Maxine Carr stable in hospital

Maxine Carr, the woman accused of perverting the course of justice following the deaths of schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, remained in a stable condition in hospital today after what some reports suggested was a prison suicide bid.

Carr, 25, reportedly tried to kill herself after a chance meeting at a police station with partner Ian Huntley, 28, who is accused of murdering the girls.

The News of the World said Carr became hysterical after Huntley snubbed her during the encounter, which happened at the high security Paddington Green police station, where she was being questioned.

Carr, of Soham, Cambridgeshire, was being held on remand in Holloway jail, North London, when she was admitted to hospital yesterday.

A spokeswoman for Whittington Hospital, north London, said today: “There is no change in the patient’s condition. She remains stable.”

The Prison Service refused to say why Carr was taken to hospital.

Meanwhile, a Metropolitan Police spokesman said there had been no complaint of a criminal offence having been committed at Holloway Prison in relation to the incident.

Carr, a classroom assistant, was refused bail by a judge at Norwich Crown Court last Monday.

Holly and Jessica disappeared on August 4 after being seen walking near their homes in Soham. Their bodies were found in a ditch at Lakenheath, Suffolk, on August 17.

Whittington Hospital is just two miles from the women’s prison where Carr is being held pending trial.

Huntley, also from Soham, is being held at Woodhill Prison, Buckinghamshire, to which he was transferred from Rampton High Security Hospital in Nottinghamshire earlier this month.

He is also charged with conspiring with Carr to pervert the course of justice.

He has yet to enter a plea to the charges.