Jessica Aimee Chapman - Maxine Carr

Maxine Carr

Maxine Carr initially provided a false alibi to police for Huntley, claiming to have been with him at the time of the murders when she was in fact in Grimsby. She was charged with perverting the course of justice and assisting an offender. She pleaded guilty to the first charge and not guilty to the second.

Her failure to expose Huntley's lies in the early stages of the investigation (before either of them was arrested) meant that police initially eliminated Huntley as a suspect; due to her false statement, it took the police nearly two weeks to arrest and charge him.

The court accepted that Carr had only lied to the police to protect Huntley because she believed his claims of innocence and so found her not guilty of assisting an offender. She was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison and was released on probation on 14 May 2004 after serving 21 months (including 16 months on remand). She was given a new secret identity to protect her from threats of attack from members of the public that had been made during her remand, as well as during and after the trial. After release, Carr and her family were negotiating towards an autobiographical book deal, but Mirage Publishing withdrew after a feature on BBC Radio Newcastle prompted scores of objections.