Two decades have passed since Maxine Carr walked free from prison with a new identity. Carr was jailed for furnishing her murderous boyfriend Ian Huntley with a false alibi on 4 August 2002 - the evening he brutally murdered schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, before dumping their bodies in an irrigation ditch in Soham, Cambridgeshire.
Carr sought to shield Huntley by insisting she was at home that fateful evening - when she was actually in Grimsby. Holly and Jessica, both aged 10, had departed a family barbecue to purchase sweets when they vanished without trace, only to be tragically found dead 13 days later.
During the trial, she and Huntley - who was violent towards her in their relationship - betrayed one another and are understood to have had no communication since. Whilst Carr has rebuilt her existence following her release, Huntley has remained behind bars and is now reportedly battling for survival after a vicious assault.
The 52 year old has been airlifted to hospital after being discovered lying in a pool of blood. He was allegedly attacked by a fellow prisoner at HMP Frankland in County Durham at approximately 9am this morning.
"It was absolute chaos and Huntley was in a terrible state. I'm amazed someone was able to get anywhere near him because he is usually really closely protected," a source told The Sun, adding: "They must have timed it when he wasn't with prison officers and must have used a weapon to injure him so severely.", reports the Mirror.
This isn't the first instance of Huntley being assaulted during his imprisonment.
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The search operation to find Holly and Jessica was one of the largest the country has ever seen. Both Carr and Huntley took part in the search, liaising with the media and aiding locals, along with 400 police officers and US Air Force personnel, in combing the countryside for the missing best friends.
In one interview, Carr - who served as the girls' teaching assistant - bragged about her importance to Holly and showed journalists a card Holly had crafted for her on the last day of term. Speaking to a television reporter, Carr stated: "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. 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."
Every registered sex offender across Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire was interviewed, yet there seemed to be no trace of the primary school pupils. An extensive media campaign kept Holly and Jessica on every newspaper's front page and in every news bulletin for 13 days, with investigators leaving no stone unturned.
It transpired that Huntley, already under police investigation, had revisited the site where he dumped the bodies to retrieve the girls' distinctive Manchester United shirts and tried to burn them. He then placed the shirts in a bin at his workplace, hiding them beneath another rubbish bag, but officers found them in a crucial breakthrough for the case.
Huntley was convicted of murder and handed two life sentences, with a minimum tariff of 40 years behind bars. Carr received three-and-a-half years for perverting the course of justice.
After serving half of her sentence, she was freed and given a new identity.
She left Foston Hall prison in Derbyshire in May 2004 with a new identity for her own safety. During the following two years, Carr was moved to more than 10 different safe houses for protection, and in 2011, reports surfaced that she had given birth to her first child - a baby boy - whilst in a secure location.
By 2012, she was believed to have entered into a serious relationship with a partner who was aware of her troubling past and was reportedly 'absolutely besotted' with her. By 2014, it was thought that she had settled in a coastal town.
The Channel 5 true crime drama, titled Maxine, depicts her living by the sea, with someone recognising and calling out her name. Due to a permanent anonymity order granted by the High Court over ten years ago, authorities cannot reveal the name of the town where Carr resides.
She is one of only four former UK prisoners protected by lifelong anonymity – joining James Bulger's murderers Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, and child killer Mary Bell. In the same year she established her life on the coast, Carr reportedly married a man in a lavish £2,000 ceremony.
The Daily Mail reports that the couple tied the knot at an undisclosed hotel, with the bride wearing a £2,000 ivory dress. Insiders revealed that her future husband walked her down the aisle, and guests enjoyed a three-course wedding breakfast and £10 bottles of bubbly before the newlyweds jetted off to a family-friendly resort for their honeymoon.
This revelation is believed to have been a harsh blow for the heartbroken mothers of Holly and Jessica, who were denied the opportunity to see their daughters grow up and live their own lives. "The families of Holly and Jessica will never get to see their daughters marry," an insider told the newspaper.
"They will never get to enjoy their big day. They have nothing to look forward to. Why should she?".
