Carr told police Huntley had faced rape claim

Maxine Carr, in an interview with the police on the day she was arrested, said that her partner Ian Huntley had been accused of raping a girl in 1998, London's Old Bailey heard today.

Huntley, according to Carr, went to court and was acquitted.

The revelation came in the murder trial of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman when the prosecution read a transcript of Carr’s interview.

Huntley, 29, denies the girls’ murder.

Carr denies two counts of assisting an offender and one of conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

The prosecution alleges Carr provided Huntley with a false alibi by claiming she was in the house on the day Huntley said he saw the girls.

That was on the evening of Sunday August 4 last year and Huntley became known as the last person to speak with the girls before they disappeared.

Here is a transcript of Carr’s interview with detective constable David York where she talked about Huntley’s previous accusation.

It was taken in the late morning of August 17 at Thorpe Wood Police Station, Peterborough, hours after her arrest.

Transcript:

York: “All right. Well Maxine, as I’m informed by the custody sergeant, you want to talk to us.”

Carr: “Yeah.”

York: “Is there anything you want to say to us?”

Carr: “I gave an interview yesterday.”

York: “Yeah.”

Carr: “And I gave an interview before, the interview I gave I wasn’t in Soham on the 4th of August. I wasn’t in Soham on Saturday, August 3. I wasn’t in Soham on the Monday either.

“I came back to Soham on the Tuesday. I was actually in Grimsby and the reason why I told the police that I was at home was because my partner, Ian, he was accused in 1998 of attacking a girl, raping a girl.

“It went to court he was put in a prison and bail hostel or whatever. Then the police after so many months came up with this videotape of him in a nightclub at the time that it was supposed to have happened and he was acquitted. And he had a nervous breakdown and everything else.

“And when I found out that he was the last person to see them at that time, to speak to them, I just didn’t know what to do.

“I mean all my family can vouch for me, they’ve been ringing the station up telling me that, telling them, ’you know, she was in Grimsby’ though I had to tell you and even Ian’s told me to tell you that.

“He told me yesterday when he was being held at some Holiday Inn place.”

York: “Sorry, he’s told you to tell us what?

Carr: “Just to tell the truth.