Maxine Carr considering bail

The woman accused of lying to police during the hunt for murdered schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman could be taken to a safe house, it emerged today.

Maxine Carr, 25, has been in police cells or prison since her arrest more than two weeks ago, but her lawyer said she was now considering asking to be released on bail.

The former teaching assistant in the 10-year-olds’ class in Soham, Cambridgshire, England, is accused of attempting to pervert the course of justice during the hunt for the girls, which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Her solicitor Roy James said a safe house must be found before he would make an application for her release but said bail would be granted automatically in other similar cases.

“People have misunderstood the position,” he told the Law Society’s Gazette.

“She has not been charged with the girls’ murder and if the media background to the case is ignored she would be granted bail as a matter of course.

“Although the case is at a very early stage, we are considering bail if a safe house can be provided.”

Carr has been held in the high-security segregation unit of Holloway Prison, north London, since her first appearance at Peterborough Magistrates’ Court on August 22 and appeared via a video link for her scheduled court hearing last Thursday.

Any safe house would almost certainly be a considerable distance from Soham and its location would need to be approved by the courts.

Its address would not be made public and would be known only to Carr’s lawyers, the police and the court authorities.

Mr James said he believed the cases against her and her partner Ian Huntley, 28, would go ahead, despite his “great concerns” over their press coverage.

He said he was “resigned” to the nature of the coverage and “fully expected” it to affect criminal proceedings but did not believe it would lead to the cases being thrown out.

“I am realistic enough to know that the judge will not throw the cases out because of the media interest,” he said.

“For political reasons, I don’t believe that the Attorney-General will impose reporting restrictions, and so we will simply have to put up with the press coverage.”

Meanwhile staff at the two schools, which have been sealed off for the past two weeks during a detailed police search for clues, were this week preparing for the start of the new term.

The search is now coming to an end and staff are being allowed back into parts of the school in readiness for the start of term a week today.

A forensic examination of the scene around where their bodies were found could take some time.

The funerals of both girls, which will be private, family services, were expected to take place this week.