image)
Carr and Huntley (pictured) moved in together just four weeks after meeting each other and moved from Grimsby to Soham when Huntley got a job at a local college (file image).
How was Maxine Carr involved in the murder of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman?
On Sunday 4 August 2002, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman sneaked out of Wells’ home in Soham, Cambridgeshire, to buy sweets from a vending machine at the local sports centre.
On the way home, Huntley lured the couple to his house, saying his girlfriend, Maxine Carr, a teaching assistant at his school, was home.
This was a lie: Carr had been visiting his mother 100 miles away in Grimsby. Within an hour, at Huntley’s house, Wells and Chapman were dead.
Huntley engaged in prominent media appeals for their safe return, and told police that he had spoken briefly to the girls at his door immediately before their disappearance, stating that they were both “happy as Larry”.
Meanwhile, Carr gave him a false alibi by lying to him about her whereabouts on the weekend the two 10-year-old boys were murdered. In reality, she had been in Grimsby, at a nightclub with another man.
Carr told the court he did not know Huntley had killed the girls, but it was discovered that he had cleared his home of evidence and police said the house had been “meticulously cleaned” after an initial visit.
On August 17, a gamekeeper found the girls’ decomposed bodies in a deep irrigation ditch at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, about 10 miles east of Soham. The coroner determined the probable cause of death was asphyxiation.
A series of inconsistencies in Huntley’s story led to his eventual arrest and, on 17 December 2003, he was sentenced to two life sentences for the murder of the schoolgirls.
Following Huntley’s conviction, Carr received a three-and-a-half year sentence for perverting the course of justice.
Ian Huntley sits in his car outside his home in Soham, Cambs, as his then girlfriend Maxine Carr displays a poster of missing schoolgirls (file image)
A video from August 2002 shows Maxine Carr smiling and laughing during a television interview during the search for Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Soham.
Police said Huntley and Carr’s home had been “meticulously cleaned” after an initial visit (file image)
Carr said at trial that he did not know Huntley had murdered the girls, but it was discovered that he had cleared his home of evidence.
On December 17, 2003, Huntley was sentenced to two life sentences for the murder of the schoolgirls (file image)
Where is Maxine Carr now?
Despite her involvement in one of the most heinous crimes in modern British history, Carr was released from Foston Hall jail in May 2004 after serving 21 months and has since enjoyed a new life believed to cost the taxpayer up to £500,000 a year.
Since the state protects her identity and monitors her around the clock, she has reportedly been moved to at least 10 different safe houses since her release 18 years ago.
Carr is now believed to be married and has at least one child, having reportedly gotten engaged in 2008.
The Daily Mail quoted friends as describing her fiancé as “a good man from a decent family” who “accepted his past” and was “in love” with her.
The source added: “They just like doing normal things together, like going for walks in the countryside.”
At the time of their engagement, the lovers reportedly lived more than 60 miles apart.
According to the Daily Mail, Carr and her partner enjoyed a three-course wedding breakfast and several bottles of sparkling wine on their wedding day in 2014.
The bride wore a £2,000 ivory dress and walked down the aisle alongside her 71-year-old mother.
A source later told MailOnline: “Too much time and public money has been spent on her secret identity. They will not hesitate to move her again if her identity is discovered.”
After his release, taxpayers even collected his £8,000 bill for dental work and cosmetic surgery to change his appearance, as well as costs to change his hair color and style.
It was also claimed that Carr asked to have her breasts enlarged on the NHS for mental health reasons, claiming she was depressed because her breasts were too small.
In addition to the fees for the makeover, there is also the cost of probation officers and a psychologist to “take care of her.”
She has since settled into a new home with her supposed new family, however her alias and location are unknown and she is protected by a lifetime anonymity order, making it illegal to reveal her new life.
The Soham murder trial airs tonight at 9pm on Channel 5.
Carr was released from Foston Hall prison in May 2004 after serving 21 months and has since enjoyed a new life believed to be costing the taxpayer up to £500,000 a year (file image)
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