What happened to Maxine Carr? The ex-girlfriend of Soham murderer Ian Huntley

In 2002, the town of Soham in Cambridgeshire was changed forever after the abduction and murder of two innocent 10-year-old girls.

On Sunday, the 4th of August, best friends Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells were attending a barbecue at Holly’s home.

At 6.15pm, the two left the house to get some sweets as their parents believed the two were playing together in Holly's bedroom.

But, when Holly’s and Jessica’s parents went to check on them at 8pm, they were left panicked when they could not find the pair.

Police were immediately notified of the missing girls and the town of Soham came together to find them.

Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells. (Image: PA)

It was at this time police spoke to Ian Huntley who worked at the girls' school as a caretaker and was the boyfriend of Maxine Carr, who was a support assistant at the school.

Huntley told police that he had seen Jessica and Holly on his doorstep and mentioned that they appeared happy during their brief interaction.

Two weeks after Holly and Jessica went missing on August 17, their bodies were found in a ditch near the perimeter fence of RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, around 10 miles east of Soham.

The coroner later ruled the girls died from asphyxiation.

The search then turned to who could do such a thing. Locals from Huntley’s hometown of Grimsby revealed he had previously been linked to sex attacks on a woman.

It was later found that he had been investigated for the alleged rape in 1998, along with his alleged sexual relationships with underage girls before moving to Soham.

Maxine Carr. (Image: PA)

When it was discovered that Jessica’s phone last had a signal to a mass outside of Huntley’s home, police conducted a search.

They were able to find fibres of clothing the girls had last been wearing when they were seen and fibres connecting Huntley’s body and clothing.

On August 20, Huntley was charged with two counts of murder, while his girlfriend Carr was charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice when lying about Huntley’s whereabouts.

The trial took place in December 2003 and saw Huntley found guilty on two counts of murder and he was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 40 years.

What did Maxine Carr do?

Maxine Carr lied to police during the investigation of Holly and Jessica, telling police that she was at home with Huntley at the time the best friends vanished.

However, in a later interview with the police, she admitted that she made a fake alibi for her boyfriend.

Ian Huntley. (Image: PA)

It's understood the police began to question Carr when in a TV interview she spoke of the girls in the past tense, telling BBC Look East: "No one believes they would ever run away. They were very close to their families. This is something that I will keep for the rest of my life."

After admitting to lying, Carr told police that Huntley told her Holly and Jessica went into their home after one of the girls had a nosebleed, but did told tell Carr about harming them.

Did Maxine Carr go to prison?

Carr was charged with two counts of assisting an offender, one for giving a false alibi, and one count of perverting the course of justice but was only found guilty of perverting the course of justice.

She pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice, but not guilty to the charge of assisting an offender.

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Carr was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for perverting the course of justice but served 21 months of the 42-month sentence.

In 2004, she was released on probation from Foston Hall prison in Derbyshire.

Where is Maxine Carr now?

Following her release, Carr was moved to a safe house and granted lifelong anonymity and a new identity.

Reports have since suggested that she had a son in 2011 and got married in 2014, now living in a seaside town.