FORMER teaching assistant Maxine Carr was given a whole new identity after her attempt to help cover up her boyfriend’s double homicide.
Courts decided she played no part in the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman and granted her a fresh start.
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Who is Maxine Carr?
Maxine Carr is a former teaching assistant at St. Andrew’s Primary School.
She was jailed for giving Huntley a false alibi after he killed 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.
Carr infamously turned on Huntley as he sat in the dock during his murder trial, describing him as “that thing in the box”.
She is one of only four former UK prisoners protected by a lifelong anonymity order — along with child killer Mary Bell and James Bulger’s murderers Robert Thompson and Jon Venables.
How did she meet Ian Huntley?
Carr, then aged 22, met a 25-year-old Huntley at nightclub in Grimsby in 1999.
She moved into the killer’s flat in the town of Barton-upon-Humber, North Lincolnshire, shortly after.
In November 2001, Huntley started his job as caretaker at Soham Village College and moved into a cottage which came with the job.
Carr, who was living with Huntley in the quiet village, was working as a teaching assistant at the school which Holly and Jessica attended.
In the two weeks following the disappearance Carr vouched for Huntley repeatedly.
It meant police initially eliminated him as a suspect. She also cleaned their house of evidence.
The pair were finally arrested when witnesses revealed that Carr was 110 miles away in her home town when the girls were killed.
What happened when Holly and Jessica were killed?
Best friends Jessica and Holly had been at a barbeque at Holly’s house on August 4, 2002 when they decided to go exploring.
They had not told anyone they had left the house and when Holly’s mum realised they were gone she grew concerned.
Hundreds of volunteers and police officers searched the village and surrounding area for nearly two weeks.
The bodies of the girls were found about 10 miles away from where they disappeared.
Huntley was already under suspicion for his behaviour but Carr told police her then fiancé Huntley had been with her a the time.
In fact she had been in Grimsby — at a nightclub with another man.
Both were arrested and Huntley was sentenced to a double life imprisonment with a minimum sentence of 40 years.
Carr was charged with perverting the course of justice after she turned on Huntley during the trial.
Where is Maxine Carr now?
Former classroom assistant Carr served just 21 months of her sentence for perverting the course of justice.
On her release from jail in 2004, she was given a new secret identity amid concerns she would be attacked.
Draconian legal orders gave her lifelong anonymity.
Since her release from prison in 2004 it has cost the taxpayer around £2.5million to provide Carr with a new identity and police protection.
The notorious liar has since rebuilt her life – and even remarried in a lavish ceremony wearing a £2,000 ivory dress.
Despite knowing about her disturbing past, Carr’s besotted boyfriend walked her down the aisle at a luxury wedding venue in 2014.
But her new husband’s relatives were said to be stunned at his decision to marry Carr after learning of her shameful past.
Carr was said to have delighted in being the centre of attention – smiling and joking with guests and bridesmaids before making her way out into the venue’s picturesque grounds.
