Ian Huntley’s ex-partner Maxine Carr’s life after Soham murders
Ian Huntley's former girlfriend Maxine Carr is living under lifelong anonymity 24 years after the Soham murders.
In 2002, school caretaker Huntley was convicted of killing 10-year-old friends Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman before dumping their bodies in an irrigation ditch and being handed a 40-year sentence.
However, the 52-year-old was attacked by another inmate during a workshop at HMP Frankland last month, sustaining severe head injuries.
Huntley was taken to hospital but ultimately passed away from his injuries, with his death being confirmed to the public on Saturday (7 March).
Advert
Huntley wasn't the only person sentenced in relation to the deaths of Holly and Jessica, with his ex-girlfriend Maxine Carr receiving a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence for conspiring to pervert the court of justice.
Who was Maxine Carr?
In 2002, Maxine Ann Carr worked as a teaching assistant at St Andrew's Primary School in Cambridgeshire, where both Holly and Jessica attended. She was also in a relationship with Huntley at the time, after initially meeting in 1999.
Carr was also known to both of the girls - with Huntley likely using this as an excuse to lure the two girls into his home - but was away in Lincolnshire visiting family when the events of 4 August 2002 took place.
After news of the girls' disappearance became public, Carr gave an interview to the media, being photographed holding up a card made for her by Holly on the last day of term, which read 'to a special teaching assistant'.
"No one believes they would ever run away. They were very close to their families," she told the media at the time.
"This is something that I will keep for the rest of my life. It's what Holly gave me on the last day of term and there's a poem written inside saying 'to a special teaching assistant' and that we will miss her and we will see her in the future. That was the kind of girl she was, she was just really lovely."
Both Carr and Huntley would later be interviewed by police as witnesses of interest on 16 August, a day before the girls' bodies were discovered.
Why did Maxine Carr go to prison?
In the aftermath of the girls' being discovered, both Carr and Huntley were arrested by police on suspicion of abduction and murder.
It was here that Carr would reveal she had lied in her initial police statement, in which she had claimed to be in Soham with Huntley on 4 August. She added that she had agreed to create a false alibi for Huntley after he expressed concern about being arrested.
She later pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice, receiving a three-and-a-half year sentence.
The court accepted that she had lied to the police and media as she believed he was innocent, meaning that she was found not guilty of of assisting an offender.
Carr was later released after 21 months' imprisonment.
When was Maxine Carr released from prison?
Following her release from prison in May 2004, Carr was given a new identity, cosmetic surgery to change her face and is being protected by a lifelong anonymity on the grounds that her life would otherwise be in danger.
This means that details about Carr's new life, identity and location cannot be shared publicly. At the time of her release, Carr was one of three prisoners granted a new identity, with the others being Mary Bell, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables.
Reports also allege that Carr has since married and lives in an undisclosed location near the sea.
Meanwhile, numerous innocent women have come forward over the years alleging they've been threatened with violence due to being falsely mistaken for Carr.
Brenna Cooper